Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

1172 reviews

natreadthat's review against another edition

3.5

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Hot take: I found it very hard not to hate this book. Perhaps it was wrong book, wrong time. Perhaps it was just depressing AF. I know, I know—that was likely the whole point.

The book itself is well-written and immersive. Kingsolver does a phenomenal job capturing some really agonizing realities: addiction, poverty, fostering, death, griet, abuse. The level of realism forces readers to feel like they’re going through the troubles the characters are, and that alone is painful.

If I had to rate this for enjoyment, it'd probably be a three-star read. For storytelling? I'll give it four.

After pondering over it all for a week or so now, I wonder if this story has gotten praise because it ebbs towards poverty-porn. Is it a good story because it's a good story? Or because of how dramatic and sad it is? I guess that will be up to you to decide. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Death of parent

Minor: Sexual content

jessbu's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Abandonment

Moderate: Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Homophobia, Miscarriage, Racism, Sexual violence

ginnydw's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

Minor: Ableism, Abortion, Abandonment

plusverb's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous challenging emotional 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: No

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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, Classism

kelsey118's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Death of parent

cemthomp78's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional 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: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Death of parent

mikag182's review against another edition

5.0

challenging reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Death of parent

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse

Minor: Rape, Suicidal thoughts

katebitters's review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Loveable characters: No

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This was a tough book to get through, and I'm not sure it added anything new or profound to the conversation about drug abuse, poverty, and rural America. I almost quit reading at several points because the story was so damn depressing and seemed to be spinning in circles instead of moving forward along some kind of story arc.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Self harm, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Sexism, Death of parent, Classism

kschlesinger's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy

kprysmiki's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol