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A review by emmalong
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
5.0
this book was so easy for me to rate five stars. obviously, it has won a bunch of awards, Kingsolver is a notable author, and the premise of this book is something i will automatically enjoy. but the way it was crafted was so well done. at first, i did not enjoy the first person narrative of Demon and thought it was difficult to get into the writing style. but then, i had read 200 pages and felt like i was watching a movie or listening to a story i had heard before and completely fell in love with the way it was written.
the setting of southern Appalachia was hard hitting and was the necessary backdrop for a story such as this. we see Demon through his lens, through stories he has heard, through his thoughts and progressions of understanding of the situation he was born into. addiction hits pretty close to home for me personally and i think Kingsolver depicted it really well. the constant rollercoaster of hope and hopelessness and the vicious and almost never-redeemable cycle of poor environments laid out for children were so emotional to watch, but persistently brought up important points of conversation.
the juxtaposition between this and David Copperfield (of which i have not read yet), was well done in that the changes many hoped to see between the times of then and the reality of now, have not been made. our society still contains underfed, underprivileged, underhoused, and lacks so many other important resources for the constituents it serves that it is haunting.
as a person who grew up in a family that fostered kids, i know the stories of the stark reality of poor child care and foster care. it is scary to think that it is the actuality of the lives children, who have no say in their care, that they are poorly taken care of. there are families who do it just to obtain a check at the end of the month, there is sometimes child labor involved, there is complete and utter neglect. the fact that it hasn't changed is disheartening, but it is through literature that we can understand the true plight and work towards a better infrastructure for children to live in.
overall, such an incredibly profound and beautiful story with phenomenally done character studies and realistic, considerate, and engaging plot. i highly recommend this book and think it is one of the greatest works of our time.
the setting of southern Appalachia was hard hitting and was the necessary backdrop for a story such as this. we see Demon through his lens, through stories he has heard, through his thoughts and progressions of understanding of the situation he was born into. addiction hits pretty close to home for me personally and i think Kingsolver depicted it really well. the constant rollercoaster of hope and hopelessness and the vicious and almost never-redeemable cycle of poor environments laid out for children were so emotional to watch, but persistently brought up important points of conversation.
the juxtaposition between this and David Copperfield (of which i have not read yet), was well done in that the changes many hoped to see between the times of then and the reality of now, have not been made. our society still contains underfed, underprivileged, underhoused, and lacks so many other important resources for the constituents it serves that it is haunting.
as a person who grew up in a family that fostered kids, i know the stories of the stark reality of poor child care and foster care. it is scary to think that it is the actuality of the lives children, who have no say in their care, that they are poorly taken care of. there are families who do it just to obtain a check at the end of the month, there is sometimes child labor involved, there is complete and utter neglect. the fact that it hasn't changed is disheartening, but it is through literature that we can understand the true plight and work towards a better infrastructure for children to live in.
overall, such an incredibly profound and beautiful story with phenomenally done character studies and realistic, considerate, and engaging plot. i highly recommend this book and think it is one of the greatest works of our time.