Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

54 reviews

challenging emotional funny fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

My boy Damon goes THROUGH IT. I’ll be honest, I didn’t know what year it was for the first quarter of the book, it was such a stark depiction of poverty. Odysseus in coal country.

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional funny reflective sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional funny inspiring sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Okay. I enjoyed this book all the way until the end. One of the reasons I love Barbara Kingsolver so much is because she’s really great at painting the perspectives of people in tough places. 
As some who grew up in rural Appalachia, this story hit home from the very beginning. The rundown homes. The MLM’s. The cat piss smell when there aren’t any cats present. The othering experience of growing up poor. It’s HARD. Then it lead into the broken football star to opioid addict pipeline and boy howdy…
As someone who was one of the “jackpots of hopeless futures” convinced by the recruiters in shiny buttons to join the military to escape my small town. I always felt like my life could have ended up exactly like Demon’s. 

But the fucking ending?!? Are you serious Barbara. You had to go with THAT love interest?!?! 😒😒

Spoilers below:





Definitely glosses over the racism that I KNOW is rampant in rural Appalachia. It’s hinted at, in things like “only 10 “people like him” living in Lee county” when talking about the Black teacher. Or how there must be something wrong with the pretty white teacher that he’s married to… 😒😒

Are you fucking serious. Angus?!?! If you have to write it “is she my sister or something more” it’s an automatic noooooooooooooo!!!!!!! They grew up being raised as siblings, even if they aren’t blood siblings. They should not have ended up as the love interest….. ewwwwww. This is one fucking rural stereotype that I wish would go the way of the dodo



Expand filter menu Content Warnings
emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

It's been a long time since a book gripped my emotions the way Kingsolver did in "Demon Copperhead". As a mother, and as someone who had bad relationships and dabbled in drugs in my teens, this book accurately reflected the struggles of adolescence in a poverty-stricken community. 

I found myself throughout the day thinking about the characters in the book as if they were people I knew in real life. I wanted to yell at the characters, and hold Daemon and give him good advice and a hot meal. 

Such a great read. Should be required for high school or college. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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