Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

90 reviews

desiree_zeuxis's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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

Everybody warns about bad influences, but it’s these things already inside you that are going to take you down. The restlessness in your gut, like tomcats gone stupid with their blood feuds, prowling around in the moon-dead dark. The hopeless wishes that won’t quit stalking you: some perfect words you think you could say to somebody to make them see you, and love you, and stay. 

Oh this book pulled at all of my most tender parts. Poverty, mother hunger, parental addiction, rehab. Kingsolver is a wonderful writer, I couldn't stop saving every line for later. This is absolutely going on my favorites shelf of which there are less than 10 books. 

For the kids who wake up hungry in those dark places every day, who’ve lost their families to poverty and pain pills, whose caseworkers keep losing their files, who feel invisible, or wish they were: this book is for you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, and Abandonment

Moderate: Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, Medical content, Trafficking, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

jd2create's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Moderate: Mental illness, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Racism, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Pregnancy

iordanmoore's review

dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad 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

4.5

I loved the narrator’s voice! A retelling of David Copperfield but through the modern lens of being in Appalachia and also dealing with the opioid crisis. Despite all of the troubles life deals Demon, he’s a main character you can’t help but root for and I loved his relationship with Angus.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Pregnancy, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Animal death, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Vomit

sha's review

emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

Demon Copperhead is a fully realised character study that immerses the reader in the life of its narrator, a boy growing up in rural Appalachia. As a modern retelling of David Copperfield, the novel explores themes of poverty, resilience, and systemic injustice, all while maintaining a deeply personal and emotionally engaging perspective.

Much like Shuggie Bain, Demon Copperhead sensitively portrays a young boy’s struggle to survive in a world that seems determined to break him. Kingsolver doesn’t shy away from the horrors of addiction, neglect, and exploitation—particularly in her searing depiction of the opioid crisis—but she does so with compassion, never reducing her characters to mere symbols of suffering. Instead, she gives them depth, agency, and moments of unexpected grace.

The novel’s immersive prose brings Demon’s voice to life with humor, grit, and unflinching honesty. Kingsolver captures both the harsh realities and the small joys of his world, making his journey all the more compelling. The result is a story that is both devastating and hopeful, a testament to the enduring power of storytelling and survival.

This is a type of story I don’t normally enjoy, but surprisingly it kept my attention in the form of an audiobook! Although, some parts in the middle dragged on, and became repetitive.

Torn between 3.5-4/5 ⭐️

Just as an aside - I greatly enjoyed the detailed writing on farming in Demon’s first temporary foster placement.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Abortion, Suicide attempt, and Pregnancy

bibliobb91's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, and Drug use

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

camillatd's review against another edition

challenging sad medium-paced

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

3.5

My reflections on Barbara Kingsolver’s highly acclaimed 2022 novel Demon Copperhead are complicated; they don’t neatly fall into the categories of “this is a good book, you should read it”, or “this is a bad book, you shouldn’t read it.” Much has been said about the novel’s merits, from its clever reimagining of David Copperfield (which, I’ll note, I haven’t read), to its emotional depth, to its direct evisceration of pharmaceutical violence and structural neglect of poor and rural communities. It’s a deeply affecting and—loathe as I am to use the cliche—undoubtedly powerful novel. You can find these reviews in basically every corner of the literary internet, so here are some of my thoughts on the novel’s thorny complexities and pitfalls.

The novel is told entirely in Demon’s voice, which shapes the reader’s perspective of each character and interaction. Demon’s voice is very much that of a teenage boy (which he is for most of the novel), and it shows in the casual and rampant misogyny in his inner monologue and perceptions of the women in his life. Dori is the character who I found the most painful to read through Demon’s eyes: she is introduced as a first and foremost sexual object, then, in time, she becomes a burden to him, a ‘doll baby’ he needs to care for and save. This particular relationship becomes emblematic of Demon’s worldview, particular in the dichotomies of good and bad, savior and saved, worthy and unworthy. 

I talked to @booksarebrainfood a lot about the strange sense of voyeurism we’ve each felt when reading books like this about a particular experience of poverty and suffering, especially when those books become highly lauded by the white, literature-reading, non-rural classes. Some of this is beyond my scope of context: I very much fall into these aforementioned classes.

It makes me wonder: who is this novel for? Is it for Kingsolver, and the community she comes from? Is it for those who might see themselves in Demon’s story (survivors of childhood neglect, the foster care system, or the opioid crisis)? Is it for the “redneck” community about which it is written? Or is it for the very people Demon names as those who look down on his community?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Medical content, Car accident, Death of parent, and Classism

Moderate: Animal death, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racism, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Injury/Injury detail

plusverb's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad 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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

c_dmckinney's review

dark emotional hopeful informative sad tense fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Self harm, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

boopcup's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense 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

4.75

i'd die for Demon Copperhead. i never knew i needed Appalachian David Copperfield in my life but this was it, in all its glory. i loved everything about this book and only knocking it a quarter star because it did slightly drag and stutter by the end. some of my favorite words ever written were in this one and my god, i'll sorely miss Demon's voice in my next read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

bwilliams24's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Dementia, Abortion, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism