A review by unsweetener
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

dark funny sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.5

I had no idea what I was getting into with this audiobook other than my library app was pushing it. As an elder Millennial who grew up in small town Appalachia, I might not have read it if I'd known, having a Tommy-like reaction most media featuring Appalachia (especially after suffering through Hillbilly Elegy). Fortunately author does the setting and the addiction theme justice. 

This story veers dangerously close to misery porn, but Demon's perspective keeps things moving; when things are awful, he's focused on surviving to the next thing, which keeps the narrative from getting bogged down and me from getting too depressed to listen to it. There is a lot of abuse in this book, but not really sexual abuse (at least not directly), which was a relief to me.

The character of U-Haul was maybe the weakest part of the story for me; he was pretty one-dimensional
, but I can appreciate the need for a villain with a face post-Stoner
. There were also a few anachronisms, mostly with regard to TV references (the Kardashians were not a thing yet!), but that's a nit-pick. 

The narration was excellent; one possible mispronunciation of peaked (as in sick looking, which I've always heard as pee-kud) caught my attention, but the accent and performance were masterful overall. Hearing my pronunciation of Mammaw is one of my favorite things.

This is the first book I've read by Kingsolver, and I haven't read David Copperfield, but this story reflects well on both of them. I keep thinking about the ways in which people can just disappear without community, 
like Dori,
and how to rebuild the absolute wasteland that a place can become after a century of persistent and evolving exploitation, one family at a time.
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