Kingsolver lives in southwest Virginia, which she characterizes as ground zero for the opioid epidemic.

I recommend reading the book before the guide. Note that this guide, like all of the guides, may contain spoilers. I appreciated how he shared the complicated lives of ex-miners, their children, their addictions, their resilience, their challenges and their fierce family love all intertwined in Appalachia. I often forgot how young he was given his depth of understanding of the traumas dealt out to everyone he knew in Lee County. I was there beside him on the slippery, rocky cliff above Devil’s Bathtub in a torrential downpour. I walked with him from his birth through foster homes, and onto a football field into addiction, his people-wisdom and caring far outpacing his academics. I could hear him talking directly to me in each sentence. Demon’s writing style- for by the end I truly felt that Demon was writing this novel, rather than Kingsolver- got into my head. As I closed the book, I was so glad I had kept reading- Wow!ĭespite the horror and sadness of watching a train wreck that you can’t turn away from, I loved the second half of the book. I almost gave up on it, and didn’t because I so enjoyed Kingsolver’s previous books. I read half the book and wasn’t connecting. Oddly I had a hard time warming up to this novel. Barbara Kingsolver doesn’t tell a story in Demon Copperhead, she allows the reader to walk with Demon through his own story.

Barbara kingsolver demon copperhead