History Literature / HouseOfLeaves

* EvilIsDeathlyCold: It's always precisely 32.7 degrees Fahrenheit inside the labyrinth. [[spoiler:After his last exploration, Navidson spends a week in a coma and loses parts of his face because of hypothermia]].

* FanDisservice: Johnny's sexual conquests are described in rather graphic detail, but most are too sad, too creepy, too [[MindScrew abstract]], or too all three at once to get much eroticism out of.
* FantasyAmericana: It takes place entirely in the United States and not only features strong and undeniable supernatural elements, but takes great care to give them mythic weight and resonance.

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler:Tom Navidson, who disappears suddenly when the [[blue:house]] decides to go completely insane and actively, aggressively attack the family]].

* NeverFoundTheBody: Neither [[spoiler: Tom's nor Holloway's bodies are ever recovered. While Holloway is pretty clearly dead, Tom's ultimate fate is never given.]]

** The text also floats the idea that there ''is no'" beast. The roars heard inside aren't coming from a throat; rather, they're the creaking and groaning of the material that makes up the [[blue:house]] as it remakes itself into a new shape. So perhaps it's less that there is no beast in the maze and more that the maze ''is'' the beast.

** Zampanò's writing could be considered the academic version of this. He often picks out some concept tenuously connected to the ''The Navidson Record'' and then goes on about it for pages and pages, waxing philosophical about its meaning and including flowery quotes about the topic. The end result comes across like someone who wants desperately to show off how widely read they are and what a deep thinker they are, combined with a student grasping for things to fill the requisite page amount.

* OneSteveLimit: Averted with William Navidson and Billy Reston. Fortunatley, the former is almost always referred to as "Navy".

* AmbiguousDisorder: Jennifer Antipala, Karen's architect friend, who is fast talking, high strung, immediately accepting of the truth of the [[blue:house]], gets distracted mid-interview to perform calculations on a piece of paper, and has little sense of personal space.

* AgentScully: Most of the media and academic figures interviewed in the "What Some Have Thought" interlude take it at face value that ''The Navidson Record'' is fake and the [[blue:house]] [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic must be symbolic of something]]. The only exceptions are Karen's architect friend, who is mainly just mystified at the physics of it, Creator/StephenKing, who wants to visit it, and Creator/HunterSThompson, who evidently had a [[FreakOut very similar reaction]] to Johnny.

** Zampanò's writing could be considered the academic version of this. He often picks out some concept tenuously connected to the ''Navidson Record'' and then goes on about it for pages and pages, waxing philosophical about its meaning and including flowery quotes about the topic. The end result comes across like someone who wants desperately to show off how widely read they are and what a deep thinker they are, combined with a student grasping for things to fill the requisite page amount.

** Zampanõ's writing could be considered the academic version of this. He often picks out some concept tenuously connected to the ''Navidson Record'' and then goes on about it for pages and pages, waxing philosophical about its meaning and including flowery quotes about the topic. The end result comes across like someone who wants desperately to show off how widely read they are and what a deep thinker they are, combined with a student grasping for things to fill the requisite page amount.

* PurpleProse: Johnny mostly maintains a pretty down-to-earth, conversational style of writing, but some of his flights of fancy become so abstract that they're extremely hard to interpret. His mother Pelafina also has a flowery, almost whimsical style of writing which degenerates into a terrifying MadnessMantra as her illness worsens.

Music/{{Poe}}, Danielewski's sister, created a music album called ''Haunted'' which serves as a companion piece to the novel; Danielewski even appears on the album, reciting a section of the novel on her rock radio hit "Hey Pretty" and he is also featured in the song's video. ''The Whalestoe Letters'', a companion book, was later partially included in updated reprints of ''[[PsychologicalHorror House]] of Leaves''.

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler:Tom Navidson, who disappears suddenly when the]] [[blue:house]] [[spoiler:decides to go completely insane and actively, aggressively attack the family]].

** Of course, given that Paglia [[spoiler:was never actually interviewed about the [[blue:house, she could have responded negatively 'because' her description in the book sounds like a caricature of herself.

* TitleDrop: In ''The Navidson Record'' and one of Zampanò's miscellaneous poems. And not just TitleDrop but [[spoiler:Self Drop -- Johnny runs into a band (the real-world book's author's sister's) on his search for the [[blue:house]] which has read]] the version of [[''[[blue:House]] [[spoiler:of Leaves'']] originally released online, including footnotes and edits by Johnny and The Editors.

* WhosOnFirst: When Navidson, Tom, and Reston go into the [[ParanoiaFuel house]] to find Holloway, Tom puts the radio to good use.

* YourMindMakesItReal: Zampanò posits that the [[blue house]] changes its configuration based on the mindsets of those inside it. He describes how Holloway wanted a big adventure, so the [[HauntedHouse house]] presents itself as expansive; whereas Navidson wanted to find everyone inside quickly and thus got a much shorter trip.

''[[EldritchLocation House]] of Leaves'' is a 2000 novel by Creator/MarkZDanielewski. It's about [[LemonyNarrator Johnny Truant]], a tattoo shop apprentice who finds the disheveled remains of a complex manuscript one night. The manuscript contains an amateurish critical dissertation, written by a recently deceased old man allegedly named Zampanò; on the topic of a film called ''The Navidson Record'', made by photographer Will Navidson. Although Zampanò's text refers elaborately and lovingly to existing literature, Johnny soon finds out that the vast majority of Zampanò's cited sources do not actually exist. Neither, for that matter, does the film. On top of that, Zampanò was [[MindScrew totally blind]].

The supposed plot of ''The Navidson Record'' is as follows: [[DysfunctionJunction Will Navidson is a world-renowned photojournalist with lingering family problems, Karen Green is a former model with self-esteem issues]], and Chad and Daisy are their [[CreepyChild two lovable children]]. Will decides to make this move-in a documentary of how he got his life back on track, and he mounts video cameras and microphones in different rooms of the [[NightmareFuel house]]. About a month after they move in, the family goes to visit Karen's parents. When they return, there's a new addition to the [[MagicalMysteryDoors house]], a closet with a connecting doorway, between the master bedroom and Chad and Daisy's room. Furthermore, out of curiosity, Will measures the inside of the [[{{Bizarrchitecture}} house]] compared with the outside to find out something startling: [[BiggerOnTheInside the inside is bigger than the outside by one-quarter of an inch]].'''[[superscript:X]]'''

''The Navidson Record'' has, if Zampanò's writing is to be believed, [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotDidactic spurred countless theses and criticisms from academia]], both for its moving themes and character studies but also for the perplexing riddle of the [[TheMaze house]] and [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic what it truly represents]]. And as Johnny cobbles together the assertions of Zampanò into a coherent narrative, adding his own thoughts and made-up ramblings and [[UnreliableNarrator freely inserting edits into the main text]], something about him starts to [[SanitySlippage slip]]... something linked to [[TheOphelia Pelafina Heather Lièvre]], a woman who was once locked up inside the Three Attic Whalestoe Institute.

''[[CosmicHorror House]] of Leaves'' is presented as Johnny's attempts to make sense of it all, aided by elaborate literary criticism, footnotes, references to poetry in at least half a dozen languages, as well as photographs, collages, scribblings and old letters. It was originally released, for free and incomplete, on the Internet; this release as well as its reception are addressed in later print versions of the book. Everything about the story may be seen ThroughTheEyesOfMadness. Though considering the eyes which read it are your own...

Beware of spoilers, given as a lot of the experience of ''[[HellIsThatNoise House]] of Leaves'' has less to do with twists in the plot and more to do with interesting and unsettling storytelling and page format -- such things are generally unmarked below.

!!''[[BiggerOnTheInside House]] of Leaves'' contains examples of:

* AdaptationalVillainy: Zampanò references a play that reimagines the story of the Minotaur so that the monster is actually a disabled boy locked away by his cruel stepfather Minos. Theseus is portrayed as a stupid, violent thug who brutally murders an innocent. Johnny has a hallucination in which he's the Minotaur and is being attacked by a drunk frat boy with an axe, clearly a modern-day version of that Theseus.
* AgentScully: Most of the media and academic figures interviewed in the "What Some Have Thought" interlude take it at face value that ''The Navidson Record'' is fake and the [[BrownNote house]] [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic must be symbolic of something]]. The only exceptions are Karen's architect friend, who is mainly just mystified at the physics of it, Creator/StephenKing, who wants to visit it, and Creator/HunterSThompson, who evidently had a [[FreakOut very similar reaction]] to Johnny.
* AlasPoorVillain: [[spoiler: Holloway]]'s death is treated very somberly, as despite being a murderer it's made clear that the [[EldritchLocation house]] preyed on his feelings of inadequacy to drive him insane. In his final moments he regains lucidity and is overcome by remorse for his actions, and his last words are a desperate assertion of his own identity against the advancing darkness before he commits suicide.
* AlienGeometries: Eventually Navidson realizes that, somehow, no matter how he measures, the inside of the [[GenreBusting house]] is [[BiggerOnTheInside one-quarter inch larger than the outside. Then it turns into 5/16 of an inch.]] Then that 5/16 corrects itself. Then everything goes to hell.

* AmbiguousDisorder: Jennifer Antipala, Karen's architect friend, who is fast talking, high strung, immediately accepting of the truth of the [[EldritchLocation house]], gets distracted mid-interview to perform calculations on a piece of paper, and has little sense of personal space.

* AmbiguouslyHuman: Johnnie has had plastic surgery to the point of BodyHorror and can [[spoiler:casually toss a dog with enough force to shatter its skull]]. It's implied she might be some manifestation of the Minotaur, but that's assuming that she exists to begin with.

* AntagonistTitle: Applies if you consider the [[GeniusLoci house]] to be a character.

* AxCrazy: [[spoiler:Holloway]], who is driven to violent madness by the [[EldritchLocation house]] and eventually kills one of his fellow explorers.
* BeastInTheMaze: The mysterious beast that stalks the explorers of the [[GeniusLoci house]], which quickly reveals itself to be an EldritchLocation that twists and changes around them and is compared to a labyrinth. What the beast could be, is left ambiguous. The various theories in and out of universe call it a (or maybe ''the'') minotaur, a personification of the [[{{Bizarrchitecture}} house]], or an AnimalisticAbomination.
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: One could interpret the [[EldritchLocation house]]'s behavior as a sort of twisted wish fulfillment. [[spoiler: Holloway wanted an ultimate adventure and to be remembered - he got it, and lost his life and sanity in the process, while also becoming infamous as a murderer. At least in the world of the book. Tom wanted to be as respected as his Pulitzer prize winning brother. After the]] [[EldritchAbomination house]] [[spoiler:killed him, Will lamented about his failure to save Delial and saw Tom as a hero. The Navidsons wanted to come together as a family, the]] [[MindScrew house]] [[spoiler:terrorized them until they ultimately did. The children were traumatized in the process and Will lost a limb and parts of his face to frostbite, but you can't deny that they were together in the end.]]

* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: [[spoiler:Holloway commits suicide with his gun in order to not get killed by the Minotaur, after he [[AccidentalMurder accidentally murdered]] Jed, ran off and got lost in the maze, and just before the Minotaur is about to close in on him.]]

** Played straight by the [[EldritchLocation house]], which starts off the inner-most plot.

* BittersweetEnding: The Navidsons' story ends this way. [[spoiler:After surviving the horrors of the titular [[EldritchLocation house]], while Will is permanently disabled, multiple other characters are dead, and Will and Karen might never forget their horrific experience, the Navidson family grows closer, to the point where Will and Karen officially marry]]. Even lampshaded when it's mentioned that, [[spoiler:despite showing them getting married, Will's physical disabilities are pointed out, and it can't truly be called a happy ending]].
* {{Bizarrchitecture}}: The [[EldritchLocation house]].

** The first sign things are about to get really creepy, at the beginning of the book: a closet room suddenly appears between two other rooms in the [[BiggerOnTheInside house]], where there wasn't one before. Freaks Will and Karen out big time; but then they discover the maze and it gets taken up to eleven.

* BottomlessPit: [[spoiler: The final form taken by the labyrinth in Exploration #5]]. [[spoiler: Tom]] falls into one earlier when the [[DarkIsEvil house]] starts freaking out.
* BreakTheHaughty: The [[EpiphanicPrison house]] has a way of destroying people's self-conceptions. Let's review...

** Holloway Roberts, an intensely proud and competitive man who butts heads with Navidson over control of the explorations and whose only real goal is to conquer the [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow house]] the same way he'd conquer any other mountain or cave system. He soon learns he's bitten off more than he can chew, and his lack of control over the situation draws out his long-simmering feelings of worthlessness and humiliation, driving him to a pointless, self-destructive frenzy.

** In the middle of one of his crazed ramblings, Truant begins to suspect that he, Zampanò, and the Navidsons don't really exist and have been created by the [[CosmicHorrorStory house]] in some way. That sound you hear is the author laughing to himself.

* BrownNote: Anyone who is ''vaguely'' connected to the [[MindScrew house]], even the Sheriff who tries to find Holloway and denies seeing the hallway, has tinnitus, at the very least. It's also noted that experience with the [[GoMadFromTheRevelation house]] eventually results in one of two extremes: either great personal improvement or, well... look at what happened to Johnny. There's an actual ''1-10 rating scale'' (based on physiological and psychological effects the [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow House]] has on a person) to rate the effects of the [[SurrealHorror house]] has on people depending on exposure... and "anyone" includes ''[[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou you]]''.

** Karen's bookshelf. Early on, displacing a book would cause others to fall over, only to be stopped by the opposite wall. Later on, however, displacing the same book causes the rest to fall onto the floor, proving to Karen that the [[EldritchLocation house]] is capable of changing its dimensions.

* ColorMotif: [[HeavenlyBlue Blue]] and black for the [[{{God}} house]], red for the Minotaur, [[spoiler: purple]] for Pelafina.

* CreepyChild: ''"Daddy, I wanna play [[spoiler:h]]allways!"'' And other instances; for example, at school all the kids are told to draw their [[PaintingTheMedium house]]s. The Navidson children turn in pieces of paper that they colored ''several'' coats of black, with monsters in the margins. [[spoiler:They have more at home. They're ''completely'' black]].

** Will and Tom Navidson grew up in an abusive [[BrownNote house]]hold and ended up coping in different ways, with Tom becoming a transient alcoholic and Will becoming a serial thrill seeker. Will suffered further emotional blows photographing various atrocities and disasters around the world, culminating in [[spoiler: his Pulitzer Prize winning photograph of "Delial", a starving child whom he feels he allowed to die, which he is still trying to atone for years later]].

* DarkIsEvil: The "Minotaur" enjoys tormenting Jed, nearly leads Navidson into an endless pit, [[spoiler:drives Holloway to insanity and eats his corpse]], and nearly does the same to Navidson on his final journey.

* DeusExMachina: ''[[TomeOfEldritchLore House]] [[spoiler:of Leaves'' is a book in the book. Navidson burns it to help him survive his final trek.]]

** Zampanò's certain that, despite the Navidsons surviving the ordeal of the [[SanitySlippage house]] and their relationships considerably strengthened, that something dark happened to them after they moved out.
** Zampanò's heart attack/death at the hands of what might just be the [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane House]] taking its revenge.

* DocumentaryOfLies: The InUniverse reviewers who theorize endlessly about ''The Navidson Record'', or are consulted about its content, take it entirely for granted that it's this trope. Except for Creator/StephenKing, who wants to visit the [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou house]]. The main thing that makes those reviewers believe it's fake is the labyrinth, because no way that could be real... Right?

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler:Tom Navidson, who disappears suddenly when the]] [[GeniusLoci house]] [[spoiler:decides to go completely insane and actively, aggressively attack the family]].

* EldritchLocation: The [[NothingIsScarier house]], of course. It's BiggerOnTheInside, and appears to be a GeniusLoci that likes intentionally screwing with people.
* EnfantTerrible: [[spoiler: Despite being an UnseenEvil who likely doesn't even exist, the Minotaur receives a symbolic association with this trope from Zampanò, who goes on a lengthy digression about the mythical Minotaur's origins as the deformed and estranged son of the Queen of Crete. This becomes important in Johnny's story when he starts [[TomatoInTheMirror taking on aspects of the Minotaur]].]]

* EveryoneLovesBlondes: In ''The Navidson Record'', Karen Green is a blonde former fashion model who, even in her late thirties, continuously attracts the attention of many suitors, a factor which puts a strain on her relationship with Will. Even the transcripts of her later interviews with academics regarding the nature of the [[{{Bizarrchitecture}} house]] are frequently interrupted by the subjects, both male and female, openly trying to hit on her.

* FetalPositionRebirth: [[spoiler: Navidson is spat out this way, naked and frostbitten, when Karen finds him in the void that once was the labyrinth]]. The symbolism here would seem to scan with Camille Paglia's earlier analysis of the [[GeniusLoci house]] as representing "the feminine void".

* ForegoneConclusion: The book continuously tells you that Navidson made it out of the [[PsychologicalHorror house]] to edit the footage together.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Early in the book, Johnny and Lude go to a wild [[BrownNote house]] party where the first thing they see is a motorcycle crashed into a pool and two dudes shoving coke up a passed out woman's nose, causing Johnny to remark that Lude probably doesn't think too much about death. [[spoiler: Lude ultimately dies in a motorcycle crash because he did too much coke at a party and decided to go for a joyride]].

* GeniusLoci: The [[BiggerOnTheInside house]] itself is in some way alive and intelligent. And not particularly friendly at that.

* GodIsEvil: Navidson opines in his farewell letter to Karen that their [[BiggerOnTheInside house]] ''is'' God, and there's honestly very little reason to doubt him.
* GoingByTheMatchbook: One of the countless reviewers of ''The Navidson Record'' thought that he could locate the [[ParanoiaFuel house]] via a screencap of Navidson's matchbook. [[spoiler:Nope. It merely led him to a bar in England which Navidson has visited years ago.]]

* HauntedHouse: The [[BrownNote house]] on Ash Tree Lane is one of the most horrifying in literature, not just because the labyrinth within it constantly [[MagicalMysteryDoors changes form]], not just because it's heavily implied to have [[GeniusLoci a mind of its own]], but because we never figure [[NothingIsScarier exactly what it is]] that is haunting the [[TheUnreveal house.]] Maybe it's the Minotaur. Maybe it's the Navidson family. [[spoiler:Maybe it's '''''[[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou you.]]''''']]
* HeWhoMustNotBeSeen: The minotaur is never shown to either the characters or the audience, with the only indication that it even exists being the horrific growl heard inside the labyrinth and the apparent destruction of any object that gets left behind. As a matter of fact, Zampanò seems to have made a concerted effort to erase any evidence of its existence ''at all''. Seeing as its defining aspects, as described by Johnny, are darkness, silence, and the obliteration of meaning, it wouldn't make sense for it to ever appear; it's quite literally the metaphysical incarnation of ''nothing''.

** Also when [[spoiler:Navidson miraculously escapes the labyrinth on his own and the family makes preparations to leave once and for all. And then the]] [[NightmareFuel house]] [[spoiler:takes a turn for the [[{{Yandere}} possessive]].]][[invoked]]

* InferioritySuperiorityComplex: The burnt pages analyzing Holloway's past mention that he had frequently been in therapy for suicidal ideations, and used his mountaineering and hunting activities as a way to cope. The [[EldritchLocation house]] takes this from him, as his inability to conquer or even understand it wrecks whatever passed for his self-worth, quickly driving him to homicidal rage when Jed and Wax refuse to follow him deeper into the labyrinth.

* InTheDoldrums: The interior of the [[DarknessEqualsDeath house]].

** The minotaur or whatever it was that killed Zampanò apparently went out of its way to systematically kill and mutilate his cats first.
* KillItWithFire: The [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane house]], if you read into the subtext. In context, it's outright stated someone tried to burn the Navidson [[NothingIsScarier house]] down after it was sealed off -- it failed.

* LeaveTheCameraRunning: Navidson is described as doing this more than once, a notable example being [[spoiler:the 46 seconds following Holloway's death]], which makes [[spoiler:his sudden disappearance as the]] [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm house]] [[spoiler:consumes him before the viewers' very eyes]] all the more [[NothingIsScarier frightening]].

* LivingLabyrinth: The [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou house]] seems to be one.

** Footnote 144 emphasizes that the [[EldritchLocation house]] is bare of fixtures or furnishing by listing, fairly exhaustively, everything it ''doesn't'' have.

* MalevolentArchitecture: The [[LivingLabyrinth house]] again. Notice a pattern?
* MagicRealism: To an extent. While the characters recognize something is clearly very wrong with the [[InterfaceScrew house]], Zampanò prefers to discuss what is going on in the characters' heads in long narrative sections, which Johnny notes several times are actually not very academic ''or'' factual.

** [[EldritchAbomination House]] of Leaves. "Leaves" = "pages," thus the [[DoubleMeaningTitle house]] is the book and / or vice versa. Also, "leaves" as a verb is alluded to, and a French letter in the appendix (uncredited) speaks of leaves as memories.

** The [[{{God}} house]] itself is stated to be located on the corner of Ash Tree and Succoth. An ash tree is a type of giant tree which in old Norse belief was associated with the WorldTree Yggdrasil, while Succoth is a Jewish holiday marking the end of the harvest season, observance of which involves dwelling in a type of temporary [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm hous]]ing called a succah, the roof of which is notably mandated to be constructed of ''[[TitleDrop leaves]]''. Makes you wonder what the street planners knew.

* MiseryBuildsCharacter: [[spoiler:The Navidsons go through absolute hell in the titular]] [[EldritchLocation House]], [[spoiler:but they become closer as a family because of it]].

** Hallways, staircases, spirals, empty rooms, windows, echoes, and, of course, darkness. The essential components of the [[GeniusLoci house]], which haunt every level of the narrative from ''The Navidson Record'' upwards.
** Claws, horns, and growls, associated with the Minotaur.
** Navidson and his family, in contrast to the [[DarkIsEvil house]], are associated with light, a natural extension of his career in photography.
** Johnny is strongly associated with nautical and oceanic imagery, with the scars on his arms being compared to ocean waves and many of his digressions concerning boats in some way. Johnny himself is a transient who spent a considerable part of his childhood on an Alaskan fishing boat, and as a young adult he sailed to Europe where he lived as a nomad for a time. Later, he starts taking on aspects of the Minotaur as his state of mind degenerates, culminating in his brutal assault on Gdansk Man and Kyrie (who can be read as stand-ins for Theseus and Ariadne, if one goes by the dream sequence he has late in the novel).
** The color [[HeavenlyBlue blue]] is associated with the [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm house]], but also shows up in other contexts which seem conceptually opposed to it (e.g, Karen's blue halogen light guiding Navidson back to the real world at the end, Zampanò's mention of "this great blue world" in the poem that gives the book its title). [[RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver Red]] is associated with the Minotaur, as well as with things that the author(s) wished to delete from the narrative but left in (similar to the mythical Minotaur's status as an unwanted child). Purple shows up only once in the narrative proper, and seems to be associated with Pelafina.
** Trees are symbolically connected to the [[TimeAbyss house]] as well, but also show up in less sinister contexts like Zampanò's love poem "You Shall Be My Roots" and the Yggdrasil poem in the back of the book.

** Contents escaping their containers, which mirrors the unnatural dimensions of the [[GodIsEvil house]]. Examples range from an overfull coffee cup to the increasingly sprawling and intrusive footnotes.

** Ghosts, in the sense of actual honest to god spirits returned from the grave, never show up in the story, but the concept of ghosts and hauntings is frequently mentioned as part of the larger meta-analysis of the horror genre, as well as the general theme of thresholds and liminality. Johnny compares both his mother and a past love of his to ghosts, PosthumousCharacter Zampanò can be likened to a ghost who Johnny works to exorcise by finishing the manuscript, and Navidson is driven to return to the [[InTheDoldrums house]] by the "ghosts" of [[spoiler: Tom and Delial]], whose deaths he feels he must atone for.
* MyBiologicalClockIsTicking: A male, dramatic version. Zampanò greatly regrets that he never had a son. In one of Zampanò's weird diary entries, he writes "a sun to read the dark". The "u" is crossed out and replaced with an "o", while the "a" in "read" is replaced with an "n", giving us "A ''son'' to ''rend'' the dark". [[spoiler: It's almost certainly a reference to the Minotaur]]. He also writes a long paragraph about creating a son for himself through writing, [[spoiler: which hints that [[MindScrew Johnny might have just been made up by Zampanò this whole time]]. They also could have both been inventions of Pelafina, if you want to take this line of thought even farther]].
* MythicalMotifs: ''Lots'' of them, most of them Greek. Most obvious is the prominent inclusion of the Minotaur and the labyrinth, but Zampanò also devotes an entire chapter to analyzing the myth of Echo and Narcissus as it relates to the scientific concept of echoes and, by extension, the practical and psychological struggles presented in ''The Navidson Record''. More subtle are the references to Yggdrasil, which actually permeate the novel if you know what to look for, as well as all the Biblical references, which are far too numerous to list here.

* NewHouseNewProblems: The inner story all starts when the Navidson family moves into what they think is the place that will solve their relationship problems. At the end, [[spoiler:after everything they have gone through in / with the]] [[NightmareFuel House]], [[spoiler:their relationship ''is'' actually much better, subverting the Trope.]]

** The deepest level of the story is ''The Navidson Record'', the [[FictionalDocument documentary film]] that Will Navidson makes about the titular [[HauntedHouse Haunted]] '''[[ArcWords House]]'''. Of course, since this is a novel, we're not actually seeing ''The Navidson Record'' itself, we're experiencing it as filtered through...

** [[LemonyNarrator Johnny Truant]], an embittered young druggie who apparently discovered Zampanò's notes after the old man went insane, [[GoMadFromTheRevelation presumably from his exposure (however limited) to]] the [[EldritchLocation house]] on Ash Tree Lane. Of course, Johnny himself, as he freely admits, is [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness quickly losing his marbles]] as he writes this story...

** Taken to [[SerialEscalation terrifyingly ridiculous extremes]] when [[spoiler: Will Navidson discovers [[BreakingTheFourthWall discovers a copy of]] ''[[MalevolentArchitecture House]] of Leaves'', which includes the notes of Johnny Truant on the story of Will Navidson. And then ''Johnny Truant'' finds a copy of ''[[MindScrew House]] of Leaves'', containing [[RecursiveReality Will Navidson's discovery of the notes of Johnny Truant on the story of Will Navidson]]...]]
* NightmareFuelColoringBook: When Chad and Daisy are asked at school to draw their [[CosmicHorrorStory house]], both kids paint a big black square, colored in ''several coats'' of black, surrounded by monsters.
* NightmareFuelStationAttendant: The children, Chad and Daisy, thoroughly scare their teacher with their black, creepy drawings. Daisy also creeps her father out when she asks him to play with her, at first believing she said "I wanna play always!" and later realizing she actually had said "I wanna play hallways", referring to the [[ArcWords House]].
* NoFourthWall: Sweet merciful Jesus. Trying to figure out where the fourth wall is drawn is much the same as trying to figure out, well...where [[{{Pun}} any other walls]] are located in the [[TheMaze House]] on Ash Tree Lane. Towards the end of the story, [[spoiler:Johnny finds ''this book.'' Navidson '''burns''' this book. The same book that is describing [[GoMadFromTheRevelation the two of them finding and reading it as they read about each other's stories of finding the book they're both reading...]]]]

* NoSell: Animals cannot enter the supernatural parts of the house. At one point, Navidson's dog and cat run through the first floor hallway and are immediately in the back yard, where the door ''should'' lead to. Zampano and Johnny both point out how strange it is that it appears Navidson never attempted to explore this aspect.
* NothingIsScarier: ''[[ApocalypticLog House]] of Leaves'' is pretty much Exhibit A for this trope. The Minotaur that is constantly alluded to never appears, the pet cat Mallory simply vanishes without comment, and we never come close to truly comprehending the nature of the [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou House]].

*** Normal text is printed in black, and the word "[[SelfDemonstratingArticle house]]" always appears in blue, including in the title, copyright information, etc. [[note]]One "[[BrownNote house]]" (remastered full color edition) escaped blueing, though. [[SchmuckBait Happy searching.]] [[/note]]
*** [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Mythological references]] are in red, as are struck-out passages which are, according to Truant, things Zampanò wanted to leave out. They are usually [[NoFourthWall passages that are at least vaguely threatening to the reader]]. "Minotaur" may or may not be struck out, depending on if it's used in one of the aforementioned mythological references.

*** The color blue is meant to be used to something akin to ChromaKey. The Chroma Key reference means that the [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall house]] is meant to be an entity that is projected on to. Zampanò, Johnny, and the readers all project as much into the [[MetaFiction house]] as Navidson or Holloway.
** When the team begins to explore the [[LivingLabyrinth house]], the left and right margins of the page expand and fill with footnotes, blacking out the sides much like the ashen walls of the hallways. These footnotes instantly become recursive, folding back on themselves like a labyrinth; reading only the narrative portion in this section allows the reader to pass to the exit. At one point during the exploration, Holloway breaks a hole in the wall of one room and peers through it, hoping to see something different. A small square appears beside this paragraph, containing a footnote explaining every single thing Holloway did ''not'' see through that hole. This square hole and the footnote go on for ''26 pages'', ending on a completely black square.

** In the typographically screwiest section of the book, two sections of red text are shaped like a key (introducing the Greek mythos of the Minotaur) and a lock (speaking about finding truth in documentaries.) [[spoiler: Knowing the mythos of the Minotaur and digging deeper into the text (as ''The Navidson Record'' is presented as a documentary) will allow the reader to [[AllThereInTheManual uncover the true story]] hidden within the labyrinth that is the book's text.]]

* PrimalFear: The [[HauntedHouse house]] invokes this on many levels. What if you were lost in the dark with no idea how to get out? What if something you couldn't see was hunting you? What if one day you couldn't trust the place you lived anymore? What if your entire understanding of the world is wrong?
* PhysicalGod: Sort of: at one point Navidson expresses the view that the [[EldritchAbomination house]] ''is'' God. Whether it fits this trope depends on whether you think the [[CosmicHorrorStory house]] is sentient or not, or whether you think it matters.
* PostModernism: [[spoiler:Maybe the book, is, in fact, the labyrinth. There certainly isn't a labyrinth anymore after Navidson burns a copy of]] ''[[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow House]] [[spoiler:of Leaves''.]] With perhaps an equal degree of straight and parody of post-modernism. Of course, it's impossible to actually parody post-modernism so the effect just becomes even more recursive which becomes even more the point.
* ThePowerOfLove: [[spoiler:Karen getting the]] [[GodIsEvil house]] [[spoiler:to let Navidson go.]]

* RainbowSpeak: In the book, the majority of the text is printed in the usual black but the word "[[FreezeFrameBonus house]]" is always printed in blue, and parts of the text are printed in red (parts that the In Universe editors struck through, and anything referring to the Minotaur).

** A trait of Kirby Hook, one of the three who delve into the depths of the [[SchmuckBait House]]. After he [[spoiler: escapes the]] [[BigLabyrinthineBuilding house]] [[spoiler:and recovered from his bullet wound, he [[TheLoinSleepsTonight suffers from impotency,]] which vanishes once Navidson returns to the]] [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything house]].

* RiddleForTheAges: What is the [[EldritchAbomination house]]? How did it get there? What, if anything, is the minotaur? Why did Navidson choose to go back? Does ''The Navidson Record'' really exist, and if so why is there so little evidence of it? How would Zampanò have written such a detailed exegesis of it if he's blind? Where did those claw marks in his apartment come from?

* RuleOfScary: Much of the book runs on pure, incomprehensible nightmare logic - of the primal fear of being trapped in an ever-expanding [[HellIsThatNoise house]] that can't be understood, mapped, or escaped. What, if anything, [[NothingIsScarier is the Minotaur]]? What happened to Zampanò. and what killed the cats around his apartment? Why did he go crazy? Why is [[SanitySlippage Johnny going crazy?]] Why are ''[[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou YOU]]'' [[ParanoiaFuel going crazy?]] ''[[spoiler:How the hell did Johnny and Will Navidson find a copy of '''[[MindScrew the book in which they are both fictional characters reading about each other's existence at the same time?]]''']]''
* RuleOfSymbolism: References, highlighted in various colors and UsefulNotes/{{Fonts}}, such as to the Greek labyrinth and The Minotaur, to make SURE we don't miss them. Not to mention several more layered references to various mythologies. Oh, and the poem of Yggdrasil at the very end.

* SapientHouse: The [[GeniusLoci house]] on Ash Tree Lane. And ''boy'', will you [[GoMadFromTheRevelation ever wish it wasn't.]]
* ScienceCannotComprehendPhlebotinum: DoubleSubverted. The stuff from the walls inside the labyrinth in the [[LivingLabyrinth house]] actually can be chemically analyzed and consists of normal elements. But the results make no sense in context and only make things more baffling -- [[spoiler:the age of the stuff varies all the way back to older than the solar system.]]
* TheScottishTrope: Zampanò tried to avoid invoking the darkness or the "Minotaur" as much as he could, even crossing it out. At times, the [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone house]] itself becomes this -- Johnny thinks it's what caused him to spill a bunch of ink on papers that would have scientifically examined the [[BrainBleach house]].

* SeriousBusiness: ''The Navidson Record''. Everyone who's anyone, and most people who aren't, have analyzed, reviewed, or called attention to it. It's also, apparently, an extremely studied film in psychology, and has numerous theories about why Navidson, even though he knows the danger of the [[MalevolentArchitecture house]], keeps descending into it. Except that, even within the universe the book purports to be from, there is no evidence the film ever existed, and none of the people Zampanò quotes about it have ever made those statements.

** One of the footnotes describes a film that drew just as much attention as ''The Navidson Record'' called ''La Belle Niçoise et Le Beau Chien'', noted for its depiction of the murder of a little girl with "comic reality." The film garnered rave reviews and was universally considered a classic of art[[GeniusLoci house]] cinema... until it was discovered that the filmmaker actually ''killed a young Lithuanian girl to create it''.

* SoleSurvivor: Of the three explorers who venture into the [[DarknessEqualsDeath house]]'s depths, only [[spoiler: Kirby Hook]] makes it out alive.

* StrawFeminist: Camille Paglia. She's calm and talks about how the [[FictionalDocument house]] represents "the feminine void" when Karen talks to various celebrities, artists, journalists, critics, and professors about the [[StepfordSuburbia house,]] and what it represents, but when Truant tries to verify their stories, out of the two responses he gets, Paglia's is on a postcard that says "Get lost, jerk".
** Of course, given that Paglia [[spoiler:was never actually interviewed about the]] [[MagicalRealism house]], she could have responded negatively 'because' her description in the book sounds like a caricature of herself.

* SurprisinglyHappyEnding: Or at least bittersweet, and only for the Navidson family: [[spoiler:Navidson manages to make it out of the final expedition alive, despite the]] [[GeniusLoci house]] [[spoiler:spawning bottomless pit after bottomless pit and eventually trapping him in infinite darkness. He gets out, the kids return to normal (mostly), marries Karen, and moves away. The]] [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm house]] [[spoiler:itself is cordoned off.]]
* SurprisinglySuddenDeath: [[spoiler: Jed]], who gets shot in the head by Holloway right when he thinks he's saved. "A lifetime finished between the space of two frames", to quote Zampanò.

** In several pages of the book, there are multiple sidebars that describe what architectural features are NOT found in the labyrinthine sections of the [[PaintingTheFourthWall house]], resulting in the author taking multiple pages to say "The labyrinth in the [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness house]] has featureless black walls, floors, and ceilings, and does not resemble any particular architectural style. Picture that. In your dreams."

* TemptingFate: Tom, while alone at the top of the Spiral Staircase, keeps poking fun at "Mr. Monster" and the [[LivingLabyrinth house]] in general. When he finally musters the courage to descend the stairs, [[spoiler: the whole thing stretches vertically, while the opening at the top scrunches up into an oval before becoming circular again.]] Tom justifiably shuts up and climbs back out to the top.
* TentativeLight: The climax. In an interesting twist, Navidson [[spoiler:burns a book titled]] ''[[FoundFootage House]] [[spoiler:of Leaves'']] to give him light. And in doing so, [[spoiler: he may have saved himself.]] Possibly.
* ThatWasTheLastEntry: The last entry in the notebook which is all that remains of an Eighteenth Century winter expedition which journeyed in the same area where the [[BeastInTheMaze house]] would eventually stand: [[spoiler:"Ftaires! We haue found ftaires!" ("Ftaires" should be read as "stairs", because the old-fashioned elongated "s" ('ſ') that looks like a modern "f" was mistranscribed by one of the interlocutors.)]]

* TitleDrop: In ''The Navidson Record'' and one of Zampanò's miscellaneous poems. And not just TitleDrop but [[spoiler:Self Drop -- Johnny runs into a band (the real-world book's author's sister's) on his search for the]] [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness house]] [[spoiler:which has read]] the version of ''[[NothingIsScarier House]] [[spoiler:of Leaves'']] originally released online, including footnotes and edits by Johnny and The Editors.

* TomatoInTheMirror: [[spoiler: Johnny's dream where he himself is the Minotaur]] seems to suggest this.

* TragicVillain: Holloway is as much a victim of the [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow house]] as anyone else.

* UnseenEvil: The Minotaur is never shown.

* UnPerson: The [[spoiler: Minotaur]] does this with horrifying execution and effectiveness. This seems to have happened, albeit to an incomplete degree, to the entire ''Navidson Record'', and according to one interpretation of the GainaxEnding, [[spoiler: Johnny himself]].

** One chapter is dedicated to scientific analysis of various materials recovered from the [[BlueAndOrangeMorality house]]. Sounds like it would answer a lot of questions, right? Well, Johnny says he accidentally destroyed most of the manuscript for that chapter. ''[[DoubleSubverted That's]]'' not the Unreveal, though -- right after the missing analysis it's stated there was nothing unusual about the materials. (So basically we've just been spared a lot of pointless chemical semi-{{Techno Babble}} when we don't get the full analysis.) Except for the part that the different samples were from different ages, up to the point that [[spoiler:part of the labyrinth is ''older than the solar system'' and is the same material as asteroids]]. Basically the [[TimeAbyss house]] is just saying "screw you(r mind)" at any attempts at making sense of it.

** Karen Green had apparently traveled the world and showed the exploration films to various celebrities, such as Woz, Stephen King, Hunter S. Thompson, among others, and recorded their thoughts of it, and what the [[FoundFootage house]] means. Truant decides to contact these celebrities -- all he gets is a letter from a composer who claims he never heard of Karen or the [[UnconventionalFormatting house]], and an insulting postcard from a feminist Karen interviewed. And yet, a French-Israeli author had seen proof of the interviews...

* UnstoppableRage: Evidently the primary characteristic of the Minotaur.
* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: In Navidson's attempts to document the house, he discovers at one point that animals can't enter the parts of it that shouldn't be there. His cat and dog chase each other through the first floor hallway door and immediately emerge in the backyard, which is where the doorway would lead if it weren't an EldritchLocation. He doesn't comment on this or follow up on it, despite it being clear that he saw what happened. Both Zampano and Johnny lampshade how strange that is.

* TheWorldTree: A poem refers to Yggdrasil, the world-linking tree of Norse mythology. Whether the implied connection to the [[MetaFiction house]] and to Ash Tree Lane is literal, figurative, or just the latest in a long list of [[MindScrew mind screws]] is unclear.

** A dog and a cat are part of the family when they move into the [[TheUnreveal House]]. A chapter is dedicated to explaining that the [[SurrealHorror House]] has no effect on animals, and they aren't disturbed by the [[NothingIsScarier House]] at all, in contrast to the humans. Then the dog and the cat are never mentioned again. Also In Universe Trope, as Zampanò mentions in one of his notes that he wonders what happened to the pets.

--> '''Radio (Navidson)''': If it gets too much for you, go back. We'll be alright.\\
'''Tom''': Fuck yourself, Navy.\\
'''Radio''': What?\\
'''Tom''': Doesn't he go around autographing lightbulbs?\\
'''Radio''': Who?\\
'''Tom''': Watt.\\
'''Radio''': What?\\
'''Tom''': Never mind. Over. Out. Whatever.

* YourMindMakesItReal: Zampanò posits that the [[NightmareFuel house]] changes its configuration based on the mindsets of those inside it. He describes how Holloway wanted a big adventure, so the [[HauntedHouse house]] presents itself as expansive; whereas Navidson wanted to find everyone inside quickly and thus got a much shorter trip.

[[subscript:'''[[superscript:X]]''' Mark Z. Danielewski's ''[[RecursiveReality House]] of Leaves'' (New York: Pantheon Books, 2000), p. 1-709.]]

Compare ''Literature/TlonUqbarOrbisTertius''. Not to be confused with ''Manga/HouseOfFiveLeaves'', [[Film/KillBill The House of Blue Leaves]] and certainly not with ''Anime/DeadLeaves''.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/house_of_leaves___mark_z_danielewski_1.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''Picture that. In your dreams.'']]

* EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory: Zampan&ograve's manuscript alleges that ''The Navidson Records'' has been absolutely picked apart by scholars and academics, several of which wrote entire novels as to the nature of its symbolism. He includes quotes from dozens of them, with their interpretations varying from subdued to borderline self-parody. Stephen King's in-universe interview with Karen hangs a lampshade on this:

* DistressedDamsel: Daisy's scenes during Navidson's explorations. Oh, boy.

The supposed plot of ''The Navidson Record'' is as follows: [[DysfunctionJunction Will Navidson is a world-renowned photojournalist with lingering family problems, Karen Green is a former model with self-esteem issues]], and Chad and Daisy are their [[CreepyChild two lovable children]]. Will decides to make this move-in a documentary of how he got his life back on track, and he mounts video cameras and microphones in different rooms of the [[NightmareFuel house]]. About a month after they move in, the family goes to visit Karen's parents. When they return, there's a new addition to the [[MagicalMysteryDoors house]], a closet with a connecting doorway, between the master bedroom and Chad and Daisy's room. Furthermore, out of curiosity, Will measures the inside of the [[{{Bizarrchitecture}} house]] compared with the outside to find out something startling: [[BiggerOnTheInside the inside is bigger than the outside]] [[MindScrew by one-quarter of an inch]].'''[[superscript:X]]'''