Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

129 reviews

madoherty93's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Rape, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Alcohol, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Grief, Trafficking, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Vomit, Rape, and Physical abuse

danimcthomas's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Absolute perfection. I haven’t loved a main character like I loved Damon in years. The audiobook was superbly voice acted, fully capturing the dialect of the region.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Child abuse, Death, Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Miscarriage, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Racial slurs, Suicide, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Alcoholism, Pregnancy, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Grief, Gun violence, and Gore

Might be triggering for anyone with a history of being in foster care.

kola10981928's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Drug use, Addiction, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Alcoholism, Gaslighting, Pregnancy, Death of parent, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Grief, Violence, Emotional abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Animal death

Minor: Cursing, Car accident, Chronic illness, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Blood, Hate crime, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Mental illness

writingcaia's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This book is brutally honest in presenting to the world the truth about the Appalachian mountains hillbillies and rednecks, but with the candor of youth, with little cynicism, through the eyes of Demon Copperhead a boy orphaned too soon by an addict mom who couldn’t deal with his father’s death before he was even born, who is then brought up in a tired, unfair child services system, and without no surprise becomes a cliche of the youth in such places.
It’s a proper dramatic book, that doesn’t shy away from the ugly truths of living in an enforced poverty.
It opened my eyes and taught me much, about rednecks and hillbillies - the prejudice and truth, about old wars, old scars that never heal, and about the Melungeon (who most have even a little of Portuguese blood, go figure).
I knew already about the dope sickness and how it affected especially small towns such as the one Demon lives in, a place of nature, extremes of beauty, and of hardship.
It’s impossible not to feel moved by Demon, his sweet soul, his bright intellect and extreme creativity, but with an unfortunate low low self esteem. A child forced to grow up too soon, a teen that has lives depending on him before he even enters adulthood, a person that loses too much before he is even grown, and whose dreams are always thwarted and the worse seems to always happen. There are reprieves, fortunately, his friendship with the Peggs, finding his father’s family, and moments so happy he fears them, dreads the loss before it happens, thus not letting himself enjoy them, like the time with Angus and the General, the family he has for a little while, and the success in high school.
I can’t put into words all this book did for me and to me,  the wonder and sadness, and everything in between, so it’s definitely no surprise the Pulitzer and all the other awards it won.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Death of parent, Child abuse, and Death

Moderate: Pregnancy, Racism, Alcoholism, Bullying, and Blood

Minor: Abortion, Vomit, Rape, and Animal death

deetabz's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Addiction, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Homophobia, Sexual harassment, Abandonment, Excrement, Vomit, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Animal death, Child abuse, Classism, Cursing, Death of parent, Medical content, Racial slurs, Racism, and Grief

Minor: Car accident and Pregnancy

taymorton20's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death, Alcoholism, Addiction, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Miscarriage, Child abuse, Terminal illness, Blood, Sexual violence, Medical content, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, and Death of parent

hbskeen's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Child abuse, Addiction, Alcoholism, Grief, Toxic friendship, Child death, Drug use, Abandonment, Toxic relationship, Death, Domestic abuse, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Pregnancy, Vomit, and Sexual content

Minor: Miscarriage, Animal death, Racial slurs, and Suicide

hinkleh's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Death of parent, Grief, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, Death, and Sexual content

Moderate: Car accident, Forced institutionalization, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, and Bullying

zoinkie's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Death, Physical abuse, Addiction, Child abuse, Classism, Alcohol, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Murder, Pregnancy, Trafficking, and Violence

astoriareader's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

1.0

SYNOPSIS:

• Damon Fields, aka Demon Copperhead, is born in Southern Virginia in the late 1980s to a teen mom with substance issues. Demon’s mom is in and out of rehab, and he is partly raised by the Peggots.
• Demon’s mom ends up marrying an abusive man.
• Demon is shuffled off to a foster home run by Mr. Creakle & then a few more. He finally ends up with football coach, and the book weaves his story with opiod addiction.

MY THOUGHTS

• Prior to reading this one, I saw some articles online about it that said it is a retelling of Dicken’s novel entitled David Copperfield.
• After seeing rave reviews & that the author won the Pulitzer Prize for this book, I waited on library wait list for quite a while. I am in the minority here, but this book & writing style was not for me. 
• Although the opiod crisis is a serious topic, I can’t recommend this book. This book DRAGS. It is so unnecessarily slow. It took me 7 days to finish. I typically finish any book, even books I don’t like, in max 4 days. It was getting to feel like homework getting through it. There’s a ton of parts that didn’t need to be included.
• The writing style was nauseating to me. I hated it. It is Demon describing & relaying things, and his voice wasn’t strong enough for that job. It’s like a child relaying things to you for 500+ pages. I also didn’t buy Kingsolver’s ability to write in the shoes of this character. It didn’t sound realistic at all.
• The characters are all flat & many are stereotypical cliches. To name a few, think: single drug addicted mom living in trailer, abusive stepdad, Appalachians are all white people, Appalachians are hillbillies.
• I also found Demon’s trajectory unbelievable in terms of his path to drugs. It doesn’t line up with everything he has witnessed & experienced. The author comes across as an outsider to the subject. 
• I did like the Peggots, Aunt June, Mrs. Annie, and Tommy.
• I enjoy complex characters that make sense, but the characters in this book don’t make sense.

TL;DR: ⭐️unreal to me that this won a Pulitzer Prize.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Addiction

Moderate: Death, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Trafficking, Pregnancy, Fatphobia, Death of parent, Miscarriage, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, and Classism

Minor: Vomit and Homophobia