DEMON COPPERHEAD by Barbara Kingsolver

A truly incredible novel that deserved the Pulitzer Prize.

So let me say this up front: I was wrong.

This novel has absolutely consumed my thoughts over the past couple of weeks. It is beautifully written - so often, despite never having experienced addiction, poverty or even Kentucky, I felt like I was there and seeing the people and places of this story in vivid detail. However, this story is gut-wrenchingly sad, and so it has taken me a couple of weeks to read (oh yes, life has been busy too!). So often, after a couple of chapters, I simply needed to stop and absorb it all. To feel it all. This is a story that will have you feeling a LOT of feels.

The protagonist is Damon, aka Demon. Born to a young mother in a trailer with a Dad dead before his birth, Demon is born into poverty and to a Mum who is desperately trying to stay sober. They clearly have a close relationship, but as a child he cannot save her from her traumas. Demon bounces through foster care, used and abused for money, labour and more. Throughout it all, he has his best friend, Maggot.

Demon’s life changes when he is identified as an extraordinary football talent and he becomes the star of his high school football team. His life takes twist and turns that are at once shocking and predictable, such as the circumstances of Demon. Throughout it all, though, you cannot help but root for this kid. He makes mistakes - plenty of those - but you want him to make it to the other side. Somehow, you just want him to be the exception to the most common outcome in Lee County, Kentucky.

I’ve seen it written that Demon stays with the reader well beyond the page and the end of this book. I concur wholeheartedly. I have rarely felt so invested in a character.

Demon Copperhead is one of the best books I have read this year and maybe ever. I suspect it’s one I’ll read again, but it wont be the same a second time because I know where it ends. I’ll envy those who read it for the first time now - the twists and turns of Demon’s young life are a rollercoaster.

I also spent a lot of time thinking about this as a film - it really should be made into a film or limited series. I can hear Matthew McConoughey narrating it. I can see Juno Temple as Demon’s mother. Just saying…some film folk should get onto this. It would be incredible.

In the past when I’ve read books that have won the Pulitzer Prize, I’ve been sorely disappointed. Do not get me started on The Goldfinch. This book though is a masterpiece and if Kingsolver ever writes anything this good again, I will line up to buy and read it.

It’s simple: read it. You won’t regret it.