Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

34 reviews

alxbryn's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book was haunting and funny and upsetting and hopeful all at once. A really driven narrative that's so unsettling and addictive. I both loved and hated picking it up for fear of what was going happen next. This book has been living rent free in my head the entire time I've been reading it and I'm sure it'll stay for some time to come. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Drug abuse, and Trafficking

Moderate: Vomit and Gore

Minor: Suicide, Homophobia, and Sexual harassment

mkcate's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use and Drug abuse

Moderate: Sexual assault and Toxic relationship

Minor: Racism, Pedophilia, Miscarriage, Homophobia, Trafficking, and Suicide

yourssincerelyemma's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use and Drug abuse

Moderate: Racial slurs, Alcoholism, Rape, Abandonment, Medical content, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Pregnancy, Racism, Homophobia, Abortion, Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Grief, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Sexual content

wardenred's review

challenging slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

At the time, I thought my life couldn’t get any worse. Here’s some advice: Don’t ever think that.

I'll admit it, this was a difficult book for me to read, and it's also a difficult one to review—not least because I feel that the things about it that made me struggle might be other readers' jam. For instance, the way it's written made me feel like I was reading a memoir rather than a fictional novel, except it was a memoir of a fictional person, and something about this discrepancy constantly pulled me out of the story. I do feel that for many other people, this style on the contrary can make the book more immersive. I also felt that some sections were really overwritten and could be made more impactful by tightening them up. But I'm also not sure if that's genuinely true, or if it's just my preference to more genre prose speaking. 

I did learn a lot of new things from this book—about life in the Appalachians and about the opioid crisis. I related to a lot of the commentary about class and how rural people are looked down upon. Plenty of moments made me emotional in different ways, and I enjoyed the balance of utterly heartbreaking parts and the more hopeful ones, as well as the injections of dry humor in both. The depiction of poverty here is among the most powerful I've ever read. The book is really voicey, too, with a strong recognizable style, and that's definitely a strength—it's just that for me, personally, that voice was a miss for some reason. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Addiction, and Child abuse

Moderate: Homophobia, Death of parent, Bullying, and Racism

nialiversuch's review

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Drug use, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Abandonment, Blood, Child abuse, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Violence, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Homophobia, Medical content, Mental illness, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

Moderate: Animal death

deedireads's review

challenging emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

TL;DR REVIEW

Demon Copperhead is a smart, hard-hitting modern retelling of David Copperfield that hits all the right notes. I’m not surprised it’s winning so many awards.

For you if: You’re in the mood for a 500-page American saga.

FULL REVIEW

Demon Copperhead is an accomplishment of a novel; a true American saga that I’m not at all surprised won the Pulitzer. It’s not going to be for everyone — it’s more than 500 pages long and not a cheerful book — but if you’re in the mood something immersive and hard-hitting, it will hit all the right notes.

Written as a (whip-smart) modern-day retelling of David Copperfield (although you don’t need to be familiar with that one to enjoy this; I wasn’t), Demon is set in southern Appalachia as the seeds of the opioid crisis blossom. It follows the boy in question from young childhood through early adulthood. I don’t want to give much away, but suffice to say that this is a heavy book; poor Demon just cannot catch a break, ever. And yet the novel is anything but trauma porn. We’re rooting for Demon and his loved ones hard the whole time.

Before reading Demon, I’d only read Kingsolver’s The Lacuna, which I was lukewarm on, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. But I needn’t have worried; she blew me away this time. It’s one of those books where the concept — the alignment between source material and subject matter — is so genius that it feels almost obvious after the fact. Last but not least, the audiobook is really good.

Not surprised this is winning All The Things — it’s worthy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death of parent, Death, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Domestic abuse, and Child abuse

emily_koopmann's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective sad tense slow-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Drug use, Vomit, and Addiction

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Bullying, Misogyny, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Death, Child abuse, Alcohol, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Drug use, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Incest, Grief, Classism, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Child death, Car accident, and Violence

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

francestea's review

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Phenomenal. Though it didn’t grip me immediately, I fell hard for the fascinating story and flawed/brutal/loveable characters. Each person is fully realized, complicated, and trying to get by however they can. I couldn’t remember much about David Copperfield but the more I researched after reading Demon Copperhead, the more I appreciated Kingsolver creative artistry. This is such an utterly brilliant retelling it will be one of my favourites this year for sure!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Child abuse, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Alcoholism, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Racism and Homophobia

booksarebrainfood's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Death, Grief, Misogyny, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Gun violence, Homophobia, Medical content, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, and Pedophilia

Minor: Bullying, Forced institutionalization, Incest, Gaslighting, Ableism, and Medical trauma

spectra37's review

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Child abuse, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Drug use, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Cursing, Car accident, Alcoholism, and Alcohol