Mark Z. Danielewski Books In Order

Publication Order of The Familiar Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Mark Z. Danielewski is a horror and science fiction author from New York best known for his debut novel “House of Leaves.”

He was born to avant-garde film director Tad Danielewski and his wife Priscilla Decatur Machold. Since his father was a film director, the family was constantly on the move as they followed him on his film projects.
By the time he was 10 years old, he had lived in six countries that include the United States, Ghana, Britain, India, Switzerland, and Spain.

He attended high school in Utah and has said the many experiences of childhood helped make him develop an appreciation of all forms of creativity.

As a nineteen-year-old, he visited his brother that was then living in the French capital Paris. It was her that he found an old typewriter on which he began writing some short fiction.
It was during this time that he penned “Where Tigers Dance,” a short story that will never see the light of day as t was so bad.

Z. Danielewski went to Yale where he got his English Literature degree in 1988 studying under John Guillory and John Hollander. A year later, he enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley to study Latin.
He would then move to Los Angles to attend the University of Southern California School of Cinema for his graduate studies.

It was at this time that he started working on the documentary “Derrida,” which followed the life and times of Jacques Derrida, the philosopher, and literary critic.

During this time, he was working on the project as a cameraman, sound technician, and assistant editor. He was famously seen working on the sound equipment attached to the lead’s suit jacket at some point in the documentary picture.
Mark Danielewski would later graduate with a master of fine arts degree in creative fiction in 1993. Later that year, he got the idea for “House of Leaves,” which would become his biggest-ever piece of literary fiction.

Mark Z. Danielewski got the idea for his blockbuster work “House of Leaves” as he was sketching philosophical ideas and writing theoretical essays.

Shortly after the death of his father in 1993, he started thinking of a house that was smaller by about a quarter of an inch on the inside as compared to the outside dimensions.

At the time, he believed it was something like a short story or maybe just a footnote or a poem. Ultimately, he realized that it may just be the big idea that he had been looking for all this time.

The very small space could be the habitation of the many characters that he had been working on for several months. It was the space in which the theoretical concepts and philosophical ideas he had could come to life.

Soon enough, he began writing his novel and after seven years of hard work, he finally published the 750-page work in the year 2000.

“One Rainy Day in May” by Mark Z. Danielewski is a work that is set in all manner of locations from Venice, Mexico, California, and South East Asia. There are nine lives at risk and each of the victims has to make a terrible choice if they are to survive.
The nine characters include a programmer who lives near Silicon Beach and has been working on entertainment but his engine may result in some far-reaching consequences;

A trainee therapist struggling to deal with children as demanding as his most stubborn patients; An addict in recovery in Singapore who get a call from a desperate billionaire late at night;

A gang member from East Los Angeles who was hired to commit some violent acts; Two Texan scientists fleeing from some shadowy but very influential organization.

At the heart of it all is Xanther, a twelve-year-old girl who leaves the house alongside her father to go get a dog on a rainy day.

Things get interesting when they end up saving a creature as dangerous as it is fragile. It is this encounter that will change her life and that of many she meets forever.

Mark Z. Danielewski’s novel “Into the Forest” continues to follow the dynamic and disparate characters that were introduced in the debut novel of “The Familiar” series.

In this outing, the lives of the characters start to intersect in interesting but inexplicable ways as they find echoes and harmonies in each other. What had at some point seemed disconnected and remote steadily draws closer.

At the center of everything is still the twelve-year-old girl Xanther. The world seems to be exposing, opening windows and doors to her as She gets ideas, visions, sounds, and answers to questions that had previously confounded everyone.
With each passing day, she is seeing something inexplicable but her craving for it always seems to go a notch higher. It does seem that she can only get relief by getting access to the one thing it would be almost impossible to get her hands on.
Taking place over about a month rather than one day in the previous novel, a lot more stuff happens. Themes begin to emerge and scenes and chapters end with punchlines leaving their readers with food for thought.

“Honeysuckle & Pain” continues to follow the twelve-year-old girl Xanther, who is the lead protagonist of “The Familiar” stories. She has recently discovered a novel inner strength at a time when her world has been shifting inexorably.

Meanwhile Bobby and Cas the hackers have been feeling trapped but have been planning a dangerous but dramatic action that may just grant them their freedom.

On the other side of the globe, a woman named Tian Li has discovered that her cat is missing and set out with her boyfriend to find it.

Just like with his other works, Mark makes use of vibrant wordplay and spectacular visuals to make for a singular and beautiful reading experience.

Throughout this work there is a ray of light that brings to light some new revelations and connections that hint at possibilities. A few times, there are shattering relations that leave you gasping.