Just hit pg 179 of the “remastered, full-color edition” of Mark Z. Danielewski’s “House of Leaves” and I need to gush about it somewhere. Obviously some (mild) spoilers on my end, but I’d appreciate no spoilers in the discussion below.
I went into this mostly blind. I knew it was a horror novel, experimental; that it had inspired several cool “non-Euclidean” video games, and I knew it was about a house that’s “bigger on the inside”. I was also prepped for weirdness, as it’s often included in weird/horror fiction lists alongside the likes of Lovecraft & “The King in Yellow”.
Honestly, I was ready to ditch this, but now I’m fully invested.
SPOILERS
I did not know about the footnotes. Or the formatting. Or the fonts. Or the meandering. Folks, last night I was ready to put this book down. Expedition #3 was underway, and I found myself having to hunt for each footnote. Back and forth, back and forth. Sometimes they’d go on for pages, and often they’d wander far away from the ongoing story. I’m pretty sure some didn’t exist. Then came Footnote #142. Completely blank. “What the hell? Just a dead en–” and that’s when it hit me - it’s a labyrinth. The book mimics the house. The book is a labyrinth. I’m bouncing between footnotes & story, between fonts/voices & tone. Sometimes it’s a dead end and I have to backtrack. Sometimes I feel a little progress. It’s a maze, and I’m suddenly excited & apprehensive to explore more of it.
I mean… damn, Danielewski. I’m hooked. You got me.
None of my friends have read it, so I had to release some excitement somewhere. Thanks for reading.
Without spoiling anything, have you read / enjoyed House of Leaves? What’s your favorite “experimental” book?
If you enjoyed that, you should watch one of the full walk throughs of the Doom mod “MyHouse.wad”, which is based on this book in so many ways, and has its own bizarre twists in and out of the game.
MyHouse.wad is absolutely one of the “cool Non-Euclidean” games I’ve seen inspired by this book!
Funny enough, I think that was the latest thing I watched that recommended it, too. I’d been hearing about the book for years, but finding another recommendation buried in a legendary Doom wad was the last push I needed lol