Helpful Score: 9
House of Leaves is not s standard novel. Perhaps the literary equivalent to the Blair Witch Project, House of Leaves presents a story within a story, disguised as truth.
The actual text of the book reads as a manuscript, with footnotes by Johnny Truant, the guy who found the aforementioned manuscript in a dead man's apartment. The manuscript itself is about a documentary film about a house that measures larger on the inside than on the outside.
In short, it's a lot of information to process.
The brilliance is not just in the layers, but in the presentation. The actual layout of the letters on the pages play a huge part in the impact of the story on the reader.
If anything, Mark Z. Danielewski does something so utterly smart, so perfect in helping preserve the need for books, real tangible books: He's written a book that cannot be adapted to film, because it's the experience of reading that makes House of Leaves what it is.
The actual text of the book reads as a manuscript, with footnotes by Johnny Truant, the guy who found the aforementioned manuscript in a dead man's apartment. The manuscript itself is about a documentary film about a house that measures larger on the inside than on the outside.
In short, it's a lot of information to process.
The brilliance is not just in the layers, but in the presentation. The actual layout of the letters on the pages play a huge part in the impact of the story on the reader.
If anything, Mark Z. Danielewski does something so utterly smart, so perfect in helping preserve the need for books, real tangible books: He's written a book that cannot be adapted to film, because it's the experience of reading that makes House of Leaves what it is.
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