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Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'
Demon Copperhead: A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver
84 reviews
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Medical trauma, Abortion, Pregnancy, Classism
Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Trafficking, Pregnancy
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Grief, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Trafficking, Pregnancy
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Racism, Medical content, Medical trauma, Abortion
Demon Copperhead is born in Hill Country, Virginia to a mother who is a substance addict. Mother and son, with a lot of help from their kindly Hillybilly neighbours manage to bumble along with him cleaning up her vomit and getting her to work on time, till she gets married to a man who wants to rule the household with violence. A series of unfortunate events lead to him being thrust into the foster system. He survives all the exploitation, neglect and violence thrown at him, making a few friends along the way. Things change in middle school where he is scouted for the high school football team, and declared "gifted and talented" because of his artistic skills. By then, however almost the entire population has got addicted to prescription drugs because of the unsavoury tactics adopted by Big Pharma, and Demon's life once again spirals out of control.
Demon's voice, in the first part of the book was very authentic, and at times I caught myself wondering how a middle aged woman could write a young boy so convincingly. His resilience in the face of all odds was almost inspiring, which is perhaps what made his subsequent downward spiral so painful to witness. How could the young boy who survived so much let himself be pulled down the way he was? Was it inevitable, given the circumstances of his birth and the environment he was growing up in?
The latter part of the book became almost philosophical. Was capitalism deliberately keeping the "red necks" down because it suited their purpose to have an undereducated and pliable population of potential labourours? Who would take accountability for the spread of substance addiction through prescription drugs drugs among the working class? Were politicians deliberately trying to force people to move from the country side with its "land economy" to the cities where they would be slaves to a "money economy".
In the book, there are references to the need for the 'hillbillies' to tell their own story to the world. It is clear that the author is hoping that this might be "The Great Hillbilly Novel". While it is certainly a story of epic proportions, I got the feeling that the author was trying to hard. The book was Good, but not quite Great.
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Racism, Rape, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Trafficking, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Alcohol
Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Abandonment
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Abortion
Fiction / Literary Fiction / Coming Of Age / Audiobook / Appalachia / Dark
⭐⭐⭐⭐ / 5 🎧🎧🎧🎧/5
Using for Prompts
The 52 Book Club’s 2025 Challenge Prompt # 22) Found family trope (It would work for 2, 22, 26, 33, 39, or 41)
Storygraph Road Trip! Read around the USA: Lee County, Virginia
Storygraph Rainbow Reads 2025: Copper
CW: Research what you are about to read, there is some heavy stuff here. Much revolving around the opioid crisis.
Demon Copperhead is a reimagining of David Copperfield by Charles Dickens.
I loved this, until the end! It was so close to becoming my first 5 star read of the year. Why? The ending just fed into Redneck stereotypes for NO REASON in such an ick way too.
Anyway...
"People love to believe in danger, as long as it’s you in harm’s way, and them saying bless your heart."
I thought the storytelling was wonderful. This book will be forever in the back of my mind, or one that I will always think of when I am faced with the ugliness of the world around me.
"It hit me pretty hard, how there’s no kind of sad in this world that will stop it turning."
While the story was heartbreaking, and emotional, the author told it in a way that kept me intrigued and invested beyond waiting for the next shoe to drop.
"One look at her and I was gone. This is the truth, it was first sight. I fell down a well into some shiny dream, and if somebody had thrown me a rope, which some few eventually did, you couldn’t have paid me to climb it. Some call that addiction. Some say love. Fine line."
I have never had an addiction myself (other than to nicotine and I quit smoking in 2012) but I've seen what it can do to people I care about greatly. I saw doctors throw pills at the problem instead of ever really looking for a cause. I have a friend who is/was (not my call to make) an addict and it didn't happen on the streets, it happened in doctors' offices. They needed surgery and instead got a script. The thing was once they got them hooked, the problem that caused everything to begin with was still there, but then they were deemed "drug seeking". They got the NEEDED surgery months later, but the new problem created took years to "fix".
I have never annotated a book so much.
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, Classism
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship
Minor: Animal death, Cancer, Incest, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol
Minor: Suicide