COURTESY COVER -- Amazon.com

GRAPHIC -- The Flat Hat

Mark Z. Danielewski's first novel, "House of Leaves," is part diary, part dissertation, part visual art and part reference book. This extremely complex and utterly original book shows the author's sophisticated, creative and slightly warped mind at play.

Because of its complexity, describing the content of "House" is no small task. Deep breath.

Johnny Truant is a ne'er-do-well who spends his days working at a tattoo parlor and daydreaming about his crush, a stripper named Thumper. By way of his equally irresponsible best bud Lude, Johnny finds the papers of a recently deceased blind hermit named Zampano. When Johnny begins reading the papers, he slowly begins to become more and more obsessed by the power of the words.

The bulk of "House" is Zampano's text with rambling footnotes by Truant, which often lapse into diary-like passages. Zampano's papers provide plot summary and commentary on "The Navidson Record," a film that doesn't exist even in the fictional world of Zampano and Truant. "The Navidson Record" is the story of Pulitzer-Prize winning photographer Will Navidson, who moves with his family to a house in rustic Virginia. Because Navidson intends to make a documentary on their settling into the house, he attaches video cameras in every room. One day, Navidson and his live-in girlfriend Karen discover a door in their living room, which leads to a large, dark room. The room is so big that they cannot even find the end of it. They eventually hire explorers to find the end, and what they eventually find threatens to consume them all.

Danielewski's first novel is incredibly ambitious and, for the most part, successful. Despite its fragmented nature, "House" all comes together in the end thematically. Danielewski likes tackling subjects like the nature of communication, psychology, perceptions of reality and the nature of homes (incidentally, every occurrence of the word "house" is written in blue ink).

Readers expecting a Stephen King-like horror novel should look elsewhere. "House" is cryptic and mysterious, even frightening in portions, but is also frustratingly open-ended. There are many questions that go unanswered, such as the origin of the hallway in the first place.

"House" is a challenging read in more ways than one. In addition to Zampano's dense theoretical discussions -- he discusses Freud and Derrida as well as excerpts from countless fictional sources -- the book has numerous appendices that supplement and explain the text. One appendix contains letters Truant's mother sent from an insane asylum, one of which is written entirely in a code.

Furthermore, "House" is demanding as it begins to play with the text itself, reflecting the action that happens in the book. For instance, in a scene when a character is climbing up stairs, the text goes from bottom to top. This play may keep readers on their toes, but in the end it seems unnecessary and a little too artsy.

In addition, "House" can often be frustrating in its schizophrenic layout and fragmentation of narratives. The action in "The Navidson Record" is much more interesting than Truant's story, and having to read his entries was sometimes a chore. They were often more than difficult to read as they went pages at a time with no punctuation, in true pretentious Faulkner tradition.

One of the most interesting parts of the book is the appendix in the back, which contains several fun additions to the text. There is a comic book adaptation to the story, photos of Zampano's original documents as well as assorted poems and quotes to add to the text. Danielewski's thorough and complete realization of the potential of his book gives it a very real feel.

"House" will inevitably draw comparisons to "The Blair Witch Project" because of its "is it real or is it fake" nature. This sense of realism effectively brings the story closer to the reader.

Despite it frustrations, "House" is worth reading for its startling originality and complexity. The painstaking detail Danielewski explores and his adeptness at weaving themes together are both mystifying and infinitely intriguing.