I read it in its entirety.
The whole idea of satirizing academia by filling the book with hundreds of fictional pretentious footnotes describing every little thing a character does is really obvious and gets old quick. I read it in the dark because it's praised for being "terrifying", and I genuinely didn't get scared once. Slightly uncomfortable while decoding a message once, that's it. The "horror" of a sprawling empty space did nothing for me. Even the "climax" was a complete dud. Just gimmicky. I really tried, but I still don't believe text on a page can scare you.
Most importantly, I heard multiple times that the book is horrifying when you decode the real meaning, what it's really about, etc. So I was really frustrated by the fact that it's meaningless. There is no explanation to the story, and there's no truth for you to decode. It might seem like it's building up to something, but there is nothing. People spend hours writing "theories" and connecting "hints", but there's nothing to be found intended by the author, so why bother? Anyone can be the true narrator or author of the book, any interpretation of the story is valid, blah blah. I bet someone's gonna tell me that the meaninglessness is the point of this 700 page book. Guess what, the average person will not appreciate this mind-blowing metaphor and will just feel disappointed.
by yoingydoingy
19 Comments
I mean… that’s like… your opinion, man.
Edit: to engage with the conversation for real: I really liked the book, but for me the “horrifying” aspect is way overemphasized. From a certain angle it’s definitely a horror novel, but for me it’s way more satirical / funny (or even romantic) than it is horrifying.
I think unfortunately your expectations were played. I have read reviews like “I can’t read this book in the dark” and I always feel like that’s just posing. It’s not that scary of a book.
I’m a casual and my House of Leaves opinion is that if it’s going to be physically difficult to read the book, there’d better be a damn good reason to continue trying. Ime there was not.
Personally I liked it a lot! Sorry it didn’t work for you
Art is subjective yo.
I’m sorry, I guess it wasn’t for you.
ETA: I really enjoyed this book and the feeling of the descent into madness. Also, the engagement of the non-linear reading was fun for me.
I also didn’t enjoy it. I get experimenting but sometimes the experiment doesn’t pay off. Overhyped.
Tbh you don’t seem fun enough to enjoy a book like this anyways and that’s okay! Like what you like.
> I really don’t believe text on a page can scare you.
Does that mean you don’t believe Horror is a genre that can exist?
Kept wanting to read the spooky house stuff and it kept being interrupted by some loser whining about drugs and his love life.
The people who like those bits insist they are very smart and truly get it. Whatever.
I mean, it sounds like you don’t like horror novels. Have I ever jumped from reading words on a page? No, but I have experienced built dread and anticipation while reading.
What meaning did I take from the book? It was interesting, I liked the interspersed stories, I felt the book built dread very well. I did appreciate the unique publication style, I thought it was fun to turn the book all around to read it.
Do I think there was a deeper meaning? No, probably not. Did I like it anyway? Yeah, it just did something to my brain.
I’m just gonna post my comment from two days ago again.
>One of the reasons I really like House of Leaves is that it kinda forces you to think critically about its various narrators and make a decision about whether a given section is worth reading. I didn’t skip more than a couple, but when the old man gets going and you’re two pages into what you flip forward to find is a five-page diatribe on labyrinths and mythology I truly do think the right decision is to just go “welp, he’s at it again” and skip it.
>Which is really interesting. No other book has done that for me, forced me to think critically and with intention about the narrator as a person and storyteller.
>I’m always very skeptical of the “this media is being bad on purpose” argument, because when something is bad on purpose it’s still bad, but with House of Leaves specifically it really worked. It helps that most of it is very good.
Why would you say something so controversial, yet so brave?
Horror is difficult because no one has the same fears. I personally have never been able to finish House of Leaves because I get too freaked out and have to stop in order to not have nightmares. And I’m not exactly a horror novice.
That’s a lot of words to say “I didn’t understand House of Leaves”
Maybe stick to novels by Taylor Jenkins Reid? Might be a little easier to digest.
House of Leaves is far from perfect but when you say something like “I really don’t believe text on a page can scare you” it seems like just epistemically this is not a book for you. Its like if I watched the Exorcist or something and was like “guys wtf this is lame. BTW I don’t believe images on a screen can scare you”.
How did you read it in the dark?
I’m yet to read a person argue a contrary point, it always sucks when people get hung up on the fact that someone might not enjoy what they enjoy and take it almost like a personal insult. Why not have a discussion around the book?
I tried really hard to read this book but I couldn’t even get to the part where you start learning about the house. It just seemed to drag on forever before that without actually going anywhere. It spent so much time trying to build up the excitement for this mystery without ever getting to the point that I just lost interest. And yeah, the footnotes just ended up feeling like a chore more than a creative new way to read a book.
I see your point about HoL and I couldn’t finish it myself and got about halfway through.. I did find it extremely unsettling (physical space not following the rules makes me uncomfortable), but not scary in the way some other books are. That being said I did feel like it was a very special genre of horror that centers more around making you uncomfortable. Even the writing style is uncomfortable.
I am very surprised that you think words on a page cant be scary. I personally find that sometimes books are a lot more scary than a movie say, because my imagination knows the perfect way to conjure up images based on an author’s description. In Salem’s lot when the kid floats to the window, my mind had a way more scary image in it than when I saw filmed recreations of it (I think there’s a show and/or a movie).
Anyway, yeah I don’t have a good answer for what the meaning of the book is. I got it because I thought the premise was interesting and very unsettling. I was interested and unsettled, but I was not ready for the multiple cumbersome writing styles.