What do readers think of The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle? Write your own review.

I couldn't put this book down. It's a quick read, entertaining, funny and so sad. The characters are well developed and you'll sympathize with the situation they are in as patients in a state run mental institution. They suffer deprivation, discrimination, abuse, everything that has been exposed in these institutions you've read about before....and they are tormented by "the Devil" behind the silver door. No one will hear their fears and complaints and they plot to take matters into their own hands.
You'll laugh out loud and cry for these prisoners of "they system"

When I started reading this book, I got right into it and was excited to read it. I liked some of the characters and was interested to find out what was going to happen. However, about halfway through the book, I almost didn't care anymore. I made myself finish the book to see what "The Devil in Silver" was and was not impressed! Overall, this book was just ok.

The tag-line for this book reads "New Hyde Hospital's psychiatric ward has a new resident. It also has a very very old one." Sounds intriguing, right? It's not and neither is anything in this book. I don't think it would spoil the yawn of an ending to say that there isn't in fact anything supernatural going on at New Hyde. And the 'scary' resident referred to in the tag line isnt "very very" old - he's just old. And not in a suspenseful kind of way - more like in a (hold tight now) crazy-guy-in-a-mental-hospital-who-is-more-crazy-than-scary. The story plods and the least interesting character is unfortunately the main one. A man who insists on being called Pepper "because he's spicy". Huh? It's downhill from there. Some, and only some, of the other residents are interesting and it's detrimental to the story that the least amount of time is spent with them. The most is spent with our hero Pepper who is one of the dullest protagonists I've ever encountered. The story is way longer than it needs to be. The book felt like what could've been a serviceable short story stretched out a few hundred pages too long. Not much happens at New Hyde so in that respect the story would also have worked if it had been more character-driven. But instead you only get a few snippets of the truly interesting patients and far too much of Pepper.

Difficult for me to properly review as I am not one who likes books involving mental hospitals. I do think those who like such will enjoy this book as it is well written and has a novel twist to the subject matter.

One of the few books that I have not finished. Good character development and some truly horrific episodes. As a mental health professional and nurse, I found the story to have a fair measure of accurate representation of some institutions in the past, but was annoyed by all of the stereotypes. Both of treatment and characters. I'll probably give it another try in a month or so.

At the beginning of this book I had settled in for an enjoyable reading experience; however, I began to get bogged down mid-way through the book. While the concept was great with many life parallels the action dragged on too long to the point of becoming uneventful for me once it occurred. I did appreciate the character development and was impacted by Dorry's message: "our trials don't change, only the court." Thanks Dorry.

I wanted to like this book. It is not REALLY a horror story other than the horror of the conditions at the mental hospital and how the patients are treated. The four main characters are well drawn but it took too long to engage me. Simply written with direct comments made to the reader, which I found to be finally annoying, I found this novel to be a story whose idea is much more engaging than the reading experience itself.

I wanted to love this book. The genre, horror/suspense really appeals to me. I found it to be too slow with too many stories going on at the same time. It's the story of Pepper who ends up at a New York psych ward because the policemen are too tired to book him. He encounters quirky characters while there. One of them, "the Devil". The writing is good but I had a hard time connecting with the story.