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The Devil in Silver

3.44 of 5 stars 3.44 · rating details · 785 ratings · 215 reviews

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
The New York Times Book Review • The Washington Post • Publishers Weekly

New Hyde Hospital’s psychiatric ward has a new resident. It also has a very, very old one.

Pepper is a rambunctious big man, minor-league troublemaker, working-class hero (in his own mind), and, suddenly, the surprised inmate of a budget-strapped mental instit...more

Hardcover, 412 pages

Published August 21st 2012 by Spiegel & Grau (first published April 3rd 2012)

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Gathering of Waters by Bernice L. McFadden

2012's Best Literary Fiction By People of Color

8th out of 30 books — 64 voters

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

Evil Hospitals and Asylums

4th out of 23 books — 25 voters

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Nov 29, 2012 Katy rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who likes a good story

Recommended to Katy by: Amazon Vine

Shelves: vine-book, galley-for-review

Book Info: Genre: Literary Fiction (per publisher); Dark Fiction (per me)
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: Anyone who likes a great story

Disclosure: I received a paperback ARC of this book from the Amazon Vine program in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis: New Hyde Hospital’s psychiatric ward has a new resident. It also has a very,veryold one.

Pepper is a rambunctious big man, minor-league troublemaker, working-class hero (in his own mind), and, suddenly, the surpr...more

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Sep 22, 2012 Lexxie (un)Conventional Bookviews rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: psychological horror fans

Shelves: arc, netgalley, read-in-2012, review-books

*I got a free ARC of this book through net-galley in exchange of an honest review*

This and other reviews can be found on my blog : (un)Conventional Bookviews

*Trigger warnings : suicide, abuse by people in a situation of power, murder*

New Hyde Hospital’s psychiatric ward has a new resident. It also has a very, very old one.

What an accurate introduction to this psychological horror story.

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Nov 04, 2012 Glenn Williams rated it 1 of 5 stars

They said this was "literary horror." They was right.

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May 03, 2013 Irvin Sha rated it 2 of 5 stars

I started reading this book because I've been slogging through Acemoglu's book "Why Nations Fail" and needed some sort of fiction to reignite my page-turning interest. On that front, this book delivers. That said, I don't think it delivered a whole lot else.

Note - Some spoilers follow.

In brief, this book is a chronicle of a man's time in a mental institution, in which a Devil also happens to lurk, hunting the inmates. It can also be read as a not-so-thinly veiled critique of our nation's mental...more I started reading this book because I've been slogging through Acemoglu's book "Why Nations Fail" and needed some sort of fiction to reignite my page-turning interest. On that front, this book delivers. That said, I don't think it delivered a whole lot else.

Note - Some spoilers follow.

In brief, this book is a chronicle of a man's time in a mental institution, in which a Devil also happens to lurk, hunting the inmates. It can also be read as a not-so-thinly veiled critique of our nation's mental health system and the abuses that pervade it. In the book's afterword, the author even goes so far as to dedicate "a heartfelt fuck you" to St. Luke's Roosevelt psychiatric unit. No real explanation is given.

The story suffers because it is a bit split in terms of what it is trying to do. On the one hand, there is the monster angle. On the other, there is some sort of character development and what not that is supposed to happen. Unfortunately, these two elements do not mesh well. As a thriller, this book feels extremely slow and lacking in tension. Moreover, the plot essentially remains unresolved. Nothing happens to the Devil. Nothing happens to the other antagonists in the story. In fact, it's not even clear that anything really good happens to the protagonist, other than him becoming acclimated to being in a mental institution. From a narrative perspective, this is not hugely satisfying.

As for character development, the characters in the book all end up feeling fairly superficial. As everyone is just sitting in a mental hospital, there's not a lot of room for their characters to develop. Many characters don't even get a name. There are a few characters that show some level of multi-dimensionality, but not enough to be interesting. The protagonist, Pepper, does develop in some way or another. But he starts off as such an idiot that you're hard-pressed to feel proud of him for reaching some level of not-being-quite-as-dumb.

The book is interesting enough that I finished the whole thing. But that's about it. In general, it's just ok. If you have other things to read first, I'd stick with those.(less)

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Mar 28, 2013 Mysterious Bookshop rated it 5 of 5 stars

I've been waiting for a new book by LaValle since Big Machine came out in 2009. Back then we made him an Unclassifiable Club selection and this year is no different. LaValle has this incredible ability to mix genres in a way that heightens their best aspects. Mystery, horror, humor--the new weird (as China Mieville would say). In his latest, LaValle introduces us to Pepper, a big man with a short fuse who's found himself incarcerated at the New Hyde Psychiatric Center in Queens, New York. Pepper...more

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Feb 15, 2013 Siobhan rated it 2 of 5 stars

Sometimes I will continue reading a book even when I know its hopeless purely out of a sense of loyalty to the author. This was certainly the case here. I appreciated all of Mr. LaValle's efforts, and I actually quite like the way he writes, but the plot was just all over the place, and the premise of the story, while initially really captivating, takes several strange turns and completely loses itself, eventually becoming unrecognizable. In fact, the novel I finished was almost a completely dif...more

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Feb 06, 2013 Lisa added it

Shelves: arc, fiction

When Pepper has an altercation with some NYPD detectives, he figures he’s been arrested and on his way to prison. Instead, Pepper finds himself dumped in the mental ward of New Hyde Hospital, a run down public hospital where he is kept under observation and medication. However New Hyde has another resident aside from the patients and overworked staff; a violent inmate who drops through the ceiling and attacks Pepper in the middle of the night. The staff claims it’s just another patient, but the...more When Pepper has an altercation with some NYPD detectives, he figures he’s been arrested and on his way to prison. Instead, Pepper finds himself dumped in the mental ward of New Hyde Hospital, a run down public hospital where he is kept under observation and medication. However New Hyde has another resident aside from the patients and overworked staff; a violent inmate who drops through the ceiling and attacks Pepper in the middle of the night. The staff claims it’s just another patient, but the inmates claim it’s something far worse-the actual Devil.

The Devil in Silver is an uneven, meandering story that sheds light on the plight of those still institutionalized despite innovations in mental health care. The characters and setting are both well-drawn here; it’s easy to picture the decaying New Hyde mental ward and the struggles of both patients and staff. The dehumanizing nature of the place is even emphasized through the use of patient nicknames; most of the characters real names are not revealed until later in the story. Despite this, both patients and staff feel like real people with real issues.

The novel could have used an editor in places; the narration can be choppy in places, with copious sentence fragments. The narrator also addresses the reader directly at times, and often comes across as if he/she will be revealed as a character. This comes off even stranger when such a reveal never comes. There are also a couple of interruptions discussing the tragic cases of some real NYC mental health patients. Although a couple of characters do collect news clippings of such forgotten cases, these chapters read like breaks in the story.

About midway through the novel, the focus switches from dealings with the “Devil” to Pepper’s relationship with another inmate. While still interesting and well written, the Devil plot seems pushed to the side for awhile; it may have been better to weave in this subplot with the Devil story instead.

The good parts definitely outweigh the bad, and the final climax is absolutely excellent. The Devil in Silver is a strange story, but overall a worthwhile read.

A review copy was provided through the Librarything Early Reviewers program. (less)

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Jan 18, 2013 Stephen rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is probably more of a 3.5, but it flirted with being a great book for most of the way. This makes the ending seem more disappointing than it really is, I suppose. Anyway, the story takes a sober-eyed approach at life inside a psychiatric ward of a large hospital. LaValle does a fine job of exposing the culture of mental institution life in the 21st century. The loss of autonomy and the absence of any prospects in the outside world make most patients accept their fate with little resist...more

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Oct 28, 2012 Angi Dee rated it 4 of 5 stars

http://ajourneybetweenthepages.blogsp...

Victor LaValle's new novel, "The Devil in Silver" is the perfect choice for a creepy reading the week of Halloween. While the book was marketed as a new addition to the horror genre, this is no Stephen King novel. Readers who expect it to be similar or a more typical horror story will be highly disappointed, however, if you are willing to try something new, this book is unexpectedly sweet and thrilling.

The premise of LaValle's story revolves around a tough...more http://ajourneybetweenthepages.blogsp...

Victor LaValle's new novel, "The Devil in Silver" is the perfect choice for a creepy reading the week of Halloween. While the book was marketed as a new addition to the horror genre, this is no Stephen King novel. Readers who expect it to be similar or a more typical horror story will be highly disappointed, however, if you are willing to try something new, this book is unexpectedly sweet and thrilling.

The premise of LaValle's story revolves around a tough New Yorker, Pepper, who is repeatedly referred to early on in the novel as 'the big man'. Pepper, after an altercation with a group of police officer's outside of a school building, is taken to a psychiatric unit. The staff there admit to Pepper that police officers repeatedly drop off troublesome convicts for '72 hour holds', as a way to avoid the paperwork and time it would take to book and hold them. Pepper is left there by the officers, under the assumption that after his 72 hours in the mental institution he would be let free. If that was the case, LaValle's novel would have embarrassingly short and unfulfilling. Unsurprisingly, Pepper's 72 hours comes and goes quickly, with him still locked inside the institution.

Shortly into the book, the author introduces a host of characters, some with highly identifiable signs of mental illness, others that function normally (more or less) in the institution. Inside the psychiatric unit, issues of race and class fade away, though re-surface from time to time. As the book progresses, a devil seems to haunt the mental institution, breaking into the patients' rooms in the middle of the night, causing some violent harm and frightening all the others. For those who hover on the edges of madness, it is no surprise that it is difficult to tell what's real and what's not real. While this is main suspenseful thrust of LaValle's work, the book is not all despair and fear, but also spends a lot of time focused on the relationships built between patients and the animosity that rises amongst the staff.

What is most frightening of all, is the story's description of the cruelty of the staff to patients, including heavy use of restraints and medication as a means to keep order. The novel brings up "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" on more than one occasion and appears to use the institution in that famous novel as the basis for the one described here. While many mental institutions are still struggling to ensure human and ethical treatment, many laws and procedures have been put in place to ensure the ethical treatment of our city's poorest and vulnerable populations. Mr. LaValle's novel is almost out of another place and time in it's description of the mental institution, however, to his credit, he finds new ways to explore the idea of madness from the perspective of the 'sane'.

So this Halloween, you may find yourself wondering, does Pepper get out of the institution? Does the Devil exist? What IS the difference between madness and sanity? You will need to finish 'The Devil in Silver' to find out, but I promise you will not be disappointed.

Like this review? Check out the blog for more reviews like this one
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Oct 07, 2012 Algernon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

"Literary horror" is a category I find unnecessary and a bit snotty. What is that supposed to mean? Is this somehow more "worthy" than genre fiction, something more intellectually respectable than a mere horror novel?

The novel itself is not so pretentious. It is an enjoyable, suspenseful, and occasionally touching novel about mental illness and captivity. Its metaphor is accessible and not overwrought. The setting is a hospital for the mentally ill that focuses less on treatment and more on sed...more "Literary horror" is a category I find unnecessary and a bit snotty. What is that supposed to mean? Is this somehow more "worthy" than genre fiction, something more intellectually respectable than a mere horror novel?

The novel itself is not so pretentious. It is an enjoyable, suspenseful, and occasionally touching novel about mental illness and captivity. Its metaphor is accessible and not overwrought. The setting is a hospital for the mentally ill that focuses less on treatment and more on sedating and warehousing human beings (and of course billing public agencies for their services). This is, at least, the social reality to which the inmates -- er, patients -- have become resigned. The story is told in jubilant, straightforward prose in a wry voice that occasionally prompted me to wonder who this narrator was. The default answer seems to be Victor LaValle, who interrupts the story two or three times to share real-life examples of the system's "failures" -- or are they successes? As one of the novel's unhappy characters notes: "Every system is designed to give you the results you actually get. If you understand that, you'll see that this system is working."

This novel emerges from a United States much changed since Ken Kesey's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest appeared in 1962, ten years before Victor LaValle's birth. This is another novel in which an everyman winds up in a mental hospital. The Devil in Silver owes a debt to that novel but expresses a different kind of hope in the face of a different kind of monster, embodied here as a monster with a bison's head and sharp horns. Interestingly, these authors have had very different personal experiences of mental institutions. Victor LaValle has witnessed mental illness amid his own family, has visited them in these places and seen their treatment; in the author's note, he has very harsh words for one place in particular, but does not elaborate on what happened there. The late Ken Kesey, on the other hand, worked in one of these places as an orderly.

Its merits as a frightening horror novel may be overstated. I did not feel, with the author of one of the blurbs, that this will "scare the living ^$%* out of the reader." There is a monster roaming the hospital and terrifying the patients, yes. The true monster, we discover, is one that is highly insulated from popular revolt.

A more notable achievement is its central character, a bit of a roughneck who calls himself Pepper. Again, from the author's note: "Being a kid from Queens means I grew up with people of every color, nationality, and faith. Among those were plenty of working-class white guys. They were my friends. But when I saw guys like them in books, movies, or television, they were usually depicted as: 1) drunks, 2) abusers, or 3) drunk abusers. The guys I'd known deserved better than those portrayals. They were as capable of goodness as anyone else." He achieves this remarkably well in Pepper, especially considering the character is heavily medicated for much of the book. The guy is unsophisticated and given to solving conflicts with his fists, and is at the same time funny, affectionate, a man who can be thoughtless but who also demonstrates incomprehensible kindness.
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Sep 29, 2012 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, net_galley, general-fiction

The Devil in Silver is a literary horror novel. It is literature, horror and also a bit of social commentary as well. It even manages to include a brief romance. It is really an amazing book. The monster - is it minotaur or man? Is it the devil that some patients claim? But that's not the only monstrous thing going on in the book.

Pepper has got problems. He "accidentally" assaults 3 cops. He didn't know they were cops at the time. The cops don't want to do the paperwork when they arrest him beca...more The Devil in Silver is a literary horror novel. It is literature, horror and also a bit of social commentary as well. It even manages to include a brief romance. It is really an amazing book. The monster - is it minotaur or man? Is it the devil that some patients claim? But that's not the only monstrous thing going on in the book.

Pepper has got problems. He "accidentally" assaults 3 cops. He didn't know they were cops at the time. The cops don't want to do the paperwork when they arrest him because it would mean working off the clock. So they bring Pepper to New Hyde Hospital to the psychiatric ward. There he is supposed to be kept for a mandatory 72 hour observation period. After the intake session, he meets Dorry who will be a close friend of sorts to him. She gives him a tour and escorts him to his room because, "Everyone should see a friendly face first when they come in here."

The first night after his first full day at the hospital, Pepper has his first encounter with the devil. He sees him as a minotaur with an elderly body and the head of a bison. A nurse interrupts whatever the devil was going to do and gives the Pepper and his roommate, Coffee, sedatives. The other patients tell him the Devil roams free at night. Dorry says it is just a man. Is it a shared hallucination or is it what they really see? Or is it a monster either way and it just doesn't matter what it looks like?

When he is a little less than most cooperative, he is medicated more and somehow 72 hours at New Hyde becomes weeks. Pepper has a lot more time on his hands to get to know the other patients. The major characters are all well developed, especially Dorry, Loochie, and Coffee. And with just a few deft details, LaValle manages to make many of the more minor characters memorable as well. For example, there is Nurse Josephine Washburn who worries about her mother being left all alone and resents the doctor constantly forgetting her name.

The social commentary can be a little confusing when it is not just examples illustrated in the course of the story. The author inserts comments aimed directly at the reader. At first I thought these were more of Pepper's thoughts. Sometimes I found that it added to the story and other times I found it a little distracting, but not enough to ruin my enjoyment of the book.

I found the story to be mostly unpredictable and really unlike anything I've read before. I enjoyed reading it. As with the novella Lucretia and the Kroons also by Victor LaValle and also classified as literary horror, I ended up reading the book twice. It really is an excellent book. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased opinion.(less)

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Sep 05, 2012 Bandit rated it 4 of 5 stars

I received this book as an advanced reading copy and as such it had many errors, typos, fairly sizable glitch in describing the main character and a bit of continuity with timing, all of which I presume is going to be taken care of for the actual print edition.
I haven't heard a thing about the author or the book prior to reading it and I was very impressed with it. There were a few minor things that were off, particularly and most noticeably racist slip ups and semi slurs, to the point where th...more

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Sep 02, 2012 Laurie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Pepper, a guy who is a bit of a trouble maker but harmless is put into a psychiatric hospital even though he is not mentally ill. That’s bad enough, but there is a monster that roams the halls at night and kills inmates. Sounds like a cross between ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ and a Stephen King novel. That was enough to convince me to read it. I expected a creepy story; I did not expect a book about large themes that engaged the heart. But that is what this novel is.

Pepper is taken to the...more Pepper, a guy who is a bit of a trouble maker but harmless is put into a psychiatric hospital even though he is not mentally ill. That’s bad enough, but there is a monster that roams the halls at night and kills inmates. Sounds like a cross between ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ and a Stephen King novel. That was enough to convince me to read it. I expected a creepy story; I did not expect a book about large themes that engaged the heart. But that is what this novel is.

Pepper is taken to the psychiatric ward of New Hyde, a grossly under funded New York city hospital, because he took a swing at three plainclothes policemen in the process of trying to scare off the stalker ex-husband of his neighbor. Because it’s the end of shift, and they won’t get paid overtime for doing paperwork, they dump him for a 72 hour psychiatric hold, which requires only a few minutes of their time. This by itself would be the stuff of a Kafka story, but things rapidly get much, much worse. Pretty soon Pepper has been drugged (Haldol, an antipsychotic, and lithium, a mood stabilizer, given without a diagnosis or even an indication of his needing them), put in restraints for days, given tranquilizers so heavy duty he has no recollection of time passed, and visited by the monster. New Hyde isn’t a place where patients get treatment. It’s a place where they are warehoused. Few walk out the door. Everyone is drugged into submission. If the drugs don’t take the spirit out of an inmate there, the boredom will- their sole source of entertainment is a single TV set. There are no activities and the food is nearly inedible. Things couldn’t get much worse, could they? Hold on to that thought.

A monstrous Minotaur stalks the halls at night. It’s real; the staff sees it, too. In the process of discovering its secret, Pepper will have to make his way through a labyrinth, without a ball of string to help him find his way back. Pepper will also have to learn a lot about himself and grow up, going from somewhat narcissistic doofus to a caring person who thinks of others. The story is as much about people, relationships, race, society, and cruelty as it is about horror.

The novel is gripping, although it has some oddities. The omniscient narrator frequently breaks the 4th wall, speaking to the reader directly and inserting rants about society that I thought would have been better shown to us than hitting us over the head with them- in fact, the story itself pretty well shows them to us anyway. In a way, those interludes are amusing, but they do break the mood. The end left me with questions about how the revealed monster could have done the things it did. But these are minor quibbles; the book is an excellent blend of horror and literary fiction.
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Aug 18, 2012 C. Purtill rated it 3 of 5 stars

Reminiscent of Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," LaValle's "The Devil in Silver" fits snugly into the literary horror genre. Like Kesey's masterpiece, but with an intriguing "monster story" twist, the truly horrific part of LaValle's story is the daily existence of its characters. The medicated lives they lead leave them with gaps in time and space and an inability to make sense of the real world as we know it. Then again, "our" real world is just our perception as well.

LaValle give...more

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Aug 16, 2012 Stephanie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Original Post on Fangs, Wands and Fairy Dust at THE DEVIL IN SILVER: One Man's Incarceration and Society's Failure to Put Things Right

THE DEVIL IN SILVER
Victor Lavalle
Spiegel & Grau/Random House
Hardcover 432 pages
E-book Kindle 5K, Random House Digital

There's magic, and then there is a perception of the supernatural when things don't fit how we believe they should be. Then there is true mental illness requiring hospitalization and something that could be handled otherwise if someone had the...more

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May 15, 2012 Mallory Anne-Marie Forbes added it

Recommended to Mallory Anne-Marie by: Great Minds Think Aloud

Shelves: may-2012-reads, may-reading-challenge, a-rainbow-of-books

“Big Man” Pepper finds himself transported to a psychiatric unit when he defends himself against three interfering men he didn’t recognize as police; he was simply trying to back his friend’s ex-husband away from her. Now he is on seventy-two-hour involuntary commitment, quizzed about his mental status and his life, with no access to an attorney nor any other rights usually accorded if a suspect is taken into police custody. Since he is in a mental unit, none of that applies. But this is not an...more

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Aug 25, 2012 Melissa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

"He hoped to reflect the world's own glory with love" and with that the tone of the book changed for me.

The Devil in Silver was a 'freebie', otherwise, to be quite honest, I may never have read this author and it would have been quite the shame. The synopsis on the back of the book promises chills and thrills, and they happen...just slowly. Yes, if you are looking for a fast paced story that will get you cheap thrills, then walk on by, but if you are looking for a story the builds and becomes m...more

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Sep 26, 2012 Irene B. rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: did-not-finish

I found this book on the library's on-order list and thought it looked interesting. Halfway through and don't feel like picking it up tonight. I had just read Syndrome E, an excellent psychological thriller, but this novel pales in comparison. The characters remain mostly undeveloped and caricatures of people with mental disabilities. I was expecting something more--a novel about Queens and people trapped in an asylum--it should move. Even the so-called "devil" is a vague thing. Also the author...more

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Dec 15, 2012 Vanessa Wolf rated it 4 of 5 stars

Disclaimer I received an advanced reader copy from my work. This in no way obligates my review, but many things I note about the text may be changed.

I almost didn't finish this book, the first three chapters are pretty unsettling. Not in terms of graphic detail, but I find it important in stories like these to know if the protagonist and the narrator are reliable or not. I would say Pepper is very reliable, reasonably sane, but the narrator is a devious bastard, though a likable one. The other...more

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Apr 20, 2013 Gerhard rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013

Any book about the iniquities of the mental-health system in the US, and how this is a microcosm of the larger society, has to contend with the legacy of Ken Kesey. One of LaValle's characters not only references One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, but offers a half-baked critique of the book as not being about 'real' people. Well, would you believe that one of the inmates in LaValle's New Hyde is actually the Devil?

Neither did I. This is the weakest aspect of this novel, which could have happily d...more

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May 04, 2013 Dan rated it 3 of 5 stars

If there were such a genre as pseudo-magic realism, The Devil in Silver would be its poster child. With its sense that everything is real and yet nothing is, both at the same time, the novel floats along between a fairy world and hades, with gruesome deaths, both real and imagined, haunting its pages. Monsters and maniacs, sinners and saints—it's hard to know which is which in LaValle's book.

Which is part of the problem.

What is this book saying? That life is magical? Or is it hell? Or both? Read...more

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Aug 14, 2012 Jill rated it 4 of 5 stars

Many authors love to set their novels in mental hospitals - think of Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Greenberg's I Never Promised You A Rose Garden, Lehane's Shutter Island, McGrath's Asylum, and The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

The reason, of course, is that the setting allows the author to explore how life inside the cloistered walls of an institution is often indistinguishable from "real" life outside. And so it is with The Devil in Silver.

Pepper (so-called becaus...more Many authors love to set their novels in mental hospitals - think of Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Greenberg's I Never Promised You A Rose Garden, Lehane's Shutter Island, McGrath's Asylum, and The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

The reason, of course, is that the setting allows the author to explore how life inside the cloistered walls of an institution is often indistinguishable from "real" life outside. And so it is with The Devil in Silver.

Pepper (so-called because he is "spicy") is committed to New Hyde Hospital in Queens for a period of 72 hours for assaulting three undercover police officers. Since this is a book that exceeds 400 pages, we can be relatively certain that his stay will exceed the minimal time...and it does. The theme is telegraphed here by one of Pepper's new-found friends: "Everyone in New Hyde is trapped in some way. Patients and staff. You think they ever set foot in a place like this unit? Our lives are a clinical trial, Pepper. We're all being tested."

There is a special wrinkle to this novel: one of the inmates may be the devil himself. The horror element is gradually introduced and woven into the larger tale. There's just enough of the horror element to connect those who enjoy the genre (perhaps, books of Stephen King), yet it never transforms into a true horror novel because of the strong human element.

The main strength of this novel is a very engaging tone by Victor LaValle. The man definitely knows how to write and from the very first page, I wanted to read on. The dialogue is crisp, the characters are compelling, and the novel successfully bridges the gap between literary mainstream and time-honored psychological horror. Mr. LaValle convincingly weaves in important themes of the numbing and moral incertitude of our lives ("Maybe out there is a lot like in here. The United States of New Hyde"), the way we handle those who are "different" including immigrants, the distancing bureaucracies, the ability of love to thrive in the most meager environments, and how we confront the demons that live within and around us.

The weakness is a certain amount of authorial intrusion - leading the reader. Take these lines, for example: "Some might doubt the mentally ill could pull off an orderly queue. Aren't they raving lunatics? Shouldn't they be wandering off or howling at the moon? That's more dramatic, admittedly, but inaccurate." Passages like this show a certain lack of trust in the reader's ability to form his/her opinions.

With a few reservations here and there, I recommend it. Think: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest combined with The Shining, and you'll have an idea of what's in store for you. (less)

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Jan 08, 2013 Sue rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is one of the better books I've read in recent years. The story takes place in the mental ward of a hospital complex in or near Queens, NY. Pepper, an involuntary patient on the ward, is the main character and drives the action to a great degree. While there is a flavor of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest throughout the story, this story easily stands by itself and is very involving. The characters are engaging and interesting, and there are parts of the story which are laugh-out-loud funny,...more

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Sep 16, 2012 L. Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars

I finished Victor LaValle's "The Devil in Silver" in 24 hrs. Literally. On the heels of Diaz's "This Is How You Lose Her," I wasn't prepared to get off my literary high. "Devil" is closer to "The Ecstatic" than the uber-ambitious and brilliant "Big Machine," but no less worthwhile in its observations of humanity, themes of fear, deeper revelations of our Banana Republic (yes, we're here already), and metaphorical allusions to our social group think rituals. It's got a slow middle (but, how slow...more

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Apr 01, 2013 Miriam rated it 3 of 5 stars

After finishing this book, I want to like it better than I did. I enjoy Victor LaValle's style, his fluid, but straightforward prose, and I like the premise of the book: that there is real horror to be found in the overlap of mental healthcare and criminal justice, the inadequacy of mental healthcare systems, and the slippery slope of combating this system from the inside, burdened either with mental illness or a diagnosis of such. His afterward really makes me want to love the book because he s...more

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Dec 01, 2012 Itsvbro rated it 1 of 5 stars

Worthless and offensive book filled with racist commentary that adds nothing to the storyline. How did this book pass through an editor's desk? Page 23 shares the insight: Those black people sure do love their chicken wings and hot sauce, now, don't they? Later, the reader enjoys some generalizations about how those Asian and Indian people always have crooked and jutting teeth. Yes indeed, that's their most identifiable characteristic.
And that aside, let's enjoy the total break in storytelling,...more

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Aug 16, 2012 Darryl rated it 4 of 5 stars

Pepper is a fortysomething blue collar wise guy from Queens, New York, a big man whose height and girth are exceeded only by his unfiltered mouth, naïveté, and unique ability to make every bad situation much worse. His reverse Midas touch lands him in the psychiatric unit at New Hyde Hospital, after his chivalrous attempt to protect a neighbor causes him to engage in a brawl with three men, who unbeknownst to him are undercover NYC police officers. The cops drop him off at New Hyde, where he is...more Pepper is a fortysomething blue collar wise guy from Queens, New York, a big man whose height and girth are exceeded only by his unfiltered mouth, naïveté, and unique ability to make every bad situation much worse. His reverse Midas touch lands him in the psychiatric unit at New Hyde Hospital, after his chivalrous attempt to protect a neighbor causes him to engage in a brawl with three men, who unbeknownst to him are undercover NYC police officers. The cops drop him off at New Hyde, where he is supposed to spend the next 72 hours in observation until his court date.

New Hyde is a financially strapped and decrepit public hospital, and the psych ward, known as Northwest, is even more dilapidated and poorly managed than the separate Med/Surg units. Pepper finds himself surrounded by a colorful group of fellow inmates, who include a benign elderly woman, who serves as his greeter and guide; his African roommate, who is obsessed with contacting any government official, including Mayor Bloomberg or President Obama, that will investigate the inhumane treatment provided to patients on the ward; and a teenage girl, whose razor wit and even sharper tongue hide her deep vulnerability and sensitivity.

Unfortunately there is also one particularly malevolent being that resides there: a hairy man-beast of superhuman strength, who the other patients refer to as 'The Devil'. This creature terrorizes the patients, who believe that he is the cause for the mysterious deaths and disappearances that plague Northwest. Pepper encounters The Devil on his first night there, and barely escapes his deadly grasp.

Pepper's narcissism and bad luck continues to plague him, as his attempts to escape and to demand his rights land him in ever deeper trouble with the medical staff and the other patients. His 72 hour stay is progressively extended, even though most believe that he doesn't belong there. Despite this, he wins the trust of several patients, who enlist him in their fight to overcome The Devil.

LaValle also describes the broken mental health system in NYC, including the notorious death of Esmin Green at King's County Hospital in Brooklyn in 2008, the mistreatment of public citizens by the NYPD, and the sometimes tense race relations in the melting pot that is the Big Apple.

This was a delightful read, and a book which transcends easy classification: Is it a mystery? a horror story? a love story? literary fiction? or African American literature? I'd say yes to all of these descriptions. More importantly, it's a well written page turner of a novel, which I believe would be appreciated by a wide audience.(less)

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Jan 11, 2013 Chidi rated it 3 of 5 stars

: this is a send-up (is that the proper term?) for the mental health industry. its flaws. its huge, cracking, earthquake'd flaws. i suppose this was the ultimate goal of Lavalle to provide a more humane face to an industry that kind of exists in the shadows. it is only illuminated through movies like "one flew over.." and that movie with angelina jolie, its name I'm forgetting.

but i'm interested in the development of humanity. like, how do we actually become more human? i think the novel is also...more

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Aug 11, 2012 Brenda rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012-release, arc, net-galley, own-read, read-on-kindle

Defending friend Mari from her ex-husband, then fighting off 3 burly attackers, who turned out to be police officers in civilian clothes, lands Pepper in BIG trouble! He was taken by the 3 cops, who he nicknamed Hewey, Dewey and Louie, to the nearby mental institution, (being too lazy to process the paperwork involved, therefore letting the doctor there handle it!) Pepper was ‘processed’ and informed he would be there for 72 hours, and released (if he behaved himself). But when they started feed...more

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Sep 04, 2012 Cynthia rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-in-2012

Facing your Monsters

The author, Victor LaValle, doesn’t flinch from unpleasant topics. “The Devil in Silver” is set in a government run mental health facility where the unruly Pepper is taken by overworked cops after he gets into fisticuffs outside the school where his would be beloved works as a teacher. The man he confronts is also a teacher and her abusive husband. Rather than take Pepper to the precinct where they’d have to work overtime booking him with no pay due to cut backs the cops dump...more

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About Victor LaValle

Victor LaValle is the author of the short-story collection Slapboxing with Jesus and the novel The Ecstatic, a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award.

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Quotes from The Devil in Silver

“Queens, New York. The most ethnically diverse region not just in the United States, but on the entire planet... In Queens, you will find Korean kids who sound like black kids. Italians who sound like Puerto Ricans. Puerto Ricans who sound like Italians. Third-generation Irish who sound like old Jews. That's Queens. Not a melting pot, not even a tossed salad, but an all-you-can-eat, mix-and-match buffet.” — 1 person liked it

“... that most natural human appetite, the hunger for somewhere else.” — 1 person liked it

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