noisenerd reviewed House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
I did not find the juice to be worth the squeeze
2 stars
I will open by saying that my estimation of this book may have suffered from its reputation. I generally try not to expose myself to a lot of hype around books I'm interested in, but that was how this one even ended up on my radar. I will also say that it may appeal more to fans of horror (which is not a description I would apply to myself). That is not to say that this is strictly a horror story, but I think it overlaps more with horror than anything else. I was mostly interested because I like weird stuff, and the way this was described made it sound like it qualified there. I suppose it does a bit, but I expected more.
That said, I will give the author some credit, as I imagine this took some thought and effort to put together. I think the presentation does …
I will open by saying that my estimation of this book may have suffered from its reputation. I generally try not to expose myself to a lot of hype around books I'm interested in, but that was how this one even ended up on my radar. I will also say that it may appeal more to fans of horror (which is not a description I would apply to myself). That is not to say that this is strictly a horror story, but I think it overlaps more with horror than anything else. I was mostly interested because I like weird stuff, and the way this was described made it sound like it qualified there. I suppose it does a bit, but I expected more.
That said, I will give the author some credit, as I imagine this took some thought and effort to put together. I think the presentation does add another layer of enjoyment, and I like that there are a few little tidbits that open up possibilities for interpretation. However, in my opinion, none of that was enough to overcome the fact that most of the actual contents are fluff wrapped around what amounts to a pretty short story. It's not exactly pointless fluff, because it does play a role, but it is fluff nonetheless. This is where my comment in the title line comes from. A lot of it I didn't even find to be enjoyable fluff, and some of it outright annoyed me.
Despite not loving it, I don't regret reading it, because I would have been forever curious. Clearly there are people who do love it, so if you're curious I'd say it might be worth a shot.
