This is one of those books that's incredibly polarizing. While many people who read House (is there some way I can put that in blue?) of Leaves will sing its praises to their dying breath, there are just as many who will condemn it as pretentious nonsense. The bottom line is, simply, that this is a weird book, and it's a breed of weirdness that's not for everyone, due in no small part to the fact that it's a bizarre concoction of genres that, anywhere else, have little to no business being together. The book shifts, almost effortlessly, between sounding like an academic thesis, a postmodern fable, a cosmic horror tale, and a descent through hell myth. It darts between these without ever fully identifying itself as any of them, defying classification, rather fittingly, just as the house itself does. The book is unsettling, frustrating, disorienting, psychologically draining (there were a few instances where I needed to stop and rest between chapters), and at times even off-putting, but, as strange as it sounds, that's all part of its charm.
Be patient with this book. It's worth it.