Review: House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

Enjoy some of my favorite quotes + some memes below 😅

This is a rare piece of literature that has the potential to be life-changing, if you stick it out. This is easily a new favorite of mine.

I don't want to give too much away, because this is truly a one-of-a-kind experience, but I will say these 2 things:

1. This book hands down has some of the scariest passages I've ever read. I had genuine goosebumps from fear multiple times throughout reading this. The use of unique formatting is incredibly effective in setting the tone and pace of each tense scene, but it's also a uncomfortable, which adds to the horror.

2. If you've attempted this book before and thought "this isn't for me," I implore you to at least make it to the Whalestoe letters. The first 40 pages I was ready to quit, assuming I was just not the proper audience for what felt like a giant, unnecessary info-dump. But I PROMISE it's worth it. Stick it out, make it to the letters. If you're like me, you'll be glad you did.

‼️ possible spoiler-y thoughts ‼️

By the end, I was scouring Reddit looking for information and details I might have missed. I read a lot of theories and interpretations of this book, but what I noticed the most were people constantly searching for relationships between the characters, trying to make them fit together. To give the story a clearer meaning. Myself included, because naturally I think our brains want to make sense of things. But it got me wondering: what if the connections between the characters are also a labyrinth? Connections that take us around and around, back through the same details 5 times over, getting lost in trying to make sense of it all. The house is a labyrinth, the story is a labyrinth, so it would make sense for the characters to follow that pattern too.