Pros: innovative, experimental, decidedly creepy Cons: this book is a victim of its own creativity.
Virginian House. 1/4 inch bigger on the inside than the outside. Transformative power. Moving staircases. House has regenerative power. (Note to self-- Great selling point) Pit of despair? (Ahh- we'll wow them with the spacious...
Pros: Everything but Johnny Truant's footnotes Cons: Johnny Truant's footnotes
Where to begin?
House of Leaves is a novel, written by Mark Danielewski. House of Leaves is the title of the manuscript Johnny Truant finds when his friend Lude calls him in the middle of the night to help him with the belongings of Lude's...
Pros: It challenges so many literary conventions it forces (gasp!) critical thinking and analysis. Cons: If my home were bigger on the inside than outside, would my rent go up?
"It was enormous. We dropped a few flares down it but never heard them hit bottom. I mean in that place, it being so empty and cold and still and all, you really can hear a pin drop, but the darkness just swallowed the flares right up...It's so deep,...
Pros: Insanely intricate plot combined with innovative format (if you like that sort of thing, and I do). Cons: Sometimes unwieldy (but then, that's form following function in this case).
Think about actually trying to build a house of leaves. The leaves pile up only so high before shifting and scattering. You build and build, only to have your efforts blown away by each tiny gust of wind. Now imagine that what you are trying to create is...
Pros: wonder, visual images, symbols, experimental format Cons: frustrating secondary story, lists, unwieldy format
"There is no Minotaur; he was made of string."1
The central story in HOUSE OF LEAVES gives new meaning to the term, "home movie". A reluctantly domesticated photo-journalist with itchy feet installs cameras in the little HOUSE' he hopes will...
Pros: Wonderfully intriguing. Mysterious. Emotional. Cons: Long winded at times. A bit confusing.
Mark Z Danielewski is one of those once in a century type of guys. Not many people can turn their anguish after a father's death into a huge work of literary genius, which is just what MZD did. His poetic prose begins with the story of Zampano who is...
Pros: Will Navidson and his family. The House. The interesting format Cons: too long. Where was the editor?
I finished House of Leaves a week ago and am now well into John Updike's The Witches of Eastwick in which, at one point, Sukie and Alexandra sigh about their friend Jane (played by Susan Sarandon in the movie of the same...
Pros: Extremely interesting read, blows convention out of the water. Cons: Sometimes the clever layout and narration is too clever for it's own good.
Be warned, I give away a *LOT* of the plot in this review... To quote one of the great minds of Western thought, Keanu Reeves, "Whoa"(1). House of Leaves, written by Mark Z. Danielewski, is a novel that does it's level best to throw a monkey ...
Pros: words cannot describe how amazing this book is Cons: none at all, other than its impossible to put this book down
I did this review on ebay a long time ago, but decided to share it here on Epinions. Please note I have corrected some spelling, and have added some more thoughts. Amazing book. It changes the way you read novels, and does to closets what "psycho" ...
Pros: Creative, innovative, will likely stay with you long after you finish. Cons: At times, it can get pretentious.
The set-up runs more or less as follows: A young man named Johnny Truant happens upon a blind, elderly shut-in known only as "Zampano". After Zampano's death, Johnny discovers a manuscript Zampano was working on up to his death. Having little else...
Pros: captivating plot, original format, multiple story layers Cons: ending, some slow parts
House of Leaves is an all around great novel. It has all the genre elements one could possibly hope for - suspense, romance, science fiction, drama, horror, character study, etc. All I could do for about 5 days was read this book. The writing ...
Pros: beautifully developed plot Cons: unravels at the end...and yet even that is appropriate
Premise: An old blind man (Zampano) mysteriously dies in his apartment and leaves behind a manuscript comprised of scraps of paper, passages written on napkins and pieces of used notebook paper, some of it scratched out or illegible, mostly in a s ...
Of all the novels I’ve read recently, HoL stands out as an amazing achievement, not only in plot, suspense and psychological manipulation, but in literary form. These elements are inseparable as the strange and original use of the text illustrates the ...
Pros: Let's your imagination run wild. Very scary. Cons: Very complex and hard to read.
After being utterly blown away with this, a friend of mine lent me his copy of House of Leaves swearing up and down that I needed to read it. Finding it hard to resist a review like that, I bumped it up the long list of books I'm trying to read and dug...
Pros: Captivating, original, unexpected, interesting footnotes. Cons: Average ending.
I read this novel because it was recommended to me by a friend, who had never exactly finished it. At first glance, after I scanned the pages of the book, I figured that the pages with whirlpool writing, square-formed writing, and upside down writing...
Pros: Interesting style of writing, although listing it as "horror" was a bit much Cons: Perhaps a bit too experimental...but kudos for trying
Probably one of the more difficult books I've read, the text and format literally swirling about the pages...and it doesn't let up. But what caught me was the interview on NPR where the author said that the typesetting was SO difficult, that he went...
Pros: An almost satisfying climax, a good idea hidden in dross. Cons: Dross. Lots of it. Pretentious and vastly over-written.
The quality that seperates the cool from the uncool is the effort involved. If you are seen to be striving for your goal it is somehow unseemly. And in his debut novel 'House of Leaves' Mark Z. Danielewski is striving desperately to impress and ends up...
Pros: Stunningly original; multi-layered story Cons: May be a tough read for some.
You can't say it doesn't warn you.
Right there on the page before the Introduction, Mark Z. Danielewski's staggeringly original "House of Leaves" states plainly and boldly "This is not for you."
Pros: makes you use your head Cons: makes you scratch your head
I doubt if any two people anywhere will read the elements of this book in the same sequence. That’s an odd thing to say about a novel, but this is a novel unlike any other I’ve encountered.
The main novel is about a house that’s larger on the...
Pros: Creepy and Original Cons: Requires a high level of Involvement
Take Steven King, The Theater of the Absurd, Derrida, blend to a frothy mixture and serve over ice. The House of Leaves is a fascinating journey into intertextuality where texts talk to one another in a cacophony of voices and images that pull the reader...
Pros: Compelling, challenging, scary as heck Cons: What the hell was it all about, anyway?
You will get lost in this book. If you can get by the first couple of chapters. This may be difficult because of how the book was written. If you don't have ample time and adequate quiet, don't even bother. You'll get frustrated and probably hand the...
Pros: Creative, Intelligent, Witty Cons: An insane amount of run-on sentences
I ordered House of Leaves when a close friend couldn't stop raving about the book with "fabricated sources, endless footnotes, and several narrators." After trudging my way through endless romance novels with predictable situations, I decided that House...
Pros: The supernatural elements were interesting, and the insane way the book itself was structured. Cons: It lagged a lot in the middle of the book, and that got me lost.
The book has two narratives, sort of. Some old fart dies, and his neighbor finds a report that the old guy wrote. It contains a detailed examination of a couple of videos of a supernatural house and the people who inhabit it. So, it follows that part ...
Pros: You can pretend you're snooty and artsy Cons: Pretentious for the sake of pretentiousness
Only 1/8th of the book is interesting
This book is one of those books that were made with college kids who like to pretend they're deep in mind. It's a story about a famous photographer by the name of Navidson who has recently moved into a possessed, evil house and is making a documentary ...
Pros: Captivating, original, unexpected, interesting footnotes Cons: average ending
I read this novel because it was recommended to me by a friend, who had never exactly finished it. At first glance, after I scanned the pages of the book, I figured that the pages with whirlpool writing, square-formed writing, and upside down writing...
Pros: Intriguing, exploratory, not easily defined - a rollercoaster Cons: Can be confusing, has very dark spots - not for the timid
When I first saw this book, the first thing that caught my eye was it's cover - the black mix of compass, shell, and maze. The inside cover's description was intriguing, so I picked it up to peruse along with other books at the store.
Pros: Great Characters...Serious chills up the spine Cons: Endless footnotes and irrelevant commentaries sometimes give second thoughts
I would recommending reading this book in a well lit area filled with familiar furniture. If you spend a lot of time in basements or empty corridors of any variety you may wish to reach for another vollume. I don't think the word "Chilling" has...
Pros: Intriguing, interesting, ambitious, unusual Cons: A little overdone
I can't compare this book to anything I've ever read before. I've never read anything quite like it. While it isn't great literature or even gifted writing, it is one of the most interesting undertakings in fiction that I've ever come across. This...
Pros: interesting story, original layout Cons: too many long boring footnotes
Perhaps the parallel with the Blair Witch Project is not so bad. This is another example of a mixture of originality, hype, exaggeration. However, as in the Blair Witch Project, I sort of enjoyed the experience of reading it. This is a couple of steps...
Once there was book about a house (1). It was about a house that was bigger on the inside than the outside and all the subsequent physical, philosophical and psychological adventures that lay within this house which was bigger on the inside than it was...
Pros: A handy compendium of household repair terms. Cons: ...You'll need that vocabulary, 'cause there's not much to hold this "House" up.
I bought this book because of a blurb that predicted David Foster Wallace would "get on his knees" in abject awe of Danielewski's skill. That overblown rave should have turned me off right away: like his reviewer, Danielewski tries far too...
Pros: Frightening main story line, some interesting characters, fascinating format Cons: Too ambitious, could have benefited from focusing more on how characters related to the house.
I enjoyed the experience of reading this book very much. There are sections of this book that are truly frightening and if you are willing to let your imagination run with the story and if you are able to push aside the numerous distracting story ...
Pros: Extremely emotional! No way could I put this book down! Cons: Unfortunately, some people have jobs!
Mark Danielewski really has a genius side. This book is the only book that got me to read cover to cover, without being able to put the thing down! And it's over 400 pages long! It is based on a fictitious documentary called the Navidson Record, which...
Pros: A beautifully written book that has a plot like no other. Cons: None.
I was skeptical about this book when I bought it. I heard things about the plot that might not be believable. After I got into the book I couldn't put it down. It was absolutely captivating.
Two stories exist in this book. One of the person who...
Pros: Sucks you in, connects you to characters Cons: Confusing as all hell.
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski is an entangling Horror novel, made for those with open, willing minds and plenty of time.
Don't get me wrong, I ABSOLUTLEY LOVE THIS NOVEL. It entangles you in two-four entirely different stories...
Mark Z. Danielewski's debut book was recommended through his sister's (Poe)mailing list, the Angry Psychos. Everyone was raving about the book, so I decided I should check it out for myself.
One of the major problems I had with this book was...
Pros: if you really enjoyed BWP Cons: if you didn't care for BWP
The only way to describe this book is as a Blair Witch Project in print. While a completely different subject, a house whose insides are bigger than the outside and psychologically disturbed to boot, the style is *very* BWP-like. Multi-layered...
Pros: Endlessly Diverting, Psychologically
Probing and from A Semiotics Point of view brilliant Cons: It eventually has to end
The book House of Leaves is a brilliant synthesis of everything that the postmodernists attempted to do, from the works of Jorge Luis Borges, to Deconstructionist theories of Derrida, and to top it off the Philosophical insight of C.G. Jung, it deserves...
The textbook, House of Leaves : A Novel, by Mark Z. Danielewski, available in Paperback. Published by: Random House, Inc.. Edition: . ISBN10: 037...More at Textbooks.com
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