Demon Copperhead

This is my book of the year.

I circled around this one for a while because it sounded worthy but depressing. It’s inspired by Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield, and is about a young boy going through a bad run of foster homes.

When I tried out a sample on my Kindle I was hooked from the first page. You are in safe hands with Barbara Kingsolver, whatever the topic, but this is even better than her other novels.

This one is written in such a sprightly style – embued with the richness of Kentucky language and land and people. Even the hard-core elements of oxy and other addictions are not painful or boring to read about. I flew through the pages, holding on to the superhero cape of the hero of this adventure.

Damon is born in his mother’s trailer home and it just gets more complicated from there. His mother does her best, but she doesn’t look after Demon well enough, and soon he is flung into an uncaring mishmash of foster homes that are more like work camps. By now you might be thinking, do I really want to read over 500 pages of this drear existence? But yes, you do! Demon’s inventive way through this horror situation is a wonderful, unique story you don’t want to miss.