I had such high hopes for this one since most of the ratings were 5 stars. The beginning had me hooked & Damon's voice had me captivated, the middle drug on & I felt was so repetitive, & then BOOM! The ending, where I finally started to feel intrigued again, was over in 2 seconds! I wanted to trade in half of the book for more ending. The ending was incredibly rushed. The book is kind of a modern take on David Copperfield. I did feel connected to some of the characters & the main character, Damon. And just kept rooting for his success every step of the way, when he was being dealt every bad hand throughout his entire childhood. The story is told through the perspective of someone looking back on their memories. Through the eyes of a child, you learn of the world in Appalachia during the opioid crisis. Although the book is a retelling of David Copperfield, it remains its own unique coming of age story. We are along side Damon as he confronts grief, growing up in the foster care system, addiction, & the concept of family (that tends to look very different for him). Overall the author's flow of writing was great, but definitely felt instead of being 546 pages, it could have been a lot shorter.

Barbara Kingsolver's latest book tells of drug addiction, poverty, child exploitation and corruption in the pharmaceutical industry in some states of the United States. It has a modern-day Dickensian plot, based loosely on the story of David Copperfield. The story covers the life of a young lad who becomes an orphan at age ten, when his mother dies of an overdose, and follows his tragic life for about the next ten years. As an orphan he is subject to the rules of being a ward of the state, which mean living with foster parents who exploit the system for financial gain with little interest in the child's welfare, education or health. Demon is a resilient child who tries his best to uphold the standards of behaviour expected of him by his late mother and a former kind neighbour, but falls on hard times, neglect and very ill treatment by his foster carers. His talents as a football player earn him some reprieve from his hard life, but a knee injury causes him to become addicted to pain medication prescribed by his doctor. His association with other drug-addicted teenagers is his downfall and he struggles to survive whilst becoming more dependent on the addiction to his medication to relieve his pain. After a series of tragic events and the death of his girlfriend, it is only by the persistence of a crusader nurse he has come to know, who fights for the rights of the poor and impoverished like Demon, that is he able to eventually turn his life around and look forward to a better future. It is a sad story and very confronting, which pulls no punches in exposing the cruelty and corruption in many areas where the well-being of vulnerable people is being exploited for financial gain.

I have always enjoyed Barbara Kingsolvers books, and this one is no exception. She is a wonderful author, and describes her characters, (even the unlikeable ones) so well, you can imagine meeting them in person. This story is of a boy, Demon growing up poor, neglected and treated badly, who turns his life around thanks to good people whom he seeks out. He is brave, resilient and adventurous. Many reviewers have said that this story is Kingsolvers version of the British Author Charles Dickens novel David Copperfield. As a Dickens fan, I can attest to the new take on a poor boys climb from poverty to better circumstances. This is one of my best all-time favorite Kingsolver novels. Highly recommend.

Demon Copperhead is the ninth novel by award-winning best-selling American author, Barbara Kingsolver. It's in August of his eleventh year that life falls apart for Damon Fields. Despite his inauspicious beginning and life in a double-wide trailer with his single mother, his first ten years are happy ones.

With strong Melungeon features, flame red hair, green eyes and darker skin, inherited from a father who died before he was born, Damon soon acquires the name Copperhead, Demon being the natural warp of his given name. A good student with a talent for drawing, he excels at school and enjoys spending his free time with his best friend, Maggot, grandson of his mother's landlady, Nance Peggot.

The catalyst for change seems to be the arrival into their lives of Murrell Stone, known as Stoner, whom Damon quickly assesses as bad news. That he is a bully, expert in gaslighting, is soon obvious: "Mom took up with a guy that believed in educating with his fists, that bullied and brainwashed her till the day she died."

By the time he arrives in his father's hometown in Tennessee, the now-eleven-year-old has suffered the physical and psychological abuse of his new step-father, lost his pregnant mother, been fostered out into two differently neglectful homes, done hard physical labour, worked an illegal job, missed school to harvest tobacco, been half-starved, and robbed.

From there, the story follows Demon's rollercoaster fortunes in life: patronage from his paternal grandmother, a football coach and an art teacher; recognition of his talents and abilities; injury and drug addiction; the deterioration and loss of people close to him. He proves to be resilient, and eventually learns that not all the people he chooses end up being true friends.

With her reinvented David Copperfield set in modern-day Appalachia, Kingsolver illustrates the potent impact on young lives of the poor choices that people themselves make, or are made by those charged with their care, often when there is, realistically, no choice at all.

When those people in his life who have good intentions but no means are unable to step up, her protagonist ends up at the mercy of people rorting the welfare system for their own gain or merely their survival, under the supposed care of poorly-paid and under-resourced people stuck in a poorly funded and disorganised system. All of this will feel wholly realistic to those with experience of said system.

Shown, too, is the Appalachian(?) mindset perpetuated by some teachers at less well-off schools that their students lack the intelligence to compete academically with richer schools. This can result is students believing, often to their detriment, injury-wise, that sport or unskilled labour is their only option. Credibly presented is the casually indiscriminate use of prescribed narcotics in teens with its ensuing downward spiral into addiction, and also the power of the intelligent cartoon.

Damon's feels like an authentic voice which gives the story added credibility. Kingsolver gives her young protagonist insight: "A mean side to people comes out at such times, where their only concern is what did the misfortunate person do to put themselves in their sorry fix. They're building a wall to keep out the bad luck."

And makes him perceptive: "A dead parent is a tricky kind of ghost. If you can make it into more like a doll, putting it in the real house and clothes and such that they had, it helps you to picture them as a person instead of just a person-shaped hole in the air. Which helps you feel less like a person-shaped invisible kid."

And, of course, the reader can rely on Kingsolver for gorgeous descriptive prose: "I found a good rock and watched the sun melt into the Cumberlands. Layers of orange like a buttermilk pie cooling on the horizon. Clouds scooting past, throwing spots of light and dark over the mountainheads. The light looked drinkable. It poured on a mountain so I saw the curve of every treetop edged in gold, like the scales of a fish. Then poured off, easing them back into shadow."

Many of Dickens' characters are easily identifiable by their slightly altered names and roles; several are sterling characters, although the one with that name is the polar opposite. Those familiar with it will find elements of the story somewhat reminiscent of AB Facey's memoir A Fortunate Life. Included is a bonus essay revealing Kingsolver's inspiration for this tale. Moving and thought-provoking: a wonderful read.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Faber & Faber.