8. House Of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielwski
Danielewski's first novel (and I use that word loosely), is at worst described as a very tough read. But readers who have braved the story's many layers, all told through various different storytelling methods and by a number of unreliable narrators throughout, have experienced a tremendous reading experience that is unlike any other, and one that stays with the reader long after the binding has been closed. What makes the book challenging is also the reason that its adaptation to TV could spell greatness. The book confounds the reader with many different story lines, linked together by its main character Johnny Truant, and his copious writings and footnotes on a mysterious and long forgotten documentary film that may or may not have disappeared without a trace. Within his notes we meet the other characters in the book, a family who's house appears to be growing in size from the inside but remains as it is from the outside. We also hear from Johnny's mentally unstable and institutionalised mother through various incoherent letters sent to him throughout.  The book itself seemingly goes out of its way to provide no help to the reader in deciphering what is fact and what is fiction or what is real and what is imagined. Transplanting these elements into TV land would mean the characters have would have ample time to develop their individual stories, but through the framework of Johnny Truant's notes and decaying mindset, play with the format of TV, showing us different points of view through flashbacks, hallucinations and repeated scenes from a different points of view. Think Twin Peaks' unsettling mystery, American Horror Story's slow building tongue in cheek horror and Fight Club's claustrophobic twists in story. Is it happening? Danielewski has been cagey about selling the rights to any of his works and House of Leaves, his first novel and what most consider to be his Magnum Opus, is no exception. His love of film shines through in the book, but so far he has been vocal in his belief that the book is largely unsuited to adaptations.