Rating: 
Summary: Endless...
Review: Keeeeeeripes! I read the other reviews and was intrigued by the idea of weaving time. The only time shift I found was the daunting feeling that the dang thing was never going to end. The only reason I was compelled to read more was because I couldn't wait to finish it to see if something meaningful would actually happen. 700 pages and the answer... nope. An obvious first-time authors attempt to use all the [stuff] he accumlated writing reports and "being creative" in college. In fairness, the story(ies) would've been an interesting 150 pages. The rest - dead trees...
Rating:
Summary: waste of time, paper, space
Review: I tried to find something positive to say about this novel and can only come up with: "The cover's nice!" I guess the idea is clever enough, but the gimmicky nature of the text is just overbearing. A friend of mine took one look at the blurbs on the back cover, including one from "writer" Bret Easton Ellis, and told me not to bother. I should have heeded his advice. I found myself ripping through the pretentious bits, the footnotes (my God, the footnotes!), and even the secondary story about the guy who finds the manuscript and is caught up in the horror of it all, to find out what happens with the house itself. Definitely not worth the time and energy. If you like tricky, read Eco, read Borges, read Pavich... but don't live to regret reading this mishmash.
Rating: 
Summary: 3 days and 3 nights in the abyss
Review: There is not enough I can say about this book. I have recommended this book to almost everyone I know. And anyone who has listened to me has also fallen in love with this book. Yes Danielewski uses literary "tricks" to more involve the reader, but in some cases it really works. I usually can't stand Cummings-like word play, but it didnt get annoying at all in this book. The storyline(s) are all good, I always heard from others that you would like one character's storyline over another, but i found them all equally intriguing. While reading this book it really affected me and my thought patterns, the few days it took to read the whole thing were very interesting days, and nights, to say the least. You sit there and read it and think to yourself "how can i be the same after reading this book?". It is a ........which is always a good thing. "This is Not For You", heed those words. If you dont like to sit down and read a few hundred pages in one sitting, oblivious to what is happening around you, or if you dont like taking out your cap'n crunch decoder ring to decipher some letters in the appendix of a book, then this book isnt for you. If you dont like to have your paradigm knocked out of whack for awhile then this book is definitely not for you. There is always time for sleep after you finish the book...
Rating: 
Summary: painfully postmodern
Review: The book's premise is intriguing and I enjoyed it at first. However, it's pretty hard to sustain interest when you're writing a book about a book about a fictional documentary about a house. Too much attention is given, in my opinion, to the layers of text and too little to the plot. As fascinating as the idea of the house is, you get very little 'pay off' through plot development. The text itself--the arrangement of words on the page--becomes the entertainment rather than the text's content. Large sections of this book are parodies of academic writing, but for anyone who dropped out of graduate school these parts may seem far too close to the real stuff to be entertaining. It's certainly an ambitious book, but I don't think that it is--or is even really meant to be--an enjoyable read in the way a good novel usually is. Danielewski apparently concentrated his efforts on playing on tedious postmodern ideas about texts and not on actually producing one.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing maze
Review: In the bundle "seven evenings" Jorge Luis Borges discusses the tales of 1001 nights. He mentions that 'the nights" are a product of evolution, and that many admirers of the original version have added their own additional tales, that have been incorporated in an ever growing collection. At the moment of my writing this review on the "house of leaves" I am doing so as at least number 176 in line, and thus expanding the dimension of Danielewski's house even further. A lot of what the writer did in this book had been done before. In fact, when looking at many of the individual aspects of the book one could make an argument that many of them have also been done better. Yet, combining all these elements together in such a engaging work of consistent quality is an unsurpassed tour de force. While a lot of positive, and many -often unfounded- negative things have been said about this masterwork I would like to bring up some additional points. As in Umberto Eco's "name of the rose" Jorge Luis Borges plays a crucial part in this novel. This time he is a blind man, who analyzes a movie. Just this one idea justifies the price of admission. Even Danielewski could not have imagined that there would be critics that were offended by the fact that the film being reviewed by the blind Zampano was actually non-existent! The imaginary film deals with an imaginary house, that is bigger on the inside than the outside and that at moments seems to extend into infinity. The report that Zampano wrote is a true delight: So many aspects of the house and its occupants and visitors are analyzed in ways that range from advanced science to utter absurdity, that one is on a constant roller coaster ride. Zampano's manuscript makes it way into the hands of a tattoo parlor assistant, in whom the description of the house awakens the ghosts from a haunted past. The haunted Johny Truant sets himself the task to put Zampano's manuscript in order, and includes his own life story together with a variety of additional footnotes. Whereas Zampano's approach towards "the house" is consistent, Truant's is not. Since Danielewski's book is a work of fiction it doesn't even pay to wonder whether Zampano is in fact Truant's creation. Guided by the expedition through the house as leitmotiv, the story takes the reader on a true roller coaster ride through the realms of facts, fiction, reality, and structure of narrative. Danielewski may at times be a little to emphatic, but ends beautifully on the very last page of his book. While I loved the ride, it is easy to understand that not everybody would like the labyrinth that Danielewski constructed. I think that a lot of the "low raters' did not pay attention at the entrance. However, the sign "this is not for you" is the most appropriate invitation for those ending up loving this book.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Waste Your Money
Review: This is truly one of the worst books I ever read. It was boring, pretentious in its obsession with annoying, petty, visual wordplay (which the author seemed to prefer over "plot") and not especially well written. If I could have located the receipt, which mysteriously disappeared (perhaps the only truly "mysterious" thing associated with this "novel" other than the fact that it has been highly touted), I would have returned it for my money back.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful debut ...
Review: This book is bursting at the seams with inventiveness and ingenuity. While I think that Danielewski still has a ways to go before becoming a complete writer, the sheer joy that he shows tearing apart narrative constructs reminds me of the first time I read "Gravity's Raimbow" or "Naked Lunch". The thing that struck me the most is that it truly makes you question your reactions to a genre (horror) that makes it's usual living off a direct access to your emotions. Is a scary moment less scary just because it's in a footnote? And if so, why? Is it any less "real" than anything else printed on a page? If we're told that the whole story is made up, it it less horrifying? Aren't they all? If you are interested in the new wave - Wallace, Vollmann, Eggers, et. al., this is a must read. If Danielewski can grow from here in future works, he may be the best of the breed ...
Rating:
Summary: More gimmick than substance
Review: Largely a waste of time, and unless you like to look like an idiot turning the book sideways and diagonally and upside-down to read passages that often amount to no more than paragraph or line per page, then stay far away from it! Oh, the story (the main story about the house itself) is somewhat interesting, but is far too disjointed to keep the reader's interest. The blurb by Bret Easton Ellis on the back is a hint and a half to keep far away from it: if I were Thomas Pynchon I'd slap Mr. Ellis very hard for daring to use my name in comparison with Danielewsky.
Rating: 
Summary: Trying on inner turmoil
Review: This book is a phantasmagoria of gimmicks and absurdities, rolled into a fairly interesting, multilayered story about a cosmic anomaly. I found the book ultimately unsatisfying, but the ride had its moments. This book does a very good job of making the reader feel crazy while he's reading it. Halfway through, I look at the book and think to myself "Am I ready to read it right now? Am I strong enough?" That was a pretty exciting experience. If you grow tired of this book before the end, feel free to stop, you've already gotten what there is to get.
Rating:
Summary: WASTE OF TIME
Review: This is the most pretentious piece of junk I've ever read. Why Danielewski could not just write a compelling novel about the Navidson house and leave out all the footnotes to show off his knowledge of semiotics and other relatively obscure fields is beyond me. DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME! YUCKA!
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