★★★★☆ | Literary Fiction | Digital | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads
The New York Times listed this book at the best novel of the 21st century (so far). I decided to hold off reading it until I had read David Copperfield by Charles Dickens as this book is a loose retelling of that story. That was probably a mistake.
To me, Demon Copperhead felt too much like well written fan fiction. The parallels between Copperfield, down to the selection of character names, felt cheesy. If I hadn’t read Dickens first, I’m sure I would have been more taken with the story. After all, it’s based on a great one.
Drug addiction is the central evil of Copperhead, not the awful treatment of orphans in 19th Century London. The pushing OxyContin on the unsuspecting poor people of the Deep South plays out in a tragic way. Lots of overdoses and young lives ruined.
Like Dickens, the story ends happily, which in these circumstances feels unlikely. If there’s a moral here, it’s that you’re on your own. No one is going to help you. But, be kind and helpful to others all the same.