Is This Too similar to House of Leaves?

Sorry for starting another thread so soon, but I have this idea for a story that I really like and I'm seriously considering starting on it, but I'm afraid that it's too similar to House of Leaves.

The story goes like this: A guy hears about the suicide of a close friend of his and his family tells him that, after the friend killed himself, they had found a cardboard box full of notebooks and other such documents. He offers to take the box and look through the contents, hoping to figure why his friend, who had seemed so normal, had killed himself.

He finds what appears to be a manuscript about "shadow people" consisting of written accounts,diary entries, audio tapes, snippets of interviews with eyewitnesses, news articles,police reports and the friend's progressively more deranged annotations.

As he sorts through all this, strange things start happening in his life. The headless body of a stray dog shows up in his yard and he is stalked by shadowy apparitions. He eventually starts investigating on his own and adding to the manuscript as his own sanity begins to dwindle.

And that's about it. So, if it is too similar to House of Leave,I'd like some suggestions on what to change and how to change it. Again, thanks for your help so far.

It is similar, but not to a horrible degree. If you want to change it, that's up to you, but I think it'd do fine (if executed properly of course).

I'd be more worried about it being a bit cliche.

Well, if the backstory is too cliche, I could just have the guy find the box containing the manuscript in an abandoned building,or whatever would make it more original, I really want this thing to turn out good.

Also, when you mean executed properly, what would you suggest I do?

edited 17th Jun '11 11:04:43 PM by Catarrh

I never read the book so I can't tell.

Is this work has to do with that psycho guy from your earlier thread?

It's unrelated, which is why I started this thread with an apology. I just worry sometimes that I ask too many questions on this forum, I just want to write a good story.

Trust me. You are not.

Also, while we're at it, what would be a good way of avoiding most cliches associated with Apocalyptic Log stories and what would be some good advice on how to execute this story well?

Keep everything cryptic and vague, and have people dismiss it rather than take it seriously. The insane generally don't worry about coherence or context

I just want to ask — have you read House of Leaves?

Well, the premise is really similar.

But then again, there's nothing new under the sun, go for it, what's really important is how interesting it is.

IMO, what makes House of Leaves distinctive is the genre blending and the satire of literary criticism. Without those elements, it's unlikely to be considered too similar.

The style of House of Leaves is very distinctive. I don't think the story could be too similar unless you intentionally tried to copy off of it.

The "somebody killed themselves, left crazy records, sometimes describing things in great detail even as they were torn apart like hot breat" background is the basis of at least three Lovecraft stories, a couple of Poe stories, and every creepypasta story ever written, so don't worry about the connection to House of Leaves.

@ Oh So Into Cats: I have, and I enjoyed it quite a bit.