Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

233 reviews

phillybookish's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Grief, Alcohol, Classism, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Drug use, and Abandonment

Moderate: Medical content, Physical abuse, Child abuse, and Death of parent

Minor: Pregnancy, Child death, Miscarriage, Violence, and Suicidal thoughts

bronzeageholly's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.75

Tackling this book felt like an immense task but I'm so so glad I completed it. 

For those who know David Copperfield, it is a close enough interpretation to make you go "oh no! I know where this is going! stop the ride!" at least once a chapter. But, in saying that, it is also a very unique concept, an incredible tale of the care system and opioid crisis in the US.

Each character was so well fleshed out, in particular Demon; his narratorial voice was so strong, moving, and hilarious. His thoughtfulness, his anger, his empathy are heartbreaking. The accounts of each of the characters moved me to tears many times; I wanted desperately to reach into the pages and swoop Demon and the others away to safety. 

I found the pacing quite difficult to get into and had to swap from the physical book to an audiobook around 1/5 of the way in. The lack of abstraction throughout meant that when there were descriptions of intense suffering my reading quickened ("I need to keep going to make sure they're okay"), and then would slow dramatically during the 'bildungsroman' areas. Because of this I had an on-again-off-again relationship with the book, however the audiobook helped immensely and I found myself unable to put it down for the last few hours.

The central themes of addiction, judgement, loss, and love are devastating and important, and I would implore every adult to read it. There are so many lines that I will hold with me forever.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Addiction, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Grief, Medical content, Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Classism, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Abortion, Bullying, and Kidnapping

alexcribbs's review

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

😬 I know this is a beloved book, so maybe my expectations were too high. I loved The Bean Trees by this author, but this one was painfully slow and for seemingly no purpose. 

At one point I legitimately skipped 3 chapters when I saw where something was going

(drug use > drug abuse > drug addiction)

, and it sincerely had no impact on my experience except for saving me a couple hours of reading. 

I grew up in Ohio (iykyk). So this book didn’t give me a perspective I’m not already (unfortunately) intimately familiar with.

TL;DR - Meh 🤷‍♀️ 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Death of parent, and Drug abuse

Minor: Abandonment

mushbop's review

challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

i wish i could read this book for the first time again

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Grief, Mental illness, Abandonment, Death of parent, Death, Miscarriage, Addiction, and Alcoholism

metchap's review

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment and Drug use

scottishhands's review

challenging dark emotional reflective 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: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Child abuse, Trafficking, Abandonment, Addiction, Grief, Rape, and Abortion

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

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Content Warnings

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

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

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

misformarie's review

emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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? It's complicated

4.5

The author is able to layer / knit together a social, political, economic, ecological, and racial commentary so beautifully. None of the commentary feels contrived or out of place. The story is about a boy growing up in Appalachia during the opioid epidemic. And it's also about 100 other things. It's so great. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Child abuse, Classism, Drug use, Drug abuse, and Addiction

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

cityiguana's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny 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

This book is very good but honestly pretty tough to read.

Thank god it had a happy ending or I would have needed to up my Prozac prescription

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Death

Minor: Racism, Medical content, and Racial slurs

mercurysflame's review

dark emotional funny sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

well written but it really had pacing issues after the first third of the book. also, it just felt like tragedy tourism/poverty porn and was meant to shock people into being upset while also entertaining them. also i just do not find it fun to read about people in active addiction but this was a book club book and i couldn’t show up unprepared. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Death of parent, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, and Trafficking