Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

37 reviews

camillaforte's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.5

Reading parts of this book feels like army crawling through gravel, but Kingsolver is a master of give and take writing. She always knows just when to ease up a little bit to get you through. Demon Copperhead is heartbreaking, darkly funny and immensely insightful. 
I’m only knocking half a star off for the shallow purpose of marking that this wasn’t enjoyable for me at times, purely for personal reasons having nothing to do with the quality of the book itself.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Abortion, Blood, and Cursing

lduff1's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Violence, Child abuse, Classism, Death, Alcoholism, Drug use, Death of parent, Grief, Toxic relationship, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Blood, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Physical abuse, Infidelity, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Sexual content

Minor: Vomit

opplecopter'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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Classism, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Violence, Grief, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Child death, Cursing, Death, Addiction, Blood, Bullying, Drug abuse, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Terminal illness, Vomit, Confinement, Cancer, and Abandonment

Minor: Animal death, Abortion, Car accident, and Pedophilia

bookworm356's review

challenging dark 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Sexual content, Violence, Alcoholism, Grief, Suicide, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Drug abuse, Self harm, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Alcohol, Rape, Abortion, Death of parent, Abandonment, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Drug use, Pregnancy, and Emotional abuse

mobymaize's review against another edition

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 :)

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Content Warnings

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

macykey's review

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-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

4.25

This book was excellent. The writing was gorgeous, the story was engrossing. I don’t know if it was intentional or not, but the writing style seemed to change as Demon got older. It made me think the writing was reflecting his aging, which I thought was smart. There were a couple things that didn’t sit right with me or rubbed me the wrong way. I felt the ending was wrapped up too quickly. I saw the interpersonal development coming, but I wish it’d been done sooner. I also felt that some of the traumatic things that happened to Demon were a little more detailed than necessary. And I get people having nicknames, but sometimes they all just got lost in the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Body horror, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Toxic friendship, Cursing, Blood, Violence, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Death of parent, and Vomit

Moderate: Murder, Abandonment, Sexual violence, Rape, Pregnancy, and Self harm

Minor: Suicide, Miscarriage, Adult/minor relationship, Abortion, Cancer, and Car accident

kola10981928's review

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

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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

sskinner155's review

emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

A dark and hard read but well worth it for the characters and their story. One of the few books I’ve read where is length is justified by its story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Homophobia, Addiction, Cursing, Blood, and Drug abuse

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.

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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

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

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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