Book Review: House of Leaves

 I recently read the books House of Leaves. I heard of it last year, when some of my friends read it for AP Lit and decided to try it out for myself. Everyone who had read it said that they only got about half way because the book got really scary. So, I decided to venture in to the depths that are House of Leaves.

                I would not say that this is a short read by any means. It took me the better half of the term to read this book. I think it took so long, not only because of my busy schedule, or due to the astronomical amount of pages, but because of the way this is written. One look inside of this book and you would completely agree. There are pages that have text on the text, text written backwards, upside down, and every which way possible. 

                The prologue of this book is vital to read; otherwise you will not understand some if not most of the information within the book. It introduces Johnny Truant who acts as literary editor, presenting the compelling and disturbing scribblings and ramblings on an old man named Zampano. Zampano's papers, which are in his apartment after his death, describe a documentary film called "The Navidson Record" of a family moving into a house which proves to be larger on the inside than it is on the outside, in more ways than one. There is also another editor above Johnny, who makes comments on top of Johnny's comments. Johnny finds himself wondering if the old man didn't just make up the whole story about the young family moving into the house, because Johnny is unable to find any proof that the film exists. Now, what if I told you that Johnny is a compulsive liar? He tells the reader how much fun he has making up completely bogus stories for the benefit of strangers. Knowing this, the reader has to start to wonder if the old man, Zampano, even exists, or if he's just another element of Johnny’s lies. And if you follow that line train of thought, you might even start to wonder if the heavy black book you're holding exists. As you can probably tell this book is very confusing; interesting, but confusing. At any rate, if you stick with this book and power through, it is very interesting. My only recommendation is to not read it in the dark.