Intertextuality and Metanarrative
Danielewski tells his narrative through a web of interconnected narratives. There are three levels of meta-narrative in the text: Johnny Truant's relationship to The Navidson Record, Zampano's compiling of the manuscript, and Will Navidson's actual experience with the house on Ash Tree Lane. In such a complex layering of plot lines, the reader may easily feel lost, but Danielewski includes deliberate distinctions to help keep the plot lines straight. For instance, the footnotes or the the editor's notes are written in different fonts, indicative of their secondary addition to the primary text of the manuscript. Additionally, since Johnny is the main protagonist, his interaction with the manuscript depends upon Zampano's relationship with the same text. He is simultaneously learning alongside Zampano and learning from him.
Supernatural Horror
The element of horror in this novel is clear: the house on Ash Tree Lane. Navidson's account and the eyewitness testimony obtained by Karen compose a relatively undeniable case for the validity of the house's supernatural autonomy, the consequences of which are numerous and profound. Everyone who encounters this argument is forced to confront an unsavory fear. In Johnny's case, he is so disturbed by Zampano's document that he starts neglecting his job, health, and friends in search of some natural explanation for Navidson's experience with the house. Unable to find a clear explanation, however, he becomes obsessed, driving himself crazy with worry. He is unwilling to accept the possibility of such a supernatural possibility. If this house can manifest itself on its own, then what else about "reality" is an illusion? Even in Navidson's own retelling of the incident in the house upon his return to Virginia, he focuses on the horror of feeling subject to this physical building. The inanimate has become animate.
Negligence
Johnny Truant's narrative is characterized from start to finish by negligence. The lifestyle he preferred leading up to the move to Zampano's old apartment and the discovery of The Navidson Record reflects a certain disdain for ordinary life. Unable to cope with the stressors of adult life, Johnny spends his time actively rebelling, as if he cannot outlive his adolescence. After discovering the manuscript in his new apartment, he devotes himself obsessively to uncovering the mystery of the house. He neglects everything about his already detached life -- health, friends, work, even his mom. She writes to him repeatedly, the letters being tucked into the pages of the manuscripts as Johnny reads. In his obsession he has lost touch with all sense of responsibility to the "normal" world.
