No one should have to be the only one to suffer through House of Leaves, so I'll share, especially since it will make xkcd¹ make ... sense? Nah. Pseudosense.

For reference, I read this while I was in college. I then got very emotionally disturbed and dropped out of college. Coincidence? Probably! But still ... it's freaky.

So! Let us begin!

This is the cover. Looks innocent enough, right? Note that this is the remastered full-color edition. THERE HAS ONLY EVER BEEN ONE EDITION OF THIS BOOK. This should clue you in right here. The book is part of its own fantasy world. Also, House is in blue. This is a big deal. Or a recurring deal. Next!

This book is a teenage vagrant's notes (the footnotes) to a blind Spanish dude's essay (the body text) about some nutso filmmaker's video (the subject of the text) about his freaky house which opens up impossible holes and EATS PEOPLE or something, I dunno, I don't think it actually eats anyone but still (the weird plot point). Actually, there are three different authors for the footnotes:, the vagrant dude, the author of the essay, and a mysterious editor who compiled all this garbage.

There is much ... creative ... page layout. Also the dude who wrote the essay was in a bad habit of spilling ink and blood and fire all over his work. So a bunch of stuff is x-ed out or censored or such.

Thanks! Stuff like this is totally helpful.

um

what

WHAT

*sob*

~~bawl~~

I think this is where my mind broke.

And yes, the word house is in blue EVERY SINGLE TIME IT APPEARS in this book.

So there you have it. It is nuts. It broke me, I think. I'm going to go burn it now. Or stare at it. Or something.