House of Leaves

This unconventional novel has been described as ergodic literature due to the uncommon page layout, structure, and style. The novel contains footnotes of the main text, footnotes of other footnotes, and footnotes that state book references of authors and essays that do not exist. It also contains multiple narrators that interact with one another, making the book really entertaining due to the constant shifts of mood and perspective.

The novel first starts with a first person point of view by Johnny Truant, who’s a tattoo artist and the main narrator of the text. In the beginning, he’s searching for an apartment, and after a recommendation made by his friend Lude about a house that was inhabited by an old blind man called Zampanò, his life changes forever.

After Zampanò’s death, Lude makes a night call to Johnny who founds himself dragged by the odd behavior of his friend towards Zampanò’s house; there he finds a manuscript written by Zampanò about a record that never existed, The Navidson Record.

The rest of the story alternates between the actual in-depth review of Zampanò about said record, along with various footnotes of books, movies, persons, and other academic essays that were supposedly created after the Navidson Record, but in reality they do not exist. Also, in other footnotes, Johnny takes his time to explain his life after he found the manuscript and how everything went in a downward spiral for him, from being a complete drug addict and tattoo artist, back to his childhood and his troubled mentally ill mother, and forward again to the way that the book and perhaps some serious biological illness is affecting his functioning.

Apart from these topics, the book also contains a small transcript of part of the film from Navidson's brother, Tom, a small transcript of interviews to many people regarding The Navidson Record by Navidson's partner, Karen –though this interviews were never made- And occasional brief notes by unidentified editors, all of this in massive footnotes that cover a great part of the original manuscript.

Zampanò’s review of the Navidson Record primarily focuses on the relationships of the Navidson family, Will Navidson, Karen, Will’s and Karen’s children, Chad and Daisy, and Will’s brother, Tom; but it also includes secondary characters such as Will’s friend, Reston, and explorers Holloway, Wax, and Jed; though the review also focus on the strange events after the family moves to their new house in Ash Tree Lane; this events eventually lead to the destruction of the family and the deaths of three of the characters.

I completely fell in love with this book; the story is amazing and you could actually feel the hearth wrenching emotions that the narrators try to portray through the different moods they create. If you’re up for an interactive reading, I truly recommend you this book.