House of Leaves uses a variety of narrative and typographical techniques in order to convey its themes of dysfunction, isolation and disorientation. The novel constantly foregrounds its status as a mode of representation through its technique of analyzing the supposed documentary made about the house on Ash Tree Lane by Will Navidson.

Yet whilst this filtering of the central narrative might be said to present the reader with a more objective view of those events, the technique also paradoxically heightens our involvement with them, since it ensures that the story is told in the present tense. Indeed, the same paradoxical effect is achieved in Danielewski's use of the characters of Zampano and Truant. Rather than hindering the reader's involvement with Navidson and his house, their interruptions add to its effectiveness by creating suspense, emphasizing the full implications of events, and suggesting that the horror contained in the film...