Perhaps you may have heard about this book from a friend, and went online to try to find some reviews for it. If you went to the most popular book-seller on the net, you would have found roughly 7 million reviews arranged like this:

***** The best novel ever written, your life is meaningless if you have not read house of leaves!

* Complete crap! Pretentious gimmicky hogwash!

***** All other work of literature and art should be burned upon a gigantic pyre to better illuminate the awesome face of house of leaves!

* You are stipud and gay if u like this thing.

Aren’t Amazon’s amateur reviewers helpful?
Once again, I must cut through the cloud of confusion, to give you, gentle reader, the true story.

This book might be (and has been) dubbed the Blair Witch Project of literature. The author indeed does a remarkable job of crafting a plausible pseudo-reality for his creation, by presenting us with a myriad of supplemental materials and real world references (my favorite being fundamentalist film hobbit Michael Medved’s all too believable pissy dismissal of the avant-guard ‘Navidson’ film). His very odd style of writing (some parts of the text must be translated, read upside down, or even viewed in a mirror before they become legible) while smacking of cheap gimmickry to some, adds immeasurable creepy charm to the proceedings. While few could fault ‘House’ for a lack of originality or detail, the question remains, is it a good book?

Well. Since what we are dealing with here is actually two different narratives, the answer, unfortunately is yes, and not really.
The main text of Zampanò‘s work is brilliant. I can honestly say, it scared the hell out of me, something which it is very, VERY, difficult for any work of fiction to do. (Then again, I read it alone around midnight in an empty house while listening to the Silent Hill 4 soundtrack. Um, just a note, you might not want to do that unless you enjoy staying up till morning and listening to the house settle) The odd sort of broken logic situation the novel presents is uniquely disturbing, and gets into your head far more effectively than any simple monster/killer suspense or horror novel can.

The second narrative, unfortunately is deeply flawed. Johnny Truant who discovers the book after the elderly Zampanò passes away carries a huge amount of emotional baggage which makes him a very hostile, troubled, and emotionally maladjusted young man. While learning of Truant’s past can help us to sympathize slightly with him, it doesn’t make him any more pleasant company. His frequent and lengthy interjections into the main text are rarely of any relevance, and only serve to account Truant’s pitiful existence, which is punctuated by rampant drug abuse and graphic meaningless sexual encounters with any skank sad enough to let him get on top of her. To make matters even more irritating, Johnny-boy’s cannabis and semen-stained rants often display an open petulant combativeness towards the reader. While Zampanò wraps us around his little finger, Johnny seems to want to punish us for reading this book.

Since Truant’s distracting presence is limited to easily skipable footnotes, I’m not going to count it as to much of an impediment towards recommending the book. House of Leaves is a remarkable and unique addition to horror literature, and is well worth your attention.