Book Club Reviews

Demon Copperhead follows Damon Fields, known as Demon, a boy born in the mountains of southern Appalachia to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer. Retelling the emotional architecture of David Copperfield in a modern American setting, the novel follows Demon through poverty, foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic promise, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Demon tells his own story with a caustic, funny, unsparing voice, making the book both a personal survival story and a larger indictment of the systems that fail vulnerable children.

Demon Copperhead is a powerful book club pick for groups prepared to discuss poverty, addiction, childhood, survival, foster care, community, and the systems that shape a person's chances.