House of Leaves: The Book Every 'Backrooms' Fan Should Read

Fans of the Backrooms film will find clear echoes in Mark Z. Danielewski’s 2000 novel House of Leaves. The 2026 movie follows a man (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who discovers an entrance to the titular Backrooms and is driven mad, with his therapist (Renate Reinsve) later entering the realm; the film turns into a found footage exploration as characters document their attempt to map the space.

Danielewski’s book centers on a documentary called “The Navidson Record,” about a house that is bigger on the inside than the outside and that opens into an impossibly vast realm. The novel layers its narrative: a man named Zampanò spends his final years analyzing the documentary while Johnny Truant documents and annotates Zampanò’s analysis, producing dizzying, nested accounts.

That structure, paired with unconventional formatting and trippy footnotes, creates a disorienting effect that mirrors the liminal, otherworldly dread at the heart of Backrooms and pushes the sense of madness further.

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