I am prone to reading non-fiction but I took a leap of faith. The verdict: this is by far the best book I’ve read in years. I am in tears having just finished it. It is one of the most incredible books written and how Barbara Kingsolver so accurately writes in the voice of a young rural boy in the throes of foster care and dead parents and drug addiction is beyond me. God bless Barbara Kingsolver. What an absolute prize to behold. She is GENIUS.

It is hard to believe how Kingsolver captures the heart, soul & thoughts of a boy! At the end of the book I was so sad to say goodbye to Demon, a very rare experience that I have with a fictional character!

Beautifully written book and story. Demon was such a loveable and relatable character. A story that will stay with me for a long time.

I loved this book more than I expected to. The themes are heavy and sometimes painful, but the language is so rich and alive that it carries you through. Demon’s voice is unforgettable — honest, funny, heartbreaking. I found myself completely invested in him, feeling every loss and every flicker of hope.

I could not put this story down. It was heartbreaking, it was hopeful, it showed such resilience. The characters and dialogue were perfect. Best book I have read in a long long time.

I loved everything about this book. Riveting story that I thoroughly enjoyed.

I didn’t want to read this book for a long time, but once I picked it up I couldn’t put it down. Between Demon’s heartbreaking story and the gorgeous writing, I was a puddle from start to finish. I wanted Demon, along with everyone like him in Appalachia (except maybe Fast Forward), to break from the inevitable so badly. To see up close how capitalism has ravaged the people of the Lee Counties out there was truly eye opening, even when you’ve known it intellectually for a long time.

Literary masterpiece of a story well told

Captivating right from the start. I loved Demon’s language and how the perspective changed throughout the book. Every character had life and personality. What I appreciate the most is the perspective I was missing having grown up in PA watching addiction quickly take my peers. There was bitterness and resentment I was holding on to for years. Little did I know they were just caught up in pharmaceutical greed and relatives without access to proper medical care.

Kingsolver teases us with joy and some small wins through her addictive prose. What she delivers is a blow by blow description of the smallest of dreams and utter failure in the depths of the opioid epidemic in poverty stricken Appalachia. There is no perfection here in our protagonist. My want for that character to succeed became a need in and of itself. Descriptions of want and desperation became my own. This book must be finished. Chain smoking. Nicotine is the only drug they’ll let me have.