House of Leaves
I finished reading the “Hᴏᴜꜱᴇ of Leaves” some weeks ago. But today I thought about it again so here's a quick review.
Hᴏᴜꜱᴇ of Leaves is all about meta levels. So it's fitting that I first heard about the book in a YouTube video, that talks about a level for classic Doom named MyHᴏᴜꜱᴇ.wad. If you have the nearly two hours, give the video a watch. It's fascinating.
Anyway, on to the book.
The main narrative is by this guy Zampano. It's not much of spoiler to tell you, that he dies right at the beginning of the book. His notes are compiled into the book you're reading by Johnny who lives in the same Hᴏᴜꜱᴇ. Johnny's story is the second narrative on top of Zampano's. It is mostly told in loong footnotes.
However what Zampano is writing about, is the story of a guy named Navidson and his family and what they experienced in the Hᴏᴜꜱᴇ they bought.
Of course there's another layer. Zampano never met Navidson. He's writing about things Navidson filmed and what various other third parties said. Zampano also loves footnotes. His footnotes have footnotes. Sometimes three levels deep.
The editor of the book also sometime adds some insights so there's another layer. But all these meta layers are interwoven and there are layers within the layers. Even the book itself is a layer on top with one of the weirdest layout and typesetting I've ever seen in a book.
Hᴏᴜꜱᴇ of Leaves is not an easy read. The levels of footnotes can be daunting. It doesn't help that everyone involved seems to go mad over time. But I found you quickly figure out which footnotes to skip and which ones are actually part of the stories.
I think this book is a masterwork. It wraps around the underlying story of the Hᴏᴜꜱᴇ in a way that makes you eager to discover more fragments of its mystery.
It's a book that stays with you.
I bought the book used on Amazon.com. There are various editions that vary in the amount of weirdness in the printing. I picked the two-color edition, with Hᴏᴜꜱᴇ written in blue. But there are more intricate ones that for example also include proper Braille dots (mine where just printed). In any case this is a book meant to read from paper. I don't think it would translate well into an e-book and forget about an audio version.