Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

109 reviews

caitlin_davis22's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Grief, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Pregnancy, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Suicide and Suicide attempt

rainbownarwhal's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Toxic friendship

starredbyalice's review against another edition

dark emotional funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Suicide, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Miscarriage, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

m_a_j's review against another edition

dark emotional funny sad 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction and Drug abuse

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Violence, and Death of parent

Minor: Suicide and Abortion

asha_m's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

helenaramsay's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Initially this book was a struggle, it is very dark and quite depressing mostly because of its faithfulness to real life, and you have to be in a good place to read it and feel okay afterwards. I binged half in a day, put it down, and couldn't pick it up again for 6 months. Then, it was phenomenal. Still dark, but Demon is such a forgiving and honest perspective throughout that you keep reading just to see if he can be okay. The writing is fantastic and I appreciate that through everything horrible, you have characters that remain kind and caring and make you feel some of the love that Demon is searching for and it keeps you going. I would recommend but only if you're in a good place and feel like you have capacity to consume what feels like all the world's trauma at once. Beautiful writing, deeply insightful story, complex characters, and no small amount of hope and joy to make it worthwhile. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, and Death of parent

Minor: Racism

wyabook234's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective relaxing 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

4.75

When you read Demon Copperhead without knowing what classic Dicken's tale Kingsolver's own story was initially based on, it wouldn't make a difference in how you interpret Demon's journey as he goes through a series of broken and not-as-broken homes. In other words, it can be easy to separate the past and the present renditions based on well-written characters that you overlook, that they are just modern adaptations. So Kingsolver can be praised for further differentiating her characters as individual victims of their vices and the background of the opioid epidemic, even if the story beats of David Copperfield can be disseminated within the text. Kingsolver can be appreciated for how she places further emphasis on the subject of wayward children and the effects of drug addiction through the struggles of Demon in how he becomes a mature young man and realizes his future in life.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, and Drug use

Moderate: Child abuse, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent

Minor: Miscarriage, Suicide, Abortion, and Injury/Injury detail

abernathy_33's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful informative reflective sad 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: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Classism

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, and Death of parent

Minor: Miscarriage, Suicide, and Abortion

bananastasia's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective 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

4.25

The first half of this book was my favorite. I was very hopeful for Demon throughout until a certain point where he did not seem to want to help himself.

The whole point of this is obviously breaking this cycle of abuse that takes a firm grasp on people who are impoverished and these people are taken advantage of to an insane degree.

I wanted things to move a bit quicker as Demon got older and I think this would have had a greater impact if it did move faster. I also find issue with typing up all of the loose ends in a nice neat little bow. Sometimes part of moving on from your past involves leaving it behind completely, and I don’t think every single of the many characters had to be addressed at the end of this novel. All of this in mind, I have found myself recommending this book to a lot of friends so I must like it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Gore, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

samantita's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail