House of Leaves – Book Review and Synopsis

Review and synopsis of House of Leaves, by author Mark Z Danielewski. The synopsis is simply the details of what happens in the book. It’s not necessarily an explanation, that’s better left for you to decide as you explore.

Spoiler Free Review

You may have heard of House of Leaves or seen it on shelves. You may be putting off reading it due to its infamous nature and hefty length of 709 pages. I know I was intimidated when I flipped through the pages and saw the bizarre shifts in formatting, font, color, and structure.

But I’m telling you now, House of Leaves is absolutely without a doubt worth the effort. Take it off your shelf and finally give yourself over to this unnerving tale of the supernatural.

The titular house is one of great mystery and impossibility. The owner, Navidson, discovers a new room within it one day and things only get stranger from there. After determining that the interior of his house is inexplicably larger than the exterior he goes on an exploration that will defy physics and nearly cost him everything.

The reader will follow Navidson’s story through notes about a documentary about the house. The reader will also follow Johnny, as he becomes obsessed with these notes and solving the mystery behind it all.

House of Leaves does not in any way follow traditional story telling. That’s what makes it more memorable and effective. The way the book is presented adds a creepy level of realism to the supernatural tale. It also immerses the reader within its walls in ways I’ve never experienced in any other book.

It almost feels more like a found footage horror movie than a book. It’s an intense and gripping read that you’ll follow with maximum focus. You’ll have to, this is not what anyone would call light reading.

I am certain many thesis papers have been written analyzing House of Leaves. I won’t be doing that here or even in my spoiler full synopsis down below. But I can tell you that this book is an impressive work of art. Every piece has a purpose and it shows. This is not form breaking just for the sake of thinking outside the box. The form is what the story needs. It’s not rule breaking, its rule defining.

It will take about an hour to get the feel for how the book operates. I strongly recommend only sitting down with it when you have a larger chunk of uninterrupted reading time. It could be quite easy to get lost within these pages. I see a lot of readers asking “how to read” this literary tome. The easy answer is, from beginning to end. The book guides you along. You’ll take detours through footnotes and endnotes but I never felt lost. At least no more than the characters experiencing it 😉

Is House of Leaves scary? It depends on your fears but likely a little. More creepy or unnerving. If you are afraid of dark spaces, closed spaces, or infinite voids it will be scary. If your imagination runs wild when presented with an unsolvable mystery you’ll love it.

If you are looking for a challenge that is as rewarding as it is entertaining I cannot recommend House of Leaves enough. It is unique and it is worth every hour you’ll put in.

5/5 houses where nothing is at it seems 🏚🏚🏚🏚🏚

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How to read House of Leaves

Before we get into the synopsis and details of House of Leaves it’s important to demystify the formatting a bit. Many readers take a glance at the inside of the giant paperback and wonder how in the world they should tackle it. Well, simply put, you read House of Leaves beginning to end.

Although you will be taking many detours along the way you’ll start at the beginning and let the book guide you as you go, just follow its instructions.

Keep two or three bookmarks with you to mark your places and just follow the footnotes, endnotes, and annotations down the rabbit hole.

It’s also best to make sure that you have at least an hour per reading session to sit down and complete a section. It does get a bit confusing bouncing between characters and plot lines but as long as you can remember character names and keep your place you should be fine.

This book is also not for digital readers or audio listeners. You can find amended versions available but I strongly recommend getting a physical copy and interacting with it. You’ll need to flip back and forth and maybe even turn it upside down a few times. Enjoy that, you don’t get that experience very often.

House of Leaves Synopsis

House of Leaves is an intimidating novel that defies genre and traditional structure. It is absolutely necessary that you read House of Leaves in hard copy, not on an ereader, and not in an audiobook if one is ever available. It’s an integral part of the experience to see how the words are presented on each page.

House of Leaves is a horror suspense thriller, a family drama, an adventure mystery, and a tragic fall from grace depending on which chapter you’re in. It’s also a mockumentary, a madman’s diary, and a film script. It’s all of the above and much much more.

Because of how complicated it is I’m sure many people are searching for a coherent synopsis. I will do my best here. Keep in mind the story alternates between a few plot lines and the summary will be like the book, asymmetrical and nonlinear.

We start with one of the narrators, Johnny. He finds his landlord dead in his apartment surrounded by a ton of mysterious papers and notes. Johnny decides to take all of these papers with him, he’s unsure exactly why.

The notes and documents are about a supposed documentary called The Navidson Record about an unusual house. Johnny becomes obsessed with the mystery.

Navidson’s tale is the other half of the story. We read it through Johnny’s findings. Navidson was a journalist who disappeared after releasing two short films about his New England home.

Navidson intended to make a simple domestic documentary about his own family living an average life. Instead he ended up recording a haunting and disturbing trip through physics defying portals within his own house.

The more Johnny delves into the Navidson reports the more lost he gets within his own life. He even starts to exhibit some odd mental effects but is undeterred. He’s going to get to the bottom of this even if it kills him.

The Navidson family returns to their home from a short trip one weekend. They discover a new interior room that they’ve never seen before. Navidson thoroughly investigates this bizarre phenomenon and determines that the interior of his home is larger than the exterior.

This impossibility causes him to enlist the help of his brother Tom. They lock off the unnerving extra room but it appears to only be growing.

Navidson breaks his own locks and discovers that the room has branched off into many new rooms and hallways. His wife Karen is deeply disturbed and insists everyone stays away but Navidson’s curiosity will get the best of him.

When not reading the Navidson records, Johnny works at a tattoo parlor. Many of his footnotes involve him telling his own personal stories about falling in love with a stripper known only as Thumper (as in the rabbit from Bambi). One day, he has a reality break during his shift and wakes up with mysterious scratches on his neck.

From here the reader detours to Appendix ii at the back of the book. We read many letters written to Johnny from his mother in an insane asylum. The letters become hauntingly cryptic and paranoid. She alludes to an incident when Johnny was much younger where she tried to murder him and left scars on his neck. This appendix is well worth the extra read. Don’t be tempted to skip any sections!

Back at the Navidson residence they hire an explorer named Holloway to help investigate the anomolous space. He’s a macho jerk who hits on Karen any chance he gets.

The newly established exploration team discovers a staircase that seemingly has no bottom. Karen also discovers that compasses don’t work anywhere on the property.

The exploration team decides to find what lies at the base of this staircase. They make four attempts without success. On the last attempt the team sends out a distress signal after 8 days. Navidson decides to go in and rescue them.

Back with Johnny, he scores some alone time with Thumper. Against his better judgement he shows her his obsession, all of the notes and writings about the so called House of Leaves. Thumper will not share the obsession that has possessed Johnny. In fact, this really worries her.

House of Leaves really starts to break traditional structure once Navidson reaches the bottom of the stairs. The pages become segmented and fragmented with boxed and upside down text. This includes windows of text that are mirrored through one side as if the text was looking through the page.

The exploration team manages to make it back to their cache of rations only to discover that it’s been ravaged. They hear an unnerving growl and Holloway runs off half cocked to attack whatever it was. His team decides to give him one night to return before they’ll attempt to surface without him.

One of the explorers is spontaneously shot in the arm. Holloway has emerged from a corridor in a confused rage and refuses to leave the tunnels as he shoots wildly at the men. They flee in several directions and get lost.

Johnny has another break with reality, think a kind of fugue state episode, and discovers that he screams horrible things out loud every time he sleeps. He’s slipping away so he decides to toss every pill and inebriant he has. He’ll go completely cold turkey into all forms of sobriety.

Navidson is able to surface but needs to establish another team to rescue the other members. He returns to the staircase to discover that it is now only about 100 feet deep. Vastly different from the previous bottomless pit.

During this next rescue mission the text on the pages of House of Leaves corresponds to Navidson’s location in space. It moves from top to bottom or left to right, it closes in on itself, or opens back up. It’s a very neat effect that give this chapter a horror movie feel of dodging through narrowing corridors or peeking around corners. It builds intensity quite effectively.

One more member of Navidson’s team is shot but they manage to return to the shorter stairway. Tom lowers a gurney and pulley system for them. They get the injured members up to the ground floor before the stairs shift and Navidson plummets down deep into the earth.

Meanwhile, Johnny starts to lose large chunks of time and consequently loses his job.

Within the normal part of the Navidson residence the hallway and room system that leads to the stairs appears to shrink. Karen and the others worry Navidson will be trapped for good. But he returns later that night complete with Holloway’s equipment and cameras.

The reader then gets a partial account of Holloway’s suicide. The text has been burned leaving many omissions.

Karen has finally had enough and intends to leave with their children for good. (Long overdue, really). This angers the house and it begins to collapse in an attempt to force the family into a void. Everyone but Tom escapes but he’s killed violently outside instead.

Johnny’s life is in shambles. He’s neglected all of his bills and maxed out his last credit card to purchase two guns. He gets evicted and decides to find the Navidson house. The reports contain nothing left for him, he has to see it for himself.

The survivors of the House all abandon the location to move as far away as they can. Except for Navidson. He returns to the house to find it completely restored. No extra rooms or abnormalities just like when they bought it.

Karen decides she must find her husband and also returns to the house but finds no evidence of him being there. She starts living there again, just to wait for his return. She starts hearing his voice but the cameras that are still located all over the home from the original documentary attempt don’t pick up this sound.

The reader is privy to Navidson’s exploration. He has become hopelessly lost since no matter which direction he goes in he’s only able to go downhill. The text once again reflects changes in direction and the size of the space he’s in.

On Johnny’s journey to find the house the reader is no longer able to determine what is real or not. Johnny experiences a violent blackout in which he murders two people known to him. But did this actually happen? The dates in his journal loop and tell very different stories for the same periods of time. It’s impossible to tell what he’s actually gone through at this point.

Then Johnny, about a year later, encounters a group of people who are in possession of a copy of House of Leaves, complete with Johnny’s own footnotes. Just like the book you’re holding in your hands.

Karen finally tracks down her husband’s voice and finds Navidson in the dark, completely frozen and near death. He loses several parts of his body to frostbite but will live because she rescued him.

The house then “dissolves.” It’s gone. Karen and Navidson renew their vows and move far away with their children in an unexpectedly happy ending.

House of Leaves is one of a kind. It’s a truly impressive work of experimental fiction that can only be appreciated when you experience it for yourself. It’s haunting and scary but also touching and heartfelt.

I strongly recommend that you read this book. I know it’s a daunting figure on the shelf but it is 100% worth the effort. Don’t be intimidated, it’s actually pretty easy to read once you get started and get the feel for the footnote structure. You will not regret finally bumping this one to the top of your to read list.

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