Visual Novels are like regular novels but packaged as a game. They tend to include music, backgrounds, and character sprites.
VNs tend to be quite long and it isn’t unusual to find VNs that last over 50 hours.
Whether VNs are 'Video Games’ or not is fiercely debated. I, in all my magnificence, consider them to be their own thing^A). While some VNs have gameplay, making them more like Games, many many others do not.
So really, it depends. Some VNs are VNs and Games and others are just VNs.

• Visual Novel Database
  • The Visual Novel database. Includes a dizzying amount of information. Like with other databases, it allows you to create an account and keep a list of all the VNs you’ve played.