The Familiar, Volume 1: One Rainy Day In May

"This year the author of the cultish (and groundbreaking) House Of Leaves came roaring back with the first two books of his proposed 27-volume (?!?) series, The Familiar. It is … bonkers. Both volumes are massive, track nearly a dozen converging storylines and countless characters, and seem to be attempting to bridge the visual/linguistic gap between the novel and the graphic novel with illustrations, innovative page layouts and other tricks in the typesetter’s arsenal. The second book is stronger and more polished than the first, but Danielewski has boldly marked his artistic turf with these occasionally mind-blowing artifacts of post-everything weirdness."