Rating: Summary: You may get lost in this book, horribly immersed... Review: Possibly the most "real" book I've ever read; it's quite possibly one of the best offering in recent memory. If you like a genuinly unnerving story, this will be just your thing. I'm not attesting that you will have nightmares spawned by it but rather that you may very well lose sleep because you find it unable to put down. Even after you've pried it out of your hands, sleep may be difficult. You'll remember those unending black corridors without windows, those shifting walls... But, yes, I digress. Anyway, if you are a fan of horror, this is one of the best. The author's invention is quite striking and nice to see after so much mediocrity in modern horror fiction- this transcends the genre well. Check it out, add it to your bookshelf, and hope that the darkness doesn't-
Rating: Summary: SCARY!! Review: Incredibly scary! I was sceptical about how scary the subject would be, but I was proven wrong. My whole office has passed this book around and it has been a great source of entertainment. I enjoy the many stories being told at once. The feeling that you get when you read about the demensions of the house it is just incredibly unsettling. It almost makes you want to go over and measure your own closets and such. The author brings you into the story, and you begin to question if the the book was written to you.
Rating: Summary: Character Study to the Nth degree Review: Well, hrm. I found this book to be an amazing work. I first read it online, in its entirety, and after finishing ran out and bought a copy. I feel like I wasn't done with it after finishing the last page. I think that was intended. It is one of the few books that may truly be worth re-reading. Don't look at it as a book, but as a surealist painting.
Rating: Summary: an engaging play on form Review: HOUSE OF LEAVES is, at its core, an exploration of space: of human relationships expressed in terms of "closeness" and "distance" and of our need for each other. This theme suffuses the simple but intriguing ghost story around which the rest of the novel is built, palimpsest-like, in three concentric circles of edition. Add to this a bewildering array of creative typesetting devices and you have a novel that shouts its intention to play with form. Perhaps surprisingly, the combinations work; this book is honestly fun to read. Do not be put off by its strangeness. Do not allow yourself to think that somehow the storytelling and writing quality have been sacrificed on the altar of novelty. Rest assured, this is a well-told and interesting tale. Go ahead and try it.
Rating: Summary: I recommend it, but I have no idea to who Review: The other reviews sum up the basics. Here's what helped me read this thing. I read the Navidson record by Zampano, and Truant's story, they go together nicely and overlap in creative ways. the footnotes for the most part can be ignored while you read, 98% of them refer to written work, studies, or research material(most if not all of it is imaginary anyway) Forget its a film, because it isn't. forget that anybody did studies on it, because they didn't. Just skip it all, seriously, the studies and footnotes are basically there to help you understand the characters better. Something Stephen King can do without footnotes and imaginary studies. It did give me the creeps a few nights while I was reading it, kept me awake once and has had me thinking about it since I finished it last night. One complaint would be that the author keeps setting this book up as being something wonderful and life changing and he never backs it up. The creepie dark ever-changing passageways stuff is good. The Blair Witch feel works better than it did in Blair Witch Project. The stuff about Truant's insane mom and her letters are good. an example of his imaginary studies to describe character motives: example of story text-'Karyn feels bummed out by creepie stuff that happened in the House that day.' example of imaginary study-Author goes on for ten pages or so about three imaginary authors with various imaginary credentials and their opinions concerning why a person gets bummed out when bad stuff happens at a creepie house. just skip that stuff, seriously, you can knock a good 3-4% of this book off and not miss it. word to the wise...don't study this thing like its a sacred document, you'll just torment yourself like Truant did. Give it your attention, but don't follow it off on its tangeants. Enough Read the book but don't expect too much.
Rating: Summary: Fascinating Review: House of Leaves did not completely change my life, as the book's introduction suggested it could, but remnants of it do still linger in my memory months after finishing it. It has a certain resonance that makes you think of it, of Johnny Truant especially, at odd moments. And of the house itself, the book's most fully realized character. At first I was leary of all of the pomo antics. I wondered if Danielewski was just trying to mask the fact that he didn't have a good tale to tell, or the skill to do it, with all of the bizarre text layout and extensive footnotes. Not the case at all. Danielewski's formal experimentation only serves to add to the richness of the atmosphere created by his truly original and chilling tale of Will Navidson's house. The story of the house could stand alone as one of the best horror novels I've ever read(and I read more than a few in my day), but the story of Zampano and Johnny Truant is just as fascinating, mirroring the action in the Navidson Record, the film documenting the house's bizarre phenomena. Danielewski set himself an amazing task, and I would say he achieved about 90% of it. There are a few points where the books losese its steam, but it inevitably picks back up and concludes very satisfactorily. And with all of the various threads of plot and information, I know I'll be reading it again.
Rating: Summary: Excellent But not as confusing as you think Review: Consider the fact that the dude was blind. Could it possibly be a story about being blind and how it can almost drive you insane. The house is more than obviously the blind dude's head and the inside being bigger than the outside refers to his knowledge and even his fears and his nightmares. And the things he hears and visions he has, are the regular everyday things around him, and what he percieves them to be as he grows insane from the lonlyness of being blind. So as you, gentle reader, read the other reviews carefully think to yourself, could this be the true meaning of this thriller. Nine times out of ten the simplist explination is the correct one.
Rating: Summary: this novel is uncanny Review: I just finished reading this twisting, mazelike novel and have say, I'm impressed.. not only with the overall multiple-take perspective of the story, but also with the innovative layout, which does an excellent job of matching the story's pace. (you'll have to read it to understand) .. I also enjoyed the way it prompted interaction.. near the end of the novel, I started joining in the fun and adding my own layer of narration, adding fictional footnotes to Johnny's and the editors as well as an additional chapter at the end... sounds odd? well, it is. It asks big questions in stunningly vague ways. the best way to describe the book is, well, uncanny. :p I give it 4.5 outta 5 stars on my "must read" Scale.. well worth the effort.
Rating: Summary: help me. Review: Please. Help me. I feel like I'm stuck in a basement, with only an occasional flashlight flickering at my left eye, and when it does I can see the walls, and they're alive, moving toward me, closer and closer whilst I sleep, and I can hear clatter, pans, and Aenima by Tool playing on a stero, and I can hear a dog, far away, crying, sounding in pain, and I don't wnat to shut my eyes............ And that's how this book made me feel. Absolutely incredible. It's perfectly structured, layered, controlled, laid out as it is to control the reader, and control the reader it damned well does. Get this.
Rating: Summary: something different Review: After reading this novel in four days back in April 2000, I still can't stop thinking about it. The intense images of the darkness and immensity of the house that it brought to my mind and the creepy atmosphere of this book still finds its way into my dreams. With its intriguing, unconventional layout and convoluted storylines, I found it hard to put the book down. I have the feeling, though, that its weirdness would put a lot people off, so I wouldn't recommend this book to everyone.
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