Demon Copperhead is a modern retelling of the Dickens classic David Copperfield, but set in Lee County Virginia in Southern Appalachia. This compassionate coming of age story thrusts the reader into the seedy underbelly of poverty and addiction, making visible an under represented area of our country.

Damon Fields, aka Demon Copperhead, was dealt a bad hand from the day he was born but learned from the start to fight for himself and survive. His birth itself is a template for the rest of his life. His alchoholic mother passed out on the floor of their trailer home during labor, after ejecting the placental sac. A neighbor, Mrs Peggot, arrived to see him punching through the sac and helps him break free. Demon’s life seems to be a mix of failed characters – alcoholic mom, abusive stepfather, shady foster parents; and every day heroes – the kindly Peggots, the caring art teacher, his foster care brother Tommy. Demon is dealt some devastating blows but his resilience, hard work, and good friends always seem to pull him back from the brink.

Amidst all his challenges Demon finds joy in the natural world around him and this novel is an embrace of the beauty of Appalachia. When Demon goes with the Peggots on a Christmas visit to Knoxville, his first time in a city, he remarks,

Living in a holler, the sun gets around to you late in the day, and leaves you early. Like much else you might want. In my years since, I’ve been amazed to see how much more daylight gets flung around in the flatter places.

Both the reader and Demon together become aware that Demon’s tragic challenges are not just bad luck or bad choices, but bad systems which benefit the wealthy and powerful. While this knowledge doesn’t change his situation, it informs the unblinking voice which describes the world around him.

The world is not at all short on this type of thing, it turns out. All down the years, words have been flung like pieces of shit, only to get stuck on a truck bumper with up-yours pride. Rednecks, moonshiners, ridge runners, hicks. Deplorables.

Demon Copperhead is a long book this review only touches the surface of the many issues it addresses. It took me some time to engage. Honestly as Demon drops from one abject situation to the next, I dreaded picking it up. But Demon never gives up so at some point he won me over. I started rooting for him and the people around him who, despite all odds, still provided friendship and support when it was needed most. I give this book 5👍 out of 5👍.