14 discussion

Did I totally miss what caused all the suicides? The book was great, but when it was over, I kept thinking, "But what caused the suicides?"

I wondered the same. Perhaps it was other tenants stumbling upon "the truth"...

But that doesn't explain why all the people who lived in that room specifically kept killing themselves.

I have a lot of questions about this book. No, I don't believe the issue of why 16 caused the suicides were addressed. My book group at Shelfari (http://www.shelfari.com/groups/23394/...) had some interesting theories. I also want to know why the cockroaches were there and why chain and padlock doors if you didn't want to draw attention to the secrets?

"Many people believe that suicide rates peak during the winter months. Intuitively, this makes sense given the existence of seasonal affective disorder and the tendency to associate depression with winter"
quote from wikipedia, and thats the many people belive that cold and damp place affected human behaviour (that's why we commonly associate cold and damp house with haunted house more than "less" cold and damp house) -sorry for bad english

@MimiT: The cockroaches snuck in from the other side of the (for lack of a better description) dimensional rift. Also, slummy/tennament buildings usually have doors locked off for a variety of safety reasons. This occassionally violates fire ordinances.