***SPOILERS AHEAD***
Warning: this is going to be a long review. Ugh where to begin with this book... Ok this book has 2 very different stories running simultaneously through the book. The main story is about the Navidson family moving into a new home where VERY strange things happen. The second story takes place in the footnotes where we follow a man named Johnny Truant as he finds, reads and obsesses over the first story which is referred to in the book as The Navidson Record. First off, this is a monster of a book (I'm reading the Remastered Full-Color Edition). In finally having completed this book (this was my second attempt at it) I found there to be absolutely NO reason for this book to be as long as it is. The author goes on rants about things like echoes and mazes throughout the book which are nearly nonsensical and really don't need to be included for the reader to grasp the stories or the severity of the events within them, which I believe is the author's intent with these rants. The one thing that people notice about this book, and perhaps what sets it apart from others, is the formatting/printing. There is text that is written backwards, upside down, mirror image, and some pages that only contain a few words or just a few letters. There are also passages in different languages including German, Greek, Latin and even Braille. Basically, ANY way you could think of to write has been used in this book. While I enjoyed SOME of this extravagant approach, most of it I found annoying to read especially towards the end of the book. I found it to be completely overdone and unnecessary. Some may call this innovative, I call it ridiculous. The footnotes... there are footnotes on nearly every page and most of them are just straight up BS leading the reader to people, books and magazine articles that don't exist and never have. They are literally there for no purpose whatsoever. The characters are all WELL documented throughout the book and I have different personal feelings about each. Due to the length of this review I will omit my feelings on each individual. One character I will talk about however is Johnny. His story takes place in the footnotes as I've stated and the reader reads his story along with that of the Navidsons. In my personal opinion, Johnny is simply a person with untreated severe mental illness who blames his rapid and steady decline on The Navidson Record as he obsesses over it. Refusing to listen to friends and co-workers, he falls uncontrollably into dementia following the path of his mother before him. His story was irritating for me to read for more than just this reason. Johnny is not admirable by ANY means. His story is filled with nothing but drugs, sex and madness and has absolutely NO bearing on the Navidson story whatsoever. Most of what he says in his story is nonsensical blather. In my personal opinion, Johnny's story doesn't even compliment the Navidson's story well at all. Now on to the Navidson's story. This story was entertaining and intriguing. It really felt like a horror story and was well written once you get past all the BS in this book. However, the author decided to (again) ramble on with more BS of the main characters returning to their "haunted" house after their story was done and over. There was really no need to continue on with their story this way. The author could have very well left the ending at Tom's death. That would have been perfect. But instead, true to form, he felt the need to ramble on with adages to the story and more backstory to the main characters, repeating himself and adding absolutely nothing to the story overall. After reading a monster of a book like this you would think that the author would give the reader some sort of justification at the end of the book but we receive none. Instead the ending simply leaves you with more questions. Questions that will remain unanswered. I wanted to stop reading this book so many times. I wanted to put it down and be done with it forever. It made me so mad at times that I wanted to pick it up and throw it across the room. And I don't think anyone would blame me if I had put it down and walked away. But the fact that this was my second time attempting to read this book I knew that if I didn't finish it this time it would haunt me for the rest of my days. I refused to let this book defeat me twice. So I finished it. With great determination and much mental turmoil, I finally finished it. And that really is the only triumph that this book holds at the end is the fact that you were able to finish it where others have failed. Don't get me wrong, this book is not a terrible book it just has a lot of terrible elements to it. So would I recommend this book to others? That in my opinion is a loaded question. On one hand I would recommend it for the Navidson story because it is unique and worthwhile to read. However on the other hand, this book has so much extra BS in it that I couldn't bear the thought of someone having to struggle through this book (as I did) on my account. So I will simply say this: READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!
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