House of Leaves

Okay, so I'm gonna recommend a book people here might like. It's called House of Leaves and it's... weird.

The story is basically about a man who finds documentation from a family who moves into a new house. They're then surprised to find a door to a closet, when seen from outside, shouldn't exist. It extends beyond what should be the boundaries of the house; it's bigger on the inside, basically. Their kids goes missing and the discover it's a vast labyrinth that may even house an unknown entity called the Minotaur.

That isn't what makes it weird. The text starts to mirror the way the characters are feeling and the layout of where they are. Text will be diagonal up in one corner of the page, it may be only a few words per page, squares of text surrounded by other text, upside down text... Then there's the fact that the word house is always blue and struck out text and Minotaur red. It's kinda like a book version of a found footage movie. It's not exactly a horror story but it has the feeling of one and the weird text kinda makes you feel claustrophobic. It's also more about the characters than solving what's up with the house.

All that said it is kind of a hard read. On top of the text weirdness, different people narrate different parts of the book and sometimes interact with each other, there's footnotes and footnotes can have footnotes (even multiple ones) and it's a thick book. If you're up to the "challenge" though, at the very least you'll probably remember it for a long time for it's unique setup and execution.

I read it because of Everyman HYBRID referencing it, and let me just say that they couldn't have taken a better influence. Definitely the first non-Slender Man thing I would recommend writers in the mythos to read.

It's been awhile but I'm pretty sure Everyman HYBRID was where I found out about it too.

The book makes a small cameo appearance in my series. I started reading it a while ago, and I can see how it's influenced the mythos.