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 institution in Queens, New York. He’s not mentally ill, but that doesn’t seem to matter. He is accused of a crime he can’t quite square with his memory. In the darkness of his room on his first night, he’s visited by a terrifying creature with the body of an old man and the head of a bison 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 who’s been on the ward for decades and knows all its secrets; Coffee, an African immigrant with severe OCD, who tries desperately to send alarms to the outside world; and Loochie, a bipolar teenage girl who acts as the group’s enforcer. 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?

The Devil in Silver brilliantly brings together the compelling themes that spark all of Victor LaValle’s radiant fiction: faith, race, class, madness, and our relationship with the unseen and the uncanny. More than that, it’s a thrillingly suspenseful work of literary horror about friendship, love, and the courage to slay our own demons.
(Amazon)

I got this because of a recommendation from Tomcat over at tomcat in the red room. (Here is his review of The Devil in Silver).

It took me some time to get used to LaValle's simple, chatty, vernacular style and the brief switches to other characters' perspectives. But it does render the characters very real and very human, and it gives insight into their motivations for actions that would otherwise remain opaque. By the time the plot picks up in the second half, and Pepper is more and more confronted with the prejudices and automatisms he is harbouring, I was very much enjoying myself. I also loved the way LaValle shows us what we assume and/or take for granted and what shortcuts our minds generate until new perspectives are revealed. This does not only apply to his treatment of characters' names ("Coffee"/Kofi, Xiu/"Sue") but also to the problems faced by groups we don't belong to - and to the overall discussion of surveillance vs. privacy. Systems = tools. But to what ends?

This book goes to chamonix44 - the winner of my Halloween RABCK. Enjoy! :))

Thank you so much for sending me this book. I will start reading it straight away.

Not quite sure what to make of this story. I found it very sad and at one point I wanted to give up reading it. Anyway I kept reading, hoping for a happier outcome. At the end Pepper seemed happy enough but this was an unresolved ending! I didnt like that. Thank you anyway anathema-device for letting me read this book. I think I have definitely learned something from it. Enjoy your freedom while you have it.
I think I have already found another reader for this book. So watch this space........

I gave this book to fellow bookcrosser, KJSkye in Hengelo.

Hallo daar, gelukkige vinder!
Wat leuk dat je op deze pagina bent komen kijken. Als je dit leest, heb je een boek gevonden, zomaar een onverwacht kadootje van mij voor jou... Veel plezier ermee! Hierbij trouwens wat spelregels mbt bookcrossing:

1. Het zou fijn zijn als je meldt dat het veilig bij jou is. Dat mag gewoon in het Nederlands.
2. Daarna kun je het boek gaan lezen en als je wilt nog eens schrijven wat je ervan vond.
3. Mag het boek verder reizen, geef het dan door aan iemand anders, of laat het zomaar ergens weer achter, liefst op een veilige, droge plek. Je kunt via de bookcross-site ook weer melden waar je het hebt neergelegd, zodat anderen ernaar op zoek kunnen gaan...
TIP: Als je het boek op zijn reis wilt volgen, dan kun je je het beste aanmelden als nieuwe bookcrosser (www.bookcrossing.com). Het is erg leuk om erachter te komen hoe het met 'jouw' boek op z'n reis verder gaat!!
Ik zou het erg leuk vinden als je mij chamonix44 dan opgeeft als referent. Voor Nederlandse uitleg kun je terecht op de volgende site: www.bookcrossing.nl

If you are reading here, then I want to tell you that this is a. FREE . book, and there are no catches! It is now yours! Please read on.....
If you are the finder of this book it would be nice if you could leave a message here to say that you have it. Do not worry because I don't want the book back. It is yours to keep if you want it. I just want to know it is now in safe hands.

Received this book in December from chamonix44 and I read it whilst travelling to work by train every weekday. I enjoyed it.