One word : overhyped. Two words: nothing special. Full sentence: The most overhyped, nothing special, self-aggrandizing, intentionally complicated for no reason, chaotic, mostly boring with few good parts, definitely no horror (at least for 85% of the length), some kind of weak love story, so-called book.
I don't get one thing: how can anyone call this book scary or horror? The house and the "monster" are complete bull, not good enough even for a low-budget B movie. What is scary in the book? The claw mark next to Zampano's body? The weird shifting interior of the house that eventually dissolves into nothing? Give me a break! I found Bram Stoker's Dracula more scary than this book, even though it is written 150 years ago, and in that insufferable British long-winded style with way too much verboseness for no good reason.
I spent almost a month and a half reading it, and not actually because it is too long (yes, it is too long, almost 800 pages with bunch of appendices, BS notes, excerpts, quotes, etc), but because it is so effin boring! Yes, there are a few good parts, the initial discovery of Zampano's body, the five and a half minute corridor appearance, even Johhny's obsession with Thumper, however those parts are nested amongst hundreds of pages of BS, academic quotes from hundreds of made up books, most with no relevance to the story.
I get it that Danielewski wanted to get a revenge on the academic community that rejected him, however why should the reader suffer through all those hundreds of academic-format quotations which add absolutely nothing to the story, but only exist to keep reminding us how boring and stiff the academic world of writing is. Well, some of us abandoned our academic career for similar reason, but we don't go writing an 800 page book to get back "at them".
And the random excerpts at the end of the book definitely look cute and "original", but add nothing to the excitement about the story or make the novel more interesting. The author wanted to be very original and post-modern/experimental, but that only takes you part of the way. You still have to have a good story, develop a plot, interesting characters and have interesting twists.
I am not even sure with Johnny Truant, the narrator? I mean does he exist at all, since it is implied he is the baby with "holes in his brain" that died shortly after being born. Then who is writing all these experiences with Zampano, the book, Thumper, Lude, etc.? Even if that is imagined, then who is the mother in the crazy house writing all those letters to? Give me a break!
Don't waste your time with this overhyped pile of steaming BS.
