In the late 1990's a tattooist's assistant helps his friend break into a dead man's home. What he finds there consumes his life, as he pieces together the story of a family that never existed in a house that could not possibly exist. The more he learns of those infinite dark hallways, the deeper he sinks into his own madness.

the way this book grabs you. No, not grab exactly. You fall into it, and can't pull yourself out again. Long after you read it, you'll be looking sideways at shadows and measuring the walls...

that it ended. On the other hand, that just means I can read it again.

Measure my walls. Heh, don't worry, you'll understand after you read. Mainly, when I finished this book I wanted to be still reading it.

a lot of things actually. Thoughtful. It gets you wondering about a lot of things, and there is so much hidden and secret and coded stuff that you pick up something new each time you read it. It also left me slightly on edge. Well ok, scared. A bit. It creeps you out in a very subtle way. One night I read it by candlelight during a blackout, and another time I read it in broad daylight. And it was the daylight reading that scared me more.

Mark Z. Danielewski is, for all intents and purposes, a perfectly normal person. Ok, there's the blue hair, but there's nothing about him which suggests the total psychotic you would think a book like this would come out of.

It is not just a book, it is a work of art. It will affect you in ways you can't imagine, for far longer than you would expect.

Bare in mind, this book is not always easy to read. The twin storylines of Navidson and Johnny weave and twist, with the main narrative frequently broken up by huge, pages-long footnotes of Johnny telling a story about underground boxing and bird smuggling. Then he tells you to turn to the back of the book and read the letters from his institutionalised mother (a woman who is as intelligent as she is insane).

Still, if you persevere with it, you are rewarded with a story so utterly chilling that no mere movie-monster or teen-slasher will ever scare you as much as the black, empty nothingness of the House of Leaves.

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Created Jan 19, 2003 at 1:05am • Submit your own review...