Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

20 reviews

lizsim's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child death, Cursing, Pedophilia, and Vomit

Minor: Bullying, Chronic illness, Gun violence, and Classism

rinku's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad slow-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

3.5

I struggle a bit with rating Demon Copperhead, and I settled with a 3.5-star rating for now. The story was generally interesting, just like the characters, but it was a bit too cliché and there was too much misery for my taste. I think the average rating here on Goodreads is way too high though. 

The struggle centres around Demon who’s born in an trailer park in the Appalachians to a drug-addicted single mom. The whole setting is really American which is maybe why I couldn’t relate to much happening as a European. The depiction of the foster system was quite interesting, and I learned a lot from it. It’s so sad how Demon has no place to stay, especially after the really predictable

death of his mother

. Still, these parts of the story were written well, and there are some sections in this novel that really make you think. Socio-political themes are a subject as well but I wished that they would’ve been thematized more. It was just your stereotypical “the city lefts don’t care for the poor people!” which I’m always irritated by since it’s just not true. 

I think my main problem with Demon Copperhead is its length. I honestly think that the book could’ve ended after the half: There’s a lot of misery, and everything goes wrong until there’s finally a glimpse of light, even though you’re wondering how long it’ll last. In my opinion, this was the best part of the book. But then, the really cliché addiction storyline starts with the introduction of one of the flattest characters in the book aka Dori. It annoyed me how much Demon was focussed on her since she was such a bad influence; it was no surprise that

she died as well

. The ending feels bittersweet and melancholic but the fact that Demon’s stepsister

is apparently in love with him

left me with an irritated feeling. 

Besides this, I also feel torn about the writing style. There’s a lot of telling and things that are described are written vulgarly and grotesque. There’s also a lot of ableism, homophobia, and sexism, but this is just the way Demon grew up, I suppose. I also don’t know if it’s just in the German translation but the slurs were a bit too much in my opinion. Furthermore, I struggled with the depiction of abuse. I don’t really know how to say it, but for me it was written too carelessly, if it makes sense. It felt more like shock value to me. 

I don’t really have much to say about the characters as well. There were too many and I couldn’t remember  all the names. Some characters were really great, like Tommy, Angus, or Mr Dick (even though we only see him a few times. Compared to this, Dori was quite the flat character, and Demon behaved so cliché at some points as well, like this cliché “oh, the city is so crowded, me, the countryside child, could never live here!”. 

So, I’m not sure whether I would recommend <Demon Copperhead. It won the Pulitzer Prize, so people who like to read those kind of books will enjoy it. For me, it was too negative and also just too long. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Terminal illness, Car accident, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Abortion

lizmarasse's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol

dua_liepard's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Blood, Grief, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Child death, Gore, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Medical content, Car accident, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

chantaal's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Classism

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Racism, Rape, and Sexual assault

Minor: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Abortion

aegolling249's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Beautiful and moving, but at times slow and tedious. The content is challenging but the protagonist is loveable and I couldn’t help rooting for him. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Death of parent

mobymaize's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Demon Copperhead is a hard read. It isn't hard in terms of the actual language of it not making too much sense, but it's hard because you want Demon to stop doing so much shit. You want him to stop suffering, to get help before he loses everything. It's emotional, it's devastating, and, if anything, it is full of hope. Hope to become better, to recover, to mend oneself and become a person who, while still having traumas, is an actual person. Overall fantastic :)

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

mackenziem12's review against another edition

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Moderate: Cursing, Gun violence, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Racism, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Classism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Abortion

wayfarerheather's review against another edition

Got to Chapter 5 and was massively triggered.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Violence, Religious bigotry, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

scoutabout28's review against another edition

challenging reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Racism, Car accident, and Abortion

Minor: Animal cruelty