Demon Copperhead is about a young boy who is born to a single mother in a trailer park in the southern Appalachian mountains of Virginia. He’s a charming lad with red hair and a quick wit. After his mother’s death he’s placed in foster care which is hard on him. He dreams of one day seeing the ocean.
In high school, he starts playing football and he’s incredibly talented until an injury shatters that dream. He becomes reliant on opioids for the pain associated with this injury and even afterwards.
The coming of age genre is one I generally avoid because I don’t like it. I’ve not read David Copperfield (of which this is a retelling) so I can’t give any insights in the comparison between both books. I can tell you that I did enjoy this book and I can see why it won the Pulitzer Prize. The prose is beautiful, and the story is haunting about how foster care failed Demon and his dependency on opioids make him a flawed hero. Yes, I avoid this genre… but I’m glad I read this book!
Read for the PopSugar Reading Challenge 2024.
Prompt 11: A book from a genre you typically avoid.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
