Reviewed by Jessica Miller
Review Source: YouthComm Magazine
Book Author: Barbara Kingsolver
Barbara Kingsolver dedicates her novel Demon Copperhead to survivors of the opioid crisis and foster care. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the book is dedicated to someone like me: I am an Appalachian who was put in foster care due, in part, to my father’s opioid addiction.
Reading the novel, I felt vindicated and relieved that the author voiced all the things I want to explain to people who don’t understand where I come from. Kingsolver translates Charles Dickens’ novel David Copperfield and its explorations of institutional poverty in Victorian England into a saga set in the beginning days of Appalachia’s opioid epidemic. Kingsolver compassionately shows how exploitative industries — like logging and coal mining, big box retail like Walmart and its cronies, and pharmaceutical companies like Purdue — have taken advantage of Appalachia for the sake of profit. The resulting opioid crisis and poverty in the region have led to a child welfare crisis: Kentucky, my home state, had 8,863 youth in care in 2022, up 27% from 2012. Continue reading on YouthComm Magazine.
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