Mysterious Case of Ivy and Fox Pins!

Slade House is a thrilling story that fasts forwards every nine years. As the reader goes through each chapter the story progresses, and we become familiar with what is going on. Each chapter takes us through a twisted story covering different characters. They are not necessarily similar demographically, but they each seem to possess a common feeling that they are unhappy and lacking something in their lives. Referred to in the book as “engifted” by the Grayer twins, and, eventually, each character is preyed upon by Norah and Jonah. These twisted feelings we get from reading form our genre of horror and mystery.

For Nathan’s chapter, it seems as if we are supposed to be reading for the mimetic register, but as each chapter goes on, we begin to see the possibilities beyond that. To get beyond mimesis we have to start with close reading, Gallop taught us that to get the most out of a text, you must close read by “looking at what is actually on the page…rather than some idea ‘behind the text’” (7). But if we do this, we have to be responsible and “ethical” readers because we are actually trying to understand what the writer is trying to say with their words (12).

One moment to which the reader can’t help but pay attention is in the second section during an interaction between Detective Gordon Edmonds and Chloe Chetwynd. On page 49, she asks, “Did you hear them?” referring to “the children.” Chloe explains that ghost children reside in her house, but they are completely harmless. As readers, we are first tricked into believing her, accepting that Chloe and Gordon’s story is all but separate from the Nathan, Norah, and Jonah that existed previously. She is really referring to little Norah and Jonah, essentially exposing herself, her brother, and their game to Gordon, even if he doesn’t know it then. Norah as Chloe is simply toying with Detective Edmonds and his emotions, luring him to his fate as her and her brother’s meal of the decade. As readers of section 2, we can only question “Chloe’s” intentions the same as Gordon does, and I think that’s the whole point. Chloe’s intentions started to arise when on page 49 “Chloe Chetwynd was giving me an odd look, however. “Did you hear them?” “Sure I did. Neighbors’ children, right?” She looked unsure and nothing made sense at the moment. Her grief must have turned her into a bag of nerves.” These lines have made it seem that she is hiding something from the readers. This instance is if we closely read, and pick up on the clues we could even become a better detective than Gordan. 

It isn’t until later that we come to realize that there is something the twins do that attracts their “victims” during each round of their game. We are made aware that they feel unhappy because there is something they lack but want desperately. Looking back, we see that the Grayer twins lure their victims by giving them exactly what they want. Nathan feels misunderstood and isolated, so the Grayer gives him a friend in a child version of Jonah. Gordon is a lonely divorcee, and the twins give him female companionship in Chloe. Sally is shy with low self-esteem, so the Grayers give her Todd, a boy who wants to bring her out of her shell. Freya desperately wants to find her sister, so the Grayers give her Fred Pink, the man who started it all. Slade House treats every character with their greatest desire and greatest fear in one night.

When thinking about what codes Slade House follows, our group discussed it as Semic Code. Semic Code is defined as repetitive words, phrases, sentences that cluster around a proper name or place. We figured that if we close-read and started noticing these repetitions, it would give us a way into the story. As we read about each decade we are reintroduced to the Slade House geography. Once again, we see the little, black iron door, the beautiful and elaborate garden, the giant and peculiar house, and the memorable layout. Starting with chapter one, 

Mitchell writes, “Slade House is up at the top, old, blocky, stern and gray and half smothered by fiery ivy, and not at all like the houses on Westwood Road and Cranbury Avenue” (Mitchell 10). 

And in chapter two, Mitchell writes that the house 

“grander than all the other houses around, half covered with red ivy” (46). 

And again in chapter 3, he says 

“A Virginia creeper, dark crimson in the twilight, grows up one side” (103). 

David Mitchell continuously writes about the strange, sheer grandeur of the house and its decorative ivy. He keeps driving that point home, so perhaps we can infer that the ivy signifies something, maybe what awaits beyond Slade House. If we think of ivy we know that it’s a climber, it multiplies and consumes anything and everything in its path. Ivy like the Grayer twins feasts upon its subjects and if you don’t eliminate its core it will consume until they are eliminated.

Another example of Semic Code is the fox pin, in chapter one we first hear about the fox pin being the only thing that can protect them from having their soul sucked. It is referred to in each decade but wasn’t used until the last chapter, when Freya’s soul is taken from her body, Sally appears, stabbing Jonah in the neck with the fox pin.

It seems like every scene of Slade House is like a black hole of text that can endlessly unfold. No choice that these characters make is by accident, and no word or phrase isn’t accomplishing something. David Mitchell masks this revelation well, as the first few storytellers are under the influence of various substances, leaving the reader to wonder if these strange happenings are paranormal or just drugged-out hallucinations. As I think about it more, these paranormal activities mirror my dreams, or should I say my nightmares. As our nightmares exploit our underlying needs and desires, whether they’re for companionship, love or second chances.