Demon Copperhead is a once-in-a-generation novel that breaks and mends your heart in the way only the best fiction can.
Demon’s story begins with his traumatic birth to a single mother in a single-wide trailer, looking ‘like a little blue prize-fighter.’ For the life ahead of him he would need all of that fighting spirit, along with buckets of charm, a quick wit, and some unexpected talents, legal and otherwise.
In the southern Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, poverty isn’t an idea, it’s as natural as the grass grows. For a generation growing up in this world, at the heart of the modern opioid crisis, addiction isn’t an abstraction, its neighbours, parents, and friends. ‘Family’ could mean love, or reluctant foster care. For Demon, born on the wrong side of luck, the affection and safety he craves is as remote as the ocean he dreams of seeing one day. The wonder is in how far he’s willing to travel to try and get there.
Suffused with truth, anger and compassion, Demon Copperhead is an epic tale of love, loss and everything in between.
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First, I got myself born.
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(@FaberBooks, 18 October 2022, e-book, 560 pages, #ARC from the publisher via @NetGalley)
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I loved Demon Copperhead. It’s supposed to be a reimagining / update of David Copperfield. I’ve never read the Dickens book so I have no idea how close, or not Demon Copperhead is to it. You’re better reading this marvellous book on its own merit. I loved this book. It’s so rich and full. I haven’t read anything so good in ages. I got completely sucked into Demon’s world and rooted for him from the first page. You spend a lot of time in Demon’s head and in his world as he strives to life a better life than his mother and step-father and juggles all the problems he’s thrown along the way. This is an epic read.
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