The Devil in Silver Read-Along - Final Discussion

Spoiler Warning: If you are not reading along with us, the below discussion post and comments may contain spoilers.

This book was SO good! I really felt the ending was appropriate. 

First of all, I was shocked by the way Dr. Anand spoke to Pepper and Loochie after Dorry's death. Then he goes on to elaborate about his situation and the situation there at the mental hospital. This book really demonstrates how broken our mental health system is. I truly believe there are facilities like this in our country. It's a sad realization. 

So, first I'm going to mention the part toward the end when Josephine tells Pepper that Miss Chris has been telling the new doctor that he is not ill. My thinking is Pepper carrying Mr. Visserplein (aka the Devil)...well, falling with him through the ceiling...him no longer seeing the man as a beast was proof to at least Miss Chris that he was not in fact insane. Still mind boggling how long he was kept there when he was never charged or sentenced to serve his time in a mental ward. My hope is that he did in fact get released and maybe he reconnects with his family, and then gets in touch with Xiu in California. The one amazing thing about this story, at least in my opinion, is how Pepper has grown as a person. 

And knowing Loochie is free and out in the world. That's wonderful. 

Thanks for reading along with me! We will have another great read-along for next year's Something Wicked Fall. What will it be?!

Share your thoughts on this week's section in the comments, or leave a link to a post. 

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The Devil in Silver Read-Along - Discussion Three

Spoiler Warning: If you are not reading along with us, the below discussion post and comments may contain spoilers.

Well, the start of this section escalated quickly. Poor Kofi...and the revelation by Dorry. Is the "Devil" really her child? And what/who exactly is this animal/person/thing they call the "Devil?" We still don't know! And sadly, no more Scooby gang. 

I think what I liked most about this section of the reading was the focus on mental health, and how easily people who are mentally ill can be swept under the rug. The articles and death notices the three late night lounge ladies work on collecting, as a kind of war memorial (as Pepper put it) to all those lost who were also mentally ill. Rarely do their stories make front page news and that's sad. We still have a long way to go in this country in regards to the issue of mental health.

The romance between Pepper and Sue was sweet, but I wondered if it really added anything to the story. Sue knows she is being taken away by immigration sooner than what she told Pepper. So when Pepper discovers she's gone, he feels more urgency to try to contact her sister. But...was Sue really taken by immigration? After the "Devil" tried to take Japanese Freddie Mercury (Glenn), only to be foiled by Pepper and Sue, he/it could quite possibly have a vendetta against them (if a creature like him is capable of that). I guess we will find out.

What happened at the end of this section was a tragedy. Why did she do it? Guilt over Kofi? The inevitability of the demise of her "child?" We may never know. Poor Dorry.

I'm looking forward to finishing and finding out the truth. I'm hoping for a spectacular ending. I hope we are not disappointed.

Share your thoughts on this week's section in the comments, or leave a link to a post. We'll be back for the final discussion on October 30 (or thereabouts). If you need the reading schedule, find it here.

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The Devil in Silver Read-Along - Discussion Two

Spoiler Warning: If you are not reading along with us, the below discussion post and comments may contain spoilers.

Well, shit got real in this section of our reading! I don't know about you, but I could honestly feel Pepper's fear when that "thing," or whatever it is, lowered itself down from the ceiling, and then the attack. What the hell IS it?! And why does the staff seem to be complicit? The real horror story is that mental ward and how the patients are treated. 

I'm also enjoying the occasional social commentary. Coffee (Kofi): I am trying to reach the Black President...

Pepper: "...I don't care who the Big Boss is. I don't care if someday it's a Big Lady! The whole game is fixed. Top to bottom. Left to Right. The Black President is just like the White President. 'Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.' "

This is something I hear from (some) people all the time. "It doesn't matter. They're all corrupt." Man that irritates me! Call me naive, but I just don't believe it. I like what Coffee then says, "Dorry was right. You think all those things you say make you sound smarter, but I think you sound like a fool." 
Exactly my sentiments, Coffee.

Also, the part where Pepper refuses his medicine and the nurse tells him if he had nothing to hide, he wouldn't say no. Pepper thinks back to conversations with his black friends when they mentioned the stop-and-frisk from the NYPD. Pepper asked them why they care about being searched if they have nothing to hide. But now, he finds himself in a situation of disenfranchisement, and he realizes that "certain types of people must be overseen" and he hadn't thought of it as a problem until he became one of those types. What's the old adage? Walk a mile in my shoes.

So, what will happen next? The Scooby gang (as I like to call them) have decided to take a stand and confront the problem who lives in Northwest 4. Right at the end of this section, Loochie lets him (it) out. I have to admit, I'm kinda scared. lol

Share your thoughts on this week's section in the comments, or leave a link to a post. We'll be back for the next discussion on October 16 (or thereabouts). If you need the reading schedule, find it here.

I apologize for some of the broken images on my site. I'm having an issue with my hosting. Hopefully, it will be fixed soon.

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The Devil in Silver Read-Along - Discussion One

Spoiler Warning: If you are not reading along with us, the below discussion post and comments may contain spoilers.

A few days late. What else is new with me? Always a day behind and...well, you know. Anyway, to start, this book is amazing so far! 

I read LaValle's The Ballad of Black Tom novella several years ago and I really liked it. Such a great spin on a Lovecraftian tale. I didn't hesitate to buy this one, but then it languished on my shelf for a time. My mom did read it and said it was really good so at that point I knew it would be right up my alley. I have not been disappointed so far.

I think we all secretly fear being imprisoned against our will, especially if that imprisonment occurred in a mental hospital. This may be even more visceral for women, who in history were committed for hysteria and other stupid reasons like speaking their minds, or going against the norms of the time. So, I can relate to Pepper's predicament, even though I've never been committed myself. I mean really, if you're arrested for assault, the last thing a person would honestly expect would be to find themselves in a mental hospital. Jail would seem the proper avenue, right? So, right off the bat, I knew something was fishy. Next we get allusions to danger in various ways...Dorry stating Northwest Four is off limits, then Coffee talking about needing to call the Mayor because he's "seen it," and then perhaps not really an allusion...Pepper's encounter with the creature (yikes) putting its hands in his mouth, etc. Now that part was unsettling. 

Not much more to say about this section except for speculation on who or what this creature is. Is it indeed a creature that had been living there and Northwest was built just to hold it, or is it what Dorry said, it being the first patient on the ward before her time? I guess we will find out, but I will say there seems to be some kind of supernatural element as well. Remember the invisible snorting and stench with no obvious source that Pepper and the cop (Dewey) experienced? Also, the strange pull that door at the end of Northwest Four had for Pepper when he ventured that way. What do you think?

Share your thoughts on this week's section in the comments, or leave a link to a post. We'll be back for the next discussion on October 2nd (or thereabouts..lol). If you need the reading schedule, find it here.

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