The Devil Plant By Lyle Wilson Holden

This short story was among the “Best of Weird Tales” PDF. Well this story was pretty much a story of revenge. I liked it because he explains why he is doing it at first. Also because the story is from his point of view, I immediately side with him. After explaining how Silvela ruin his life, he tries to figure out a way to get him back for what he did. I still can’t make up my mind about how to feel for Silvela. He had wronged the Rodrigez. According to the Rodrigez himself, he had done so unknowingly. Also Silvela is a “poor idiot” because he doesn’t know that his friend has been conspiring against him all along. What really intrigued me about this story was the choice of weapon for carrying out his scheme. I love the idea of an exotic plant killing things. I found it fascinating how the Rodrigez lured Silvela to the “devil tree”. He didn’t have to do much. Silvela’s curiosity did get the best of him. I think the part of the short story that I paid most attention to, was the description of the devil tree as well as the part where Silvela gets killed by it. It was a brilliant idea of the Rodrigez to choose an exotic plant was the weapon of choice, because it could be easily overlooked as an accident. The first thing I wanted to do when I read about the devil tree was draw what I thought it would look like. Even though it was a fairly short story, I liked the way Holden took the time to describe Silvela’s death. It was really tense when Silvela was on the tree about drink the elixir and oblivious to the devil tree’s tendrils. The end was rather disturbing. Rodrigez mentions that he will forever carry Silvela’s distorted form writhing in close embrace of the devil-tree’s snaky arms. I can almost picture him with a twisted grin of his face while he thinks of that.