Reviews tagging 'Trafficking'

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

127 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

steph_ha's review

challenging dark emotional 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

Wow, what a story. I’m blown away by the entire tale, and impressed with the authors skill to make a novel deeply educational. Demon uses the most vivid and thoughtful imagery in his narration. Not from quite as far west as Appalachia, I could see every moment of the story and visualize the characters. Highly recommended. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, and Trafficking

Minor: Alcoholism, Bullying, and Pedophilia

acorn33's review

adventurous dark emotional informative inspiring 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

5.0

This is in my Top 5 favorites of all time, sitting with The Help, Night, Cerulean Sea, and The Eyes and the Impossible. 

Demon’s story was enthralling from the first page to the last. It was heartbreaking and hopeful and frustrating and enlightening. I would love to see the world read this book and walk away with any number of the new perspectives Barbara Kingsolver shines a light on. This book and Demon’s demons will stay with me for a lifetime. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, and Abandonment

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Trafficking, Grief, and Medical trauma

madmadmaddymad's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective 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

This is one of the best books I’ve ever listened to. Highly, highly recommend the audiobook. I love the narrator, and the style. 

My favorite line is when he was talking about gossiping in the bathroom and the person you’re talking about is in the stall right next to you. “We can hear you.” And how it feels to be living in the mountains in Virginia and the butt of every American joke. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Death of parent, and Classism

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Grief

Minor: Emotional abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, and Trafficking

jessbailey24's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-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

5.0

I think this has made it to my top 5 favorite books. I just finished it and need time to sit with it before writing a real review

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Mental illness, Vomit, Trafficking, and Classism

araecreative's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-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

3.0

This book was hard to read and painful from the perspective of someone who spent teen years in dark, addiction-driven, poor, abusive spaces. It was relentless in its pain and offers very little in the way of joy, and that to me does not equal an amazing book. There were bits that were poignant, but amidst a shroud of crudely overwritten idioms they sort of beat you over the head. This sits in the category of poverty p*rn for me, the kind that wins big awards because literary circles like to feel like they’ve witnessed suffering in a way they’ve never seen before. That said, the re-imagining of David Copperfield was executed masterfully and bridged a gap between two worlds that is impactful and well-crafted. As an achievement in appreciation of a classic milestone in literature, it is well-executed. Standing on its own it was not enjoyable to experience and I felt it stank of self-importance as a piece centered on the devastation of the opioid crisis. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Trafficking, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

intravenous drug use

heroin use

extreme poverty

children in danger

fentanyl use

gabi_bocardi's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense 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

Damon is just like any one, any human, but he got the worst of the world, but he still kept going even though just shit was given to him. I don’t know how giving up on people or himself was never the first thing that came to his mind, or how he wasn’t so angry all time, because I was all of that from the first page of the book to the last. The characters of this book are all to real, you love and hate some, you feel ashamed and sorry for others, and inspired by some others. They are too real, you understand them, because they could be your your mom and dad, that annoying aunt, the cousin you are like siblings with, the friends that you’ve grown up with but now just hear gossips about. It’s so real that it’s hardly fictional. And that’s one of this writers superpower, telling this story as if you were so close to them you can feel what they feel, go through it all as if you’re them. She’s an amazing writer, the pace of the book was perfect, the mix of characters, from loving to hateful ones is a masterpiece, and I also loved how she made history be so essential to the story that I’d be looking forward to read those parts. In my opinion, this book should have trigger warnings because it’s that type of story, but at the same time, everyone should read it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Racism, Sexual violence, and Trafficking

kendralyris's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring 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

Beautiful and sad. It was at times a difficult and emocional read, but beautifully written. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Trafficking, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Classism

mac23's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

I have a lot of questions, as a critical thinker. I thought it was a good novel, but I found myself consistently asking the same questions of the author…”how would you know?” It’s written by a straight white older woman from the perspective of a heterosexual male person of color, who goes through some seriously traumatic experiences, and written from their first person point of view. Admittedly, the light research that I’ve done on the author does not show that she has been in any of these experiences first hand, especially addiction. If you haven’t experienced that directly, I don’t feel that it is appropriate or accurate to write about that experience as though you have, first hand. There is a level of nuance there that is seriously missing, IMO. It read to me as obtuse. For the prizes this book won, I’m surprised, but also not surprised, that it got this much attention for as problematic as it was.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Trafficking, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Classism

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