Review: House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

There are certain movies and books, that can terrify you so much that you can't even have them in the room with you finish with them.  For me, that moment took place almost exactly 10 years ago, when I read House of Leaves.  I read it on a whim, because a couple of my friends in college had loved it.  I had no idea what was in store for me. 

The book is about Johnny, a slacker, who finds a manuscript that was written by Zampano, a blind old man suffering from dementia.  It's an in depth study of a documentary film, The Navidson Record, with an underground following, complete with footnotes, quotes from experts, etc., but the film doesn't seem to exist.  Johnny decides to read the transcript, letting the reader figuratively peer over his shoulder as he does. 

To say this book scared me is an understatement.  It freaking terrified me.  Danielewski goes to incredible lengths to draw the reader in by changing the font, coloring, positioning and even the placement of the words on the page.  He even switched narrators. 

I would be totally absorbed in The Navidson Record manuscript and suddenly Johnny would interrupt - almost as if he hit the pause button during a very crucial part in the film.  He would begin rambling about the tattoo parlor where he worked and his fantasy girl, a stripper nickmaned Thumper.  Then he would abruptly stop and let me continue reading

At first, Johnny's narration seems random and purposeless - much like the character himself, but soon these little interludes were leaving me unsettled.  As we read more of the transcript, Johnny became more paranoid and by the time we returned to the manuscript, which was already creepy, I started to wonder how this book would affect me.  At one point, it got so frightening, I was no longer able to read it at night. 

The book haunted me for weeks after I finished it.  While I knew it was a work of fiction, I knew there had to be something more to it.  I would spend hours looking interpretations or opinions - anything, but there wasn't anything out there for me. 

This book screamed for a viral campaign, but it was published in 2000.  The Blair Witch Project with it's fake police reports and news stories, had only just shown the world how powerful the internet marketing could be.  Imagine what would happen if it was released today....

Maybe I should read it again.