House of Leaves is the debut novel by Mark Z. Danielewski.
It is... pretty hard to explain.
Best way to put it is that it's a "layered book".
The surface is that its about a family (the Navidsons) who moved into this house, and said house starts changing...
Rooms get changed, impossible places that shouldn't exist do, the works.
Turns out this is all part of a dissection for a fictional movie (titled "The Navidson Record") made by an old man named Zampanò, that was found and restored by a man named Johnny Truant.
While restoring it, he starts going a bit insane too. Parts of the story get changed and added without him remembering it that way (like the fictional house).
And that is a reason why I like it so much.
The book itself (like some parts of the house) is an absolute maze to read.
You'll be turning the book to the side, upside down, all around.
You'll be reading the insanity that goes on in the house and then Johnny will put a "footnote" that turns into page long stories, and then you'll feel whiplash going back to the house.
You know how most books have reviews on the back?
Well, on the back of House of Leaves, they have reviews, but also a thing that looks like a review but is actually advertising for a COMPANION ALBUM.
Turns out, Mark has a sister, and she makes music. So she made a album based on the book.
You want to know how I found out about this 25-year-old, fairly unknown, book?
DOOM II.
The video game, DOOM II.
"What the hell does DOOM have to do with this book?"
In 2023, a mod for DOOM II was posted to the Doomworld fourms.
Innocently named "MyHouse.wad", this mod was posed as a tribute to a dead friend.
The creator said he went through some of his old stuff and found a unfinished DOOM II map of said friend's house.
The creator decided to finish it and touch it up with the new DOOM mapping tools.
(I'm not gonna get into it here but the jist of it is that it was directly inspired by House of Leaves.)