House of Leaves is not a book you simply read, it is an exercise in patience, perseverance and immersion. If you've seen any examples of pages within the book, you know that there are pages devoted to footnotes, translations and print-as-design, along with indexes, exhibits and a glossary. The prospect of tackling this book was enticing. It is satisfying to both look at and hold; A heavy tome with creamy pages and color coded words. The promise of mysteries to be solved and stories to be decoded await! I wish it would have been better. 
 Here are the main points of the book that both make it and break it for me. 
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 A constant break in flow. Because of the numerous footnotes and flipping (a necessity for those wanting the full experience) you are constantly removed from the narrative at hand. 
 Duel stories being told throughout. Not only do we have the story of the mysterious house, but also a secondary story of the man reading the book about the mysterious house. The concept works inasmuch as it adds some breaks to the scary story which intentionally jar the narrative and put the reader on an uneven keel. However, the secondary story struck me as inferior, being at times both juvenile and unreliable. 
 Conceptual Design. The use of images and design within the print of the story worked only about 25% of the time for me. I can only assume the author meant for this to elicit a feeling from the readers as there is no literal reason for it. That being said, I found it more irritating than not. Sometimes it was difficult to follow the words on the page, meaning where does the next line of text start. Often when I would figure it out, the information was redundant or unnecessary. 
 Conceptual Ephemera Including Indexes and Exhibits, this only worked for me about 35% of the time. While the author has provided a wealth of quotes, original poetry, scraps of letters and collages, it did not connect with me as part of the story or elicit any feelings for me. More often than not I found myself dreading that flip to the back of the book. 
 Overall There are some genuinely creepy and dark moments here, which is why I wanted to read the book in the first place. Unfortunately, they were few and far between and at times watered down by too much analyzation and source footnotes. The characters from the main story (The Navidson Report) are haunting and memorable. I am so glad though, to be done with Johnny Truant. 
 My intention with my review was not to rip apart this book, but rather to offer my personal experience with it. (hide spoiler)] It was not an enjoyable one for me, hence the roughly 45 days or so it took for me to finish the book, most of that time trying to convince myself to finish it. In the end it felt like a lot of work for a small amount of payoff. I don't regret finishing it though, as it was a new type of reading experience for me. I respect the amount of work it took the author to complete this type of book and while a lot of it didn't "work" for me, it has done so for many other readers! Only YOU can decide if House of Leaves is a journey worth taking for yourself. 
 2.5 stars