In Lee County, Virginia in the late 1980’s, a baby named Damon Fields is born in a trailer (his birth somewhat dramatic and unusua3.5 rounded up to 4.
In Lee County, Virginia in the late 1980’s, a baby named Damon Fields is born in a trailer (his birth somewhat dramatic and unusual), to a single teenage alcoholic mother. Damon quickly morphs into Demon, and the name assigned to him, Copperhead, he chooses to continue to use as a tribute to his father, who died before he was born.
For the first ten years of his life, Demon Copperhead lives a poverty-stricken, unorthodox childhood, albeit a happy, safe and fairly stable one. Until tragedy sees him being sent to a series of foster homes.
Narrated entirely by Demon – his strength of character, enduring, resilience spirit, and ability to find humour in any situation that was thrown at him, made this an unforgettable read. The material was bleak, graphic, hard-hitting and honest, but comic relief injected into the writing prevented things from ever becoming too depressing to handle. Demon’s coming-of-age epic journey into adulthood saw me feeling every emotion under the sun. Modernised and loosely based on Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, which I’ve been meaning to read but haven’t yet gotten around to, therefore am unable to compare the two. To me, Demon Copperhead gave me This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger, and Lemony Snickel’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (sans magical fantasy) vibes. In fact, the writing itself was similar to William Kent Krueger (an author I love) although the tone was darker. Also, unlike Krueger’s work, there was profanity and salty language, which I can take-it-or-leave-it, but I know some don’t care for it, so thought I’d better mention it.
I listened to the entire 633 pages via audio borrowed from Libby Overdrive, and the narrator, Charlie Thurston was the perfect choice to voice Demon Copperhead. His tone, emotion, and character accents really brought the written material to life, as well as heightened my amusement ever further than what reading it myself would have.
The first 40% was exciting, addictive, and unforgettable. But, after that Demon’s character arc went in a direction that to me slowed the overall pace, and caused the book to drag. I really think that section could’ve been condensed down. At about 60% things did pick up again, but didn’t reach the impacting heights of first 300 pages.
Mary Beth and I buddy read Demon Copperhead, and like many other reviewers she deemed it worthy of all the stars. Initially I felt the same, but the wheels slowly fell off for me as the book progressed. The subject matter was powerful and important, but if I’m honest, It all got a bit tired. I actually feel a bit guilty that I didn’t find the themes in the last half as impactful as I probably should have. I’d definitely recommend giving it a read though, especially given how strong the first 40% was, and because most who have read it have raved over it in its entirety....more
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