House of Leaves, by Mark Z. Danielewski

Whenever the topic of difficult books spins around the internet, House of Leaves usually pops up – and with good reason. This is a tough book to pin down. On the surface, it’s a horror story about a house that is bigger on the inside than is physically possible. But then there’s the footnotes and end notes and typographical oddities that lead the reader down a  “What the hell is happening?” rabbit hole. To figure out the plot you will need graph paper, pencils, scissors and access to the Large Hadron Collider. 

There are clearly two different stories happening in this book, or maybe three, or maybe it’s just one? Or maybe there’s no story and this is just a random collection of words that sometimes makes sense.

I’ve never read anything like it. Is it good? I think so. Does it make sense? No one knows. But, there’s enough story to follow that even though everything is confusing, reading it can be rewarding. And as challenging as it is, it does get easier as the book progresses, either because your brain gets accustomed to the split narrative, or you have gone insane and none of this is real and… BOO! 

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