Not sure if you knew this but the original measurement of the interior of the house being larger than the exterior by 1/4 of an inch explains why the cover is 14 of an inch shorter than the pages.
"if you come home and theres a door that wasnt there before, get the fuck out of the house" But..... but they are doing building work on my house.... they put a door up today....
I read this book a couple years ago and loved it. It was eerie, and I don't often get creeped out like that. But just one interesting observation I've made since then: I have been meditating more and more within the last 6 months and something my dharma teacher said reminded me of the book. He said something like "Your level of awareness can be as wide and all-encompassing of the whole world, or it can be like a narrow hallway. When you grab onto a thought, it narrows your perspective." And weirdly enough, my mind thought of the way the house in the book transformed, shifted, and shaped. Now sometimes when I meditate I attempt to widen my awareness to encompass all things, more like the deep abyss of the house rather than the narrow hallways of thought. not sure if this made sense, but yea
Been reading this for two weeks. Currently in page 370. Loving it so much. I'm beginning to become obsessed with Zampanò's manuscript as much as Truant is.
I haven't seen this mentioned much..but for those who are curious to read the book I highly suggest looking up an album called "Haunted" by POE who is the sister of Danielewski. the album has few references to the book, as well as uses audio recordings of their father, who was a psychologist (if I recall). Its a very good listen and works really well a long with the book.
One thing I think is often overlooked was the love story element between Will Navidson & his wife, Karen. A great character arc that just comes out of nowhere.
the photographer reference is super interesting as I've just referenced House of Leaves in an academic presentation and as with this photographer that presentation involves the intense regret/moral injury of looking but not acting!
What would you think of doing a primer or a list of 'necessary' books. You are one to notice allusions and references to other works (I.e your review of Blood Meridian and PAradise Lost,) and I think that is one of the most beautiful parts of literature is watching these comparisons and noticing them; rewarding too.
Good review. I'm currently reading it. You mentioned numerous times about things being in the story that shouldn't exist. Logically, footnote 177 should not exist. I can't seem to move past it. It's driving me crazy. Which I can respect. But there has to be a reason for it. Online searches have come up empty. Just theories that I too have thought of...
hi, uninformed person who hasnt read it yet, but from what ive heard the book is like a slow descent into complete, utter madness, and a lot of things dont make sense, so maybe the author tries to make the reader uncomfortable by putting things in that dont make any logical sense. after all, the concept of the book is that the house is bigger on the inside than on the outside, so im thinking it aimed to make the feeling of discomfort and shit not making sense more palpable and real.
You made me go and crack open my copy again lmao, that completely went over my head. Johnny admits pretty early on to having doctored the original work at least once, who's to say he didn't do it again? That's the only way I can explain that.
I like the theme a lot. Its like a curious person can wander the house endlessly but someone who knows what they are looking for can enter get what they came for and leave. Spoiler::: Reminds me of navidsons solo journey he is hopelessly lost in an impossible space altering maze, but karen comes into the void looking for him and he is shown directly to her. The reader interacts with the book the same way, the deeper you search the more there is to find. But its not hard to stick to one font style, skip the footnotes/ commentary and read the full book. Getting the the surface story and get out. I find that fascinating!!
I love this book. I've read it the last time a while ago, but every time I caught myself thinking about it I watch your review again. It's like talking to a friend about it.
It took me months to read it, many because of all the crazy lists of reference. The Truant parts are great; his mom’s letters, heartbreaking, but the rest felt like an academic exercise in experimentation and erudition.
******SPOILER******** So at the end, Johnny talks about staying with two friends who are doctors in Seattle, and in that portion of the text they reference another doctor (starts with an N; can't remember exactly) who ends up giving Johnny a miracle pill to help him sleep. Later, he talks about another incident with this same doctor (after telling us that the previous portion was fabricated), and goes into detail about a premature baby whose mother stayed with it for days on end, singing and talking to it, before it finally dies. In the very next chapter, Navidson reappears from the hallway and is subsequently hospitalized, and his wife stays with him for weeks on end, singing and talking to him, before he wakes up. Now here's where it gets weird. The Navidsons went to Seattle before they came back to find their house had the dimensional paradox. Is there a connection here? I really DON'T know what to make of the ending of this book. I thought the narrative was anti-climactic (actually a HUGE letdown after the intro and then Johnny saying he was going to murder Gdansk Man and Kyrie), so I figured I must be missing something. Help me out, literary geniuses.
+Damien Cross wait... i thought it ended with the whole manuscript getting published without johnny knowing anything about it until he meets that band at that bar? anyways... great insight!! didn't noticed how those parts you mentioned contrast and resemble one another. goodluck!
thelivingmanpart2 Ahhhh...That part was also fabricated in my opinion. Johnny tells us that his experience in Seattle with his two friends was a lie the whole time. He says that his lack of cussing should have been a huge clue. During the portion where he talks about traveling to AZ and meeting the band, he doesn't cuss, leading me to think that that portion was made up as well. The last thing Johnny talks about is the premature baby. I still have no clue what to make of that.
Damien Cross maybe it has to do with the isolation he brought on himself which led him to insanity. Perhaps he envies the baby for having a mother to console him in his dying days. Navidson, on the contrary, found refuge from the house by finally uniting with his family.
Damien Cross-I know you posted your comment 4 years ago, but did you happen to read the letters to Johnny that his mother Pelafina wrote him from the mental institution? They appear right after the ending of Johnny meeting the band & have led to a theory that personally I think makes a lot of sense. A lot of people who've read the book believe that Johnny Truant doesn't even exist, that both Johnny and the book were created by Zampano, & that the couple in the story Johnny mentions who lost their premature baby were in fact Zampano & Pelafina. According to the theory Zampano created the book & Johnny for Pelafina as a way to help them both deal with their grief, & Johnny is meant to be a stand in for their son who never got the chance to grow up and live his life.
I thought that Pelafina wrote the book in its entirety. She fabricated the story because her mind is broken in the same way. She feels guilt over the murder of her son Johnny, and so she makes him into an unsavory character in the book to absolve her of her own guilt. When she kill’s herself, the book is published by the editors (whoever that might be). It doesn’t fill in all the gaps, but how could you do that anyway? A schizophrenic person does not have a good grip on reality.
Great review man. I love how you said you couldn't guarantee sleep after this. Holy shit man the first little bit of this was creepier than any movie I have ever watched. No joke.
Kevin Carter took the photo then he said he threw a rock at the vulture and it flew away, he didn't just walk away after taking the photo and leave the starving child to be fed upon by the vulture.
Finally ! A book review channel that is real ! I had this book rec'd by a friend of mine, so I googled the book for reviews and you popped up. So tired of pretentious people who call themselves reviewers that bore me to tears and have little to say that means a whit about the book. You are straight to the point, give an honest review, don't look like Barbie or Ken, and are actually intelligent ! Had to subscribe ! Hope you don't mind me sharing your channel in all my goodreads groups and on my Failbook book review page! Many thanks !
Thank you! I've been dying to read this book for years but I never had a sense of what it was actually about. I never wanted to be too spoiled, so I was careful about what I'd read on it. I will have to give it a try.
I started this book a few years ago but had some things going on in my life and at some point, set it aside and never finished..... I'm pulling it back out today and finishing...
Excellent review. Thank you for explaining this so eloquently. Much appreciated. Also, random question: do you mind sharing what type of camera you use?
not pertaining just yet to this video (just turned on the video) but wanted to drop a comment saying how awesome this channel is, style and content in equal measures! You are probably, as of late, my favorite person to watch/listen to talk about books on youtube, especially after that awesome Michael Gira/The Consumer video (which I'm surprised I even found a video on). Keep it up sir! As for suggestions for future book reviews: do you read much sci-fi/fantasy as a genre? If so, would love to hear if you have anything to say about China Mieville or Neil Gaiman. Thanks!
In my times of reading this book, the feeling that something "horrible and terrifying" was behind, didn't really go away when I closed the book. I remember being drunk and taking a dab at a friend's place. I'd been there before but I felt so uneasy that he had to place me against a wall facing the two entrances to the room for me to calm down. It's a great novel, a perfect blend of horror and romance that has to be taken apart so you can see the beauty of it all.
what was the last name you mentioned after Poe? Borez? just wondering. thank you for reviewing this. i recently learned about this book and am completely fascinated and in awe of it. i can’t wait to pick up a copy of my own.
I think the most important question is, if you found that door to that hallway in your house, what would you do? I really do not know if I'd go in there or not.
I've read and loved this book. Back then I had a text only reader so I got an OCRed version to put on the reader. Due to the nature of the book, the text was stopping in mid sentence and continuing with another, which at first almost made me stop, but then this effect added to the general insanity of the characters and got me hooked, always trying to realize when a text ended and another started just by reading it (as now it was all a bunch of text with the same font). Since then I've always promised myself I would read the book as is, but never got to it. I wonder if I will like it more or less.
Siderite Zackwehdex Perhaps you will find connections and references and puns? Or maybe just get a headache from the small font? Report back if you do it!
Get to reading more of the dictionary than I can ever get through this book as fascinating as it is. It is one of the most interesting things to have on a shelf and by all accounts one of the best horror novels ever, but good luck. You will need it. If you have enough time and you just moved house.
Just finished this one,,, man I was hoping for something that would make my skin itch, - maybe I’m just attuned to darkness a little more so than most people I’d say - but I can’t recall a single part that creeped me out. Disappointed with this one sadly,, still really enjoyed the immersion, I enjoyed the commentary, enjoyed the passages on the labyrinth / Minotaur,,, but ultimately the book didn’t hit me as I expected it would.
Feel the same . Just finished it . Enjoyed the main story, enjoyed most of the Johnny Truent parts, unfortunately I found the constant reference's and the letters from his mother pretty tedious
Just finished House of Leaves after trying to read it all the way through, unsuccessfully a number of times for a year or more. Would love to hear more thoughts on it in depth, as I am still somewhat lost upon completing it. I remember watching your review of it before I read the book, and that's part of the reason I felt so compelled to pick it up. I love you and all of the reviews you do..seriously, you're wonderful. If ya feel like it, you should do a follow up on House of Leaves with a little bit of explanation ;) All my best, Mikalah
So late to the party but I'm finally reading this book! It's one of those slow burn books. Takes a while to really get into but once you're in... you just can't let it go. And now I must exit this video because I don't want to spoil myself. Goodbye.
It sucks just ramblings long parts of pure boredom the "house" is not near as scary as they make it out to be. would you walk into a hallway in your house that never existed before or would you move out??
Fear and what scares people is different for different people you didn't miss anything it just wasn't scary to you and that's fine I recently got this book based on some of the things I heard and it being a small inspiration for a game I played called Control I'm pretty sure it's going to creep me out as it plays on some fears of mine.
I started reading this on an e-reader and stopped because I wanted the full "experience" but I never picked it up again. It's absolutely massive and intimidating, but everyone says it's worth it. Looking forward to more reviews :)
Not sure if you ever got around to finishing it but I found myself having to skip quite a bit of unnecessary stuff to get through it. It was so not what I was expecting but it was still pretty enjoyable.
some arsehole stole my copy... i liked that book for its structure but found its nugget of substance pretty small... but a nice book-object nevertheless...
Just subscribed from the UK. Great channel. Have you read 'Night Film' by Marisha Pessl? Sometimes mentioned in the same breath as HOL. Also be interested in your views on Kindle vs Real Books vs Audiobooks. Keep going!
I love you. I hardly ever comment on videos. But I can relate to you so well. I find you so attractive. Not really in a aesthetic way either. I mean, well, yeah, you're super nice on the eyes. But I wish we had more minds like yours around where I live. House of leaves my fav. book.
I love Poe and Lovecraft, but I hate hate hated this book. Probably *because* it was designed to make me feel anxious and never really ended so much as just stopped.
+Leila A. M. Martin (leila ann) I kind of agree; read this recently for a book club with some folks. I found it really interesting the way the ergodic literature of the piece was designed to simulate the twisting nature of the house. I thought that was pretty cool. I agree about the ending though.
I see I'm not alone there. It really does just sort of dwindle away rather than resolve. The first time I read it I remembered Johnny having actually found the house in the course of his trip. The second time I read it I realized my brain had just totally made that up. Maybe if I read it a third time it'll be back again.
Corn Pone Flicks The house doesn't exist. Truant is traveling through a labyrinth of his own. He's on drugs, dude. The house is also representative of Zampano's own blindness. It's quite ingenious.
Leila A. M. Martin If a book can give you anxiety, it's well done. Though I think you failed to read the parts of HoL that turn it into a bit of a love story as well. Like, the Navidson Record was structurally satirical. So from a literary sense, it's a big example of dead metaphors and overly pretentious diction. The house is an example of Camus absurdism in that the human mind puts way more into it than actually exists. When really, it just is what it is. Read it again, I would say.
I'll be honest, House of Leaves was super disappointing to me. The first 100 pages or so are fucking brilliant, intriguing, addictive--and then it devolves into something that felt very much like a Moby Dick cover by a second year postmodern studies student. In fact I would say it is a highly precocious deconstruction of deconstruction. Its masturbatory postmodernism on a double dose of horny goat weed.... Wise Blood, by Flannery O'Connor. I'm addicted to your reviews, man, hands down best reviews on RUclips. If not the net. It would be so damn cool to hear your thoughts on Flannery
After reading that book, I realized that I wanted to go back to grad school. Reality/life interrupted, and I’ve been unable to find the money or time to get that Ph.D. in anthropology or settle down to get at least an MA or Ph.D. In history. I will say this…I almost felt like the footnotes were a third main character…the only one that wasn’t 1) investigating the hallway; or 2)going insane. Rather it was the dry, academic sometimes contradictory tone upon which scholars base their lives. They seemed to bring the third person “reality” to the events. I loved this book, but it seems to have the tendency to sharply divide readers: you either love it or you hate it. No middle ground…much like the hallway itself.
they discover something is terribly wrong: their house is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. :D I wish my house was bigger than it looks! That's not terrible, it's fantastic
+ Nathan Hassall In my humble opinion, that is a rather rude question. Cliff is not here to be ogled or explain his particular form of fashion. He reviews books. Just saying.
@@mariamason1919 In my humble opinion its rude of you to call me rude. I don't think Cliff needs you to be his knight in shining Armour for a question that could easily be not answered with wit or a joke.
I really love literature and analysis und sofort. Your work is fascinating and I like a lot , but reading some comments of the subscribers, I think: "wot"? ( My mother-linguage os portuguese, but I read auf "German" and englisch, Spanisch , etc..) but I think: these guys really like oder understand Art? They "live Art?" Some academic NOTHING they get sticked to... Gott ! Be Rimbaud for a while ! I should say to some of these !! Have a real life!!
Many might not pick this up, but the "experimental" approach is actually very akin to how Moby Dick was written and also might have influenced DFW's approach to writing Infinite Jest.
By the way, there is a film by the Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa titled: Cure Watching it warps your reality, it will...trust me, Lol. Peace from Texas... the Walrus was Paul
It makes sense I don't care who tells me whatever or what disease I catch the idea of taking the picture of a Dying child with buzzard Larkin waiting for it to die is the most obscene of ghoul trophies... made me feel crazy just hearing it the idea..how would you not do anything.. he didn't have to listen he chose to listen he knew this and couldn't live with it
What could he gave done? Feed all of them right at that moment? There was a huge number of children starving to death, not just the one child shown in the photo. I don’t know what touching the child would have accomplished. Hugging the kid would have probably comforted him more than it comforted the child. I can understand wanting to kill himself after what he witnessed, but not out of guilt. He had nothing to feel guilty for. All he could hope to do was draw attention to the situation by taking photos.
Why is our man a tattoo artist? Is it because his god one of aesthetics, perhaps? There is no meaning except for how good the picture looks. A picture permanently placed on human skin.
Приколы
First page said “this is not for you” so I just stopped reading.
If Bastian from the neverending story had listened to that piece of advice we wouldn't have the book nor the movie.
Smart you saved a lot of time
You are wiser than me.
Not sure if you knew this but the original measurement of the interior of the house being larger than the exterior by 1/4 of an inch explains why the cover is 14 of an inch shorter than the pages.
@callmecatalyst the fuck you talking about?
Lmao came immediately to this video when I realized that the book was bigger on the inside
😱😱😱😱
Ohhhh great observation!!!
AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH
Tried to use the shortened jacket cover as a bookmark; only the realize that the book itself is bigger on the inside 😱
cernunnos holy shit
"if you come home and theres a door that wasnt there before, get the fuck out of the house"
But..... but they are doing building work on my house.... they put a door up today....
GET THE FUCK OUT OF THERE!!!!
I read this book a couple years ago and loved it. It was eerie, and I don't often get creeped out like that. But just one interesting observation I've made since then:
I have been meditating more and more within the last 6 months and something my dharma teacher said reminded me of the book. He said something like "Your level of awareness can be as wide and all-encompassing of the whole world, or it can be like a narrow hallway. When you grab onto a thought, it narrows your perspective." And weirdly enough, my mind thought of the way the house in the book transformed, shifted, and shaped. Now sometimes when I meditate I attempt to widen my awareness to encompass all things, more like the deep abyss of the house rather than the narrow hallways of thought.
not sure if this made sense, but yea
This sounds like something that could have been IN the novel lol. You're hitting on one of the ways the house was used as a metaphor.
Even the dedication scared the crap out of me. This is a brilliant book.
Been reading this for two weeks. Currently in page 370. Loving it so much. I'm beginning to become obsessed with Zampanò's manuscript as much as Truant is.
I haven't seen this mentioned much..but for those who are curious to read the book I highly suggest looking up an album called "Haunted" by POE who is the sister of Danielewski. the album has few references to the book, as well as uses audio recordings of their father, who was a psychologist (if I recall). Its a very good listen and works really well a long with the book.
One thing I think is often overlooked was the love story element between Will Navidson & his wife, Karen. A great character arc that just comes out of nowhere.
I'm finally reading this book again after 3 years and it is AMAZING
No review ever mentions that Zamanpò shares the name of the lead, played by Anthony Quinn, in Fellini's "La Strada".
Night Mind does. Great insight!
the photographer reference is super interesting as I've just referenced House of Leaves in an academic presentation and as with this photographer that presentation involves the intense regret/moral injury of looking but not acting!
What would you think of doing a primer or a list of 'necessary' books. You are one to notice allusions and references to other works (I.e your review of Blood Meridian and PAradise Lost,) and I think that is one of the most beautiful parts of literature is watching these comparisons and noticing them; rewarding too.
Logan Zimmerman I'll most certainly give it serious consideration Logan, may take a little while to assemble, many thanks for watching.
+Better Than Food: Book Reviews Please do!
Good review. I'm currently reading it.
You mentioned numerous times about things being in the story that shouldn't exist. Logically, footnote 177 should not exist. I can't seem to move past it. It's driving me crazy. Which I can respect. But there has to be a reason for it. Online searches have come up empty. Just theories that I too have thought of...
hi, uninformed person who hasnt read it yet, but from what ive heard the book is like a slow descent into complete, utter madness, and a lot of things dont make sense, so maybe the author tries to make the reader uncomfortable by putting things in that dont make any logical sense. after all, the concept of the book is that the house is bigger on the inside than on the outside, so im thinking it aimed to make the feeling of discomfort and shit not making sense more palpable and real.
You made me go and crack open my copy again lmao, that completely went over my head. Johnny admits pretty early on to having doctored the original work at least once, who's to say he didn't do it again? That's the only way I can explain that.
I like the theme a lot. Its like a curious person can wander the house endlessly but someone who knows what they are looking for can enter get what they came for and leave.
Spoiler:::
Reminds me of navidsons solo journey he is hopelessly lost in an impossible space altering maze, but karen comes into the void looking for him and he is shown directly to her.
The reader interacts with the book the same way, the deeper you search the more there is to find. But its not hard to stick to one font style, skip the footnotes/ commentary and read the full book. Getting the the surface story and get out. I find that fascinating!!
I love this book. I've read it the last time a while ago, but every time I caught myself thinking about it I watch your review again. It's like talking to a friend about it.
It took me months to read it, many because of all the crazy lists of reference. The Truant parts are great; his mom’s letters, heartbreaking, but the rest felt like an academic exercise in experimentation and erudition.
******SPOILER********
So at the end, Johnny talks about staying with two friends who are doctors in Seattle, and in that portion of the text they reference another doctor (starts with an N; can't remember exactly) who ends up giving Johnny a miracle pill to help him sleep. Later, he talks about another incident with this same doctor (after telling us that the previous portion was fabricated), and goes into detail about a premature baby whose mother stayed with it for days on end, singing and talking to it, before it finally dies.
In the very next chapter, Navidson reappears from the hallway and is subsequently hospitalized, and his wife stays with him for weeks on end, singing and talking to him, before he wakes up.
Now here's where it gets weird. The Navidsons went to Seattle before they came back to find their house had the dimensional paradox. Is there a connection here? I really DON'T know what to make of the ending of this book. I thought the narrative was anti-climactic (actually a HUGE letdown after the intro and then Johnny saying he was going to murder Gdansk Man and Kyrie), so I figured I must be missing something. Help me out, literary geniuses.
+Damien Cross wait... i thought it ended with the whole manuscript getting published without johnny knowing anything about it until he meets that band at that bar?
anyways... great insight!! didn't noticed how those parts you mentioned contrast and resemble one another.
goodluck!
thelivingmanpart2 Ahhhh...That part was also fabricated in my opinion. Johnny tells us that his experience in Seattle with his two friends was a lie the whole time. He says that his lack of cussing should have been a huge clue. During the portion where he talks about traveling to AZ and meeting the band, he doesn't cuss, leading me to think that that portion was made up as well. The last thing Johnny talks about is the premature baby. I still have no clue what to make of that.
Damien Cross maybe it has to do with the isolation he brought on himself which led him to insanity. Perhaps he envies the baby for having a mother to console him in his dying days. Navidson, on the contrary, found refuge from the house by finally uniting with his family.
Damien Cross-I know you posted your comment 4 years ago, but did you happen to read the letters to Johnny that his mother Pelafina wrote him from the mental institution? They appear right after the ending of Johnny meeting the band & have led to a theory that personally I think makes a lot of sense.
A lot of people who've read the book believe that Johnny Truant doesn't even exist, that both Johnny and the book were created by Zampano, & that the couple in the story Johnny mentions who lost their premature baby were in fact Zampano & Pelafina.
According to the theory Zampano created the book & Johnny for Pelafina as a way to help them both deal with their grief, & Johnny is meant to be a stand in for their son who never got the chance to grow up and live his life.
I thought that Pelafina wrote the book in its entirety. She fabricated the story because her mind is broken in the same way. She feels guilt over the murder of her son Johnny, and so she makes him into an unsavory character in the book to absolve her of her own guilt. When she kill’s herself, the book is published by the editors (whoever that might be). It doesn’t fill in all the gaps, but how could you do that anyway? A schizophrenic person does not have a good grip on reality.
Great review man. I love how you said you couldn't guarantee sleep after this. Holy shit man the first little bit of this was creepier than any movie I have ever watched. No joke.
Kevin Carter took the photo then he said he threw a rock at the vulture and it flew away, he didn't just walk away after taking the photo and leave the starving child to be fed upon by the vulture.
Wow. Guess the rock had some hidden powers to keep the vultures away after he left. You realize the vultures can come back?
Finally ! A book review channel that is real ! I had this book rec'd by a friend of mine, so I googled the book for reviews and you popped up. So tired of pretentious people who call themselves reviewers that bore me to tears and have little to say that means a whit about the book. You are straight to the point, give an honest review, don't look like Barbie or Ken, and are actually intelligent ! Had to subscribe ! Hope you don't mind me sharing your channel in all my goodreads groups and on my Failbook book review page! Many thanks !
Thank you! I've been dying to read this book for years but I never had a sense of what it was actually about. I never wanted to be too spoiled, so I was careful about what I'd read on it. I will have to give it a try.
I started this book a few years ago but had some things going on in my life and at some point, set it aside and never finished..... I'm pulling it back out today and finishing...
Excellent review. Thank you for explaining this so eloquently. Much appreciated.
Also, random question: do you mind sharing what type of camera you use?
not pertaining just yet to this video (just turned on the video) but wanted to drop a comment saying how awesome this channel is, style and content in equal measures! You are probably, as of late, my favorite person to watch/listen to talk about books on youtube, especially after that awesome Michael Gira/The Consumer video (which I'm surprised I even found a video on). Keep it up sir! As for suggestions for future book reviews: do you read much sci-fi/fantasy as a genre? If so, would love to hear if you have anything to say about China Mieville or Neil Gaiman. Thanks!
In my times of reading this book, the feeling that something "horrible and terrifying" was behind, didn't really go away when I closed the book. I remember being drunk and taking a dab at a friend's place. I'd been there before but I felt so uneasy that he had to place me against a wall facing the two entrances to the room for me to calm down. It's a great novel, a perfect blend of horror and romance that has to be taken apart so you can see the beauty of it all.
I am almost finished the book - so amazing
After my 5(?)th grade teacher basically killed readings enjoyability in me, this book brought it back 5 years later, tenfold
I'd love to see you review his newer work like The Familiar! And Blake Crouch's Dark Matter!
what was the last name you mentioned after Poe? Borez? just wondering. thank you for reviewing this. i recently learned about this book and am completely fascinated and in awe of it. i can’t wait to pick up a copy of my own.
Jorge Luis Borges
I’ve read this twice because of how brilliant it is!
is there any channel where we can listen / read the synopsis of the book in 5 minutes
I think the most important question is, if you found that door to that hallway in your house, what would you do? I really do not know if I'd go in there or not.
Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
I've read and loved this book. Back then I had a text only reader so I got an OCRed version to put on the reader. Due to the nature of the book, the text was stopping in mid sentence and continuing with another, which at first almost made me stop, but then this effect added to the general insanity of the characters and got me hooked, always trying to realize when a text ended and another started just by reading it (as now it was all a bunch of text with the same font).
Since then I've always promised myself I would read the book as is, but never got to it. I wonder if I will like it more or less.
Siderite Zackwehdex Perhaps you will find connections and references and puns? Or maybe just get a headache from the small font? Report back if you do it!
Get to reading more of the dictionary than I can ever get through this book as fascinating as it is. It is one of the most interesting things to have on a shelf and by all accounts one of the best horror novels ever, but good luck. You will need it. If you have enough time and you just moved house.
thank you for the review! you've interested me in this book. it will become a great challenge for me to read it in English.
Khrystyna Desia did ya do it?
Just finished this one,,, man I was hoping for something that would make my skin itch, - maybe I’m just attuned to darkness a little more so than most people I’d say - but I can’t recall a single part that creeped me out. Disappointed with this one sadly,, still really enjoyed the immersion, I enjoyed the commentary, enjoyed the passages on the labyrinth / Minotaur,,, but ultimately the book didn’t hit me as I expected it would.
Feel the same . Just finished it . Enjoyed the main story, enjoyed most of the Johnny Truent parts, unfortunately I found the constant reference's and the letters from his mother pretty tedious
Just finished House of Leaves after trying to read it all the way through, unsuccessfully a number of times for a year or more. Would love to hear more thoughts on it in depth, as I am still somewhat lost upon completing it. I remember watching your review of it before I read the book, and that's part of the reason I felt so compelled to pick it up. I love you and all of the reviews you do..seriously, you're wonderful. If ya feel like it, you should do a follow up on House of Leaves with a little bit of explanation ;)
All my best,
Mikalah
So late to the party but I'm finally reading this book! It's one of those slow burn books. Takes a while to really get into but once you're in... you just can't let it go. And now I must exit this video because I don't want to spoil myself. Goodbye.
Someone actually got through it? Impressed.
I ordered this book yesterday, and I'm so excited to read it although a bit terrified! Maybe a lot more than a bit...
It sucks just ramblings long parts of pure boredom the "house" is not near as scary as they make it out to be. would you walk into a hallway in your house that never existed before or would you move out??
I saw a photo of a vulture waiting for a starving child to die. Supposedly, the photographer killed himself not long after snapping that picture.
Reading it , so far, it reminds me of Silent Hill 2 (the game, not the movie): a slow decent into madness...Maybe that's just me. 🤷
Pretty sure the creators said it inspired them
@@ColombianThunder wow I can actually see the influence now that you mention it….
I read the book and loved it, however I very rarely felt uneasy and never scarred. Did I miss something?
Fear and what scares people is different for different people you didn't miss anything it just wasn't scary to you and that's fine I recently got this book based on some of the things I heard and it being a small inspiration for a game I played called Control I'm pretty sure it's going to creep me out as it plays on some fears of mine.
Thank you for this review!!
I started reading this on an e-reader and stopped because I wanted the full "experience" but I never picked it up again. It's absolutely massive and intimidating, but everyone says it's worth it. Looking forward to more reviews :)
***** It goes super quick considering there are plenty of pages with just 1 sentence...word...etc. Persevere! And thanks for watching.
Not sure if you ever got around to finishing it but I found myself having to skip quite a bit of unnecessary stuff to get through it. It was so not what I was expecting but it was still pretty enjoyable.
Well said
Awesome. Ordering it now
My favorite book. Great review!
Nice goatee bro. I got one to.
Sounds like the Winchester House.
Incredible book, but in an academic sense. I found it stimulating but Danielewski’s work doesn’t really make me feel much.
we will rise !
some arsehole stole my copy... i liked that book for its structure but found its nugget of substance pretty small... but a nice book-object nevertheless...
Oh but it CAN be solved!
🖤 great vid
Just subscribed from the UK. Great channel. Have you read 'Night Film' by Marisha Pessl? Sometimes mentioned in the same breath as HOL. Also be interested in your views on Kindle vs Real Books vs Audiobooks. Keep going!
What happens at the end of the book?
It ends
@@kinhamid9665 🤣🤣
what's the name of the author with the picture in the appendix? Vohrhees?
Really? Magical realism? Borges? Wtf!
I love you. I hardly ever comment on videos. But I can relate to you so well. I find you so attractive. Not really in a aesthetic way either. I mean, well, yeah, you're super nice on the eyes. But I wish we had more minds like yours around where I live. House of leaves my fav. book.
gisselldc Many thanks for watching and commenting. ;)
Much more soon.
Very good review but kinda cringe you referred to the dying child as “it”
I love Poe and Lovecraft, but I hate hate hated this book. Probably *because* it was designed to make me feel anxious and never really ended so much as just stopped.
+Leila A. M. Martin (leila ann) I kind of agree; read this recently for a book club with some folks. I found it really interesting the way the ergodic literature of the piece was designed to simulate the twisting nature of the house. I thought that was pretty cool. I agree about the ending though.
I see I'm not alone there. It really does just sort of dwindle away rather than resolve. The first time I read it I remembered Johnny having actually found the house in the course of his trip. The second time I read it I realized my brain had just totally made that up. Maybe if I read it a third time it'll be back again.
xerxestireirondada haha I guess with this book you never know!
Corn Pone Flicks The house doesn't exist. Truant is traveling through a labyrinth of his own. He's on drugs, dude. The house is also representative of Zampano's own blindness. It's quite ingenious.
Leila A. M. Martin If a book can give you anxiety, it's well done. Though I think you failed to read the parts of HoL that turn it into a bit of a love story as well. Like, the Navidson Record was structurally satirical. So from a literary sense, it's a big example of dead metaphors and overly pretentious diction. The house is an example of Camus absurdism in that the human mind puts way more into it than actually exists. When really, it just is what it is. Read it again, I would say.
Did he just say "irregardless ? ! "
That book gotta be an SPC in and of itself
weird meaning all this stuff...but the book is trippy but not so good yet for sure not bad
I'm really tempted to read it but it's soo long.
He's so happy in this one. Doesn't work...Rather hear about his trip to China
I'll be honest, House of Leaves was super disappointing to me. The first 100 pages or so are fucking brilliant, intriguing, addictive--and then it devolves into something that felt very much like a Moby Dick cover by a second year postmodern studies student. In fact I would say it is a highly precocious deconstruction of deconstruction. Its masturbatory postmodernism on a double dose of horny goat weed....
Wise Blood, by Flannery O'Connor.
I'm addicted to your reviews, man, hands down best reviews on RUclips. If not the net. It would be so damn cool to hear your thoughts on Flannery
After reading that book, I realized that I wanted to go back to grad school. Reality/life interrupted, and I’ve been unable to find the money or time to get that Ph.D. in anthropology or settle down to get at least an MA or Ph.D. In history. I will say this…I almost felt like the footnotes were a third main character…the only one that wasn’t 1) investigating the hallway; or 2)going insane. Rather it was the dry, academic sometimes contradictory tone upon which scholars base their lives. They seemed to bring the third person “reality” to the events. I loved this book, but it seems to have the tendency to sharply divide readers: you either love it or you hate it. No middle ground…much like the hallway itself.
they discover something is terribly wrong: their house is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. :D I wish my house was bigger than it looks! That's not terrible, it's fantastic
I wrote this 1 year ago; and what the hell was I talking about!? :D
This book started out soo strong..it was soo creepy
why the gloves?
+Nathan Hassall why not
+Andreas LF when I was a kid (from like 7 to 10), I wore gloves all day everyday. OCD stuff.
+Charles Crumb did you wear a trenchcoat inside and film yourself?
+ Nathan Hassall In my humble opinion, that is a rather rude question. Cliff is not here to be ogled or explain his particular form of fashion. He reviews books. Just saying.
@@mariamason1919 In my humble opinion its rude of you to call me rude. I don't think Cliff needs you to be his knight in shining Armour for a question that could easily be not answered with wit or a joke.
I like your gloves
This book made me scared of the dark again
Angry Johnny.. by Poe..
use a book mark
I really love literature and analysis und sofort. Your work is fascinating and I like a lot , but reading some comments of the subscribers, I think: "wot"? ( My mother-linguage os portuguese, but I read auf "German" and englisch, Spanisch , etc..) but I think: these guys really like oder understand Art? They "live Art?" Some academic NOTHING they get sticked to... Gott ! Be Rimbaud for a while ! I should say to some of these !! Have a real life!!
Circa survive brought me here
In my opinion this is the greatest book ever made
Just finished this, was impressed, but really... meh...
Many might not pick this up, but the "experimental" approach is actually very akin to how Moby Dick was written and also might have influenced DFW's approach to writing Infinite Jest.
By the way, there is a film by the
Japanese director Kiyoshi
Kurosawa titled: Cure
Watching it warps your reality,
it will...trust me, Lol.
Peace from Texas...
the Walrus was Paul
The book states it early. This book is not for you
weird thats it.
"I'm gonna make this review quick," but fucks off for the first minute of the video trying to do a bit. Dang.
Starts at 1 :13
So much Borges in this. Labyrinths, dreams, unreliable narrators,
It makes sense I don't care who tells me whatever or what disease I catch the idea of taking the picture of a Dying child with buzzard Larkin waiting for it to die is the most obscene of ghoul trophies... made me feel crazy just hearing it the idea..how would you not do anything.. he didn't have to listen he chose to listen he knew this and couldn't live with it
What could he gave done? Feed all of them right at that moment? There was a huge number of children starving to death, not just the one child shown in the photo. I don’t know what touching the child would have accomplished. Hugging the kid would have probably comforted him more than it comforted the child. I can understand wanting to kill himself after what he witnessed, but not out of guilt. He had nothing to feel guilty for. All he could hope to do was draw attention to the situation by taking photos.
This is not for you
Why is our man a tattoo artist? Is it because his god one of aesthetics, perhaps? There is no meaning except for how good the picture looks. A picture permanently placed on human skin.
Man fingerless gloves just arnt it man. What are you protecting your hands from? Solid review though
paper cuts are torture dude
This book kinda sucks
Stop man-handling that goddamned book.
Sounds like a Atheists worst nightmare
It's fiction....
What on earth are you talking about? The book isn't even about religion, whatever difference that would make.
So Christians would be fine if reality just broke?
y’all god-fearing people would be terrified of the House On Ash Tree Lane too, not just us
jump cut. skipped
That's petty lmao