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"House of Leaves:" Review & Theories

  • Writer: Maddy <3
    Maddy <3
  • 6 days ago
  • 4 min read

It is currently 2 o'clock in the early hours of July 3rd, and I have just finished House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski.


I knew as soon as I finished it that I'd need to write down my thoughts. Here they are!


Initial Thoughts & Theories


Here are some things I'm thinking right off the bat:

  1. The Navidson Record is a mirror of Johnny's grief and relationship with his mother.

    • It took five and a half minutes for his mother to leave him (this mirrors The Five And ½ Minute Hallway), during which he heard only the roar of her screams and cries (the "roar" of the walls in the house).

    • He also mentions claws or long fingers in relation to his mother, much like the "claws" in the house.

    • The checkmark at the bottom of page 97 references Pelafina's letters to Johnny (she asks him to put a checkmark so she'd know she got her letter).

      Page 97 of House of Leaves showing a check mark in the bottom righthand corner
      The checkmark at the bottom of page 97 of House of Leaves
  2. Johnny either made up The Navidson Record or, if he didn't make it up, has merged it with his own memory, thus creating the tie-ins.

    • The burning of the book (Navidson is reading House of Leaves)

    • Johnny mentioning tigers and dragons (present in Chad and Daisy's drawings)

    • "I have nothing left" (said also by Navidson)

    • Hillary and Mallory (Johnny sees a dead cat and a Siberian husky during his travels)

    • The baby story (similar to Navidson's, but he survives)

  3. House (book) of Leaves (paper)

    • We're quite literally stuck in the book, as is Johnny.


Some thoughts on parallels:

  1. The Navidson Record seems to exist as an alternate universe (a mirror to Johnny's).

    • Even after encountering the darkness of the house, Navidson and Karen were able to come out the other side; Johnny was not.

    • They both lose people along the way.

      • Tom, Holloway, and Jed die in the house.

      • Johnny's parents, his stepfather, and Lude all die.

  2. Navidson is a parallel of who Johnny could be.

    • He is saved by Karen, but Johnny isn't saved by his mother.

    • Navy = Johnny and Karen = Pelafina

  3. Navidson reads and then burns The Navidson Record by Zampanó in the house.

    • Johnny writes that some of the pages of Zampanó's manuscript have burn marks (even though he doesn't smoke). Could these pages be the ones Navidson burned?

      • I LOVE this observation, but it only gives me more questions. Who is Zampanó? Who is Johnny Truant? Who is Navidson? Who is Mark Z. Danielewski?


Reviewing The Forums


What other people are saying:

  1. Johnny is Zampanó and makes up The Navidson Record in order to process his own unresolved trauma and grief.

    • This theory is the one I initially believed (and still sort of do), but it leaves a LOT of unanswered questions.

  2. Pelafina, Johnny's mother, wrote the book.

    • See: the checkmark on page 97

    • Some people have also said that Pelafina is Zampanó, but I don't think the two are mutually exclusive.

    • This comment theorizes that Johnny was made up by Pelafina and Zampanó in order to deal with the loss of their child. This Reddit thread focuses on the history of mental illness in the family.

  3. Mark Z. Danielewski himself is Zampanó and Johnny is realizing that he is a fictional character as he's reading his own book.

    • This theory came from this post from the MZD forums, and honestly I'm floored.


Open book of House of Leaves
Two pages of the greatest book ever

I'm Still Confused...


Questions I have:

  1. What's up with the band?

    • The band Johnny hears play in the bar in Flagstaff had read House of Leaves and wrote a song about The Five And ½ Minute Hallway

      • The only way this makes sense to me is if Johnny had already written the first edition of House of Leaves and released it by the time he got to Arizona

      • Is the band even real? How do we know what's real? Is this a time loop situation?

  2. Who was the baby?

    • Another son that Pelafina lost before Johnny?

    • Was it Johnny? And he's dead?

      • If he's dead, who's writing?

  3. Is anyone who they say they are?

  4. Is Johnny real?

  5. Is anything real?


Closing Remarks


House of Leaves changed my life; I have never spent so much time thinking about a book that wasn't homework. It haunted my dreams, plagued my waking hours, and I still cannot understand it. It's a work of art, dare I say a masterpiece, and I wish I could read it for the first time again. Oh, to relive the moment I read "like a bad dream, the details of those five and a half minutes just went and left me to my future" (517). The gasp heard 'round my apartment.

In the near future, I'm going to have to reread it, annotating and decoding the entire book this time instead of just Pelafina's letters. There are so many hidden clues and quotes I haven't yet written down because they make my brain spin so fast I'll get vertigo.

To Mark Z. Danielewski, thank you for writing this insane piece of literature. It's now one of my most prized possessions.


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