The Devil in Silver

By: Victor LaValle

Narrated by: Victor LaValle

Length: 13 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

Pepper is a rambunctious big man, and, suddenly, the surprised inmate of a budget-strapped mental institution in Queens, New York. He's not mentally ill, but that doesn't seem to matter. On his first night, he's visited by a terrifying creature who nearly kills him before being hustled away by the hospital staff. It's no delusion: The other patients confirm that a hungry devil roams the hallways when the sun goes down.

Pepper rallies three other inmates in a plot to fight back: Dorry, an octogenarian schizophrenic; Coffee, an African immigrant with severe OCD; and Loochie, a bipolar teenage girl. Battling the pill-pushing staff, one another, and their own minds, they try to kill the monster that's stalking them. But can the Devil die?

©2012 Victor LaValle (P)2012 Dreamscape Media, LLC

On Appreciation

My expectations were entirely different: horror was the genre touted, yet it was a literary work. I loved it, I loved that it was, more than anything, character-driven. And characters they were, unique and alive. This is a novel that lets you consider your own circumstances in the world, that not-so-subtly reminds you to appreciate the aesthetics of the natural world and art. A novel well worth donating your time to.

This is a drama, I wanted a thriller/horror.

This is a drama, but I was looking for thriller/horror. A credit wasted on poor categorization.

A fine reboot of Cuckoo's Nest w/ monsters..

Decent story!! I would like to have seen more of a development of Pepper's and Dori's characters. I found it easy to follow the nicknames given to the other characters, it helped the story along. The timeline could have been explained a little bit more. Overall I give it a "MEH++" I would recommend it to a friend that I liked.

satisfying, entertaining

still not sure if this is a book about paranormal activity or if everything was about perception and misunderstandings. all in all, very entertaining and kept my interest for the couple of days I listened to it

A Syfy lovers very good read

I really enjoyed this book. I am a true lover of sci-fi and horror. But I like my stories to have realistic rooms such that it makes the story almost believable. This is one of those stories and I really enjoyed the characters and felt for them. I read it this book off for only because I felt it went too far into the story of Van Gogh. Although it has inspired me to plan a trip to Amsterdam next summer.

I am hooked

The is the second story I have listened to by LaValle. I love both stories and I love his reading of them.

intriquing premise, so-so plotline

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Certainly it's a challenge to write a book that takes place in one setting alone. I got a little bored in there.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Premise is compelling - guy gets arrested and thrown into a mental hospital even though it seems everyone, himself, cops, doctors, knows he's not sick.The main conflict flatlines - man/beast patient terrorizes other patients.

Did Victor LaValle do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Yes, very much so. It's an interesting story how he drew his characters, which LaValle speaks to in his acknowledgments and also talked about to Terry Gross on NPR.

Just beautiful

Such a perfect reality of the human condition in all its glory and warts. You will find true love inside this book.

Fantastic

I read more than I listen to audiobooks, so I am not drawing on a sample of thousands, but this is one of my top 3 audiobooks so far. LaValle does a spectacular job reading and the story somehow feels more complete heard in the author's spoken voice. The story itself is both a tense, is-there-a-monster-locked-in-this-space-with-us, horror novel and a takedown of some of the bureaucracies in the world that make horrifically flawed systems with tragic human costs. We made the systems, we could alter, remove, or replace them. But we instead all feel resigned to live by them. And yet for all that, LaValle highlights the power of human hope, perseverance, and small kindnesses. Read or listened to, this novel is a joy.

Powerful

When I read something so powerful and haunting that it will stay with me the rest of my life, I have to give it five stars. The Devil in Silver is such a book.

It’s billed as a horror novel, but I don’t think that’s the right category for it. Readers who go in expecting thrills and spine tingles will probably feel misled. That said, much of the content of this novel chilled me to the core, but not because of the Devil character, although he is very scary and murders people.

The real terrifying element of this book is the abuse of patients on a psychiatric wing of an underfunded and understaffed public city hospital. I have no doubt that many of the things that happen to the characters in this book—such as being tied to a bed for weeks and being medicated into a comatose state for months on end without seeing a Doctor—are factual.

I heard a fascinating interview with the author on Fresh Air with Terry Gross, in which he said that he’s visited relatives and friends in mental hospitals many times. One of the patients in the book is based on a woman profiled in the New York Times, and I looked up and read that article too.

If you have any interest in mental illness or psychiatric treatment, I recommend this novel very highly.

If you are looking to read something that’s just a scary monster story, you might want to pass on this one.