If you liked
Books like Demon Copperhead
by Barbara Kingsolver
Demon Copperhead is Barbara Kingsolver writing late in her career with everything she knows about Appalachian life concentrated into one Dickensian novel. The OxyContin pages in the middle third are some of the most carefully written prose about the contemporary American opioid crisis. If you finished it and needed another book of equivalent moral weight, these are the read-alikes we recommend.
The shortlist
What to read next
Belovedby Toni Morrison
“Beloved by Toni Morrison 1987 review. Sethe, a former slave living in Reconstruction-era Ohio, is haunted by the daughter she killed to save from slavery. Pulitzer Prize 1988 and one of the canonical American novels of the late twentieth century.”
Jamesby Percival Everett
“James by Percival Everett 2024 review. A retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of the enslaved man Jim, in his own voice. The most important American novel of 2024 and the right Everett entry point.”
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Storeby James McBride
“The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride 2023 review. A 1972 skeleton found at the bottom of a Pottstown, Pennsylvania well sends the novel back to a 1930s neighborhood where Black, Jewish, and immigrant families lived alongside each other. The most important American novel of 2023.”
Where the Crawdads Singby Delia Owens
“Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens 2018 review. Kya Clark raises herself in the North Carolina marshlands and becomes the suspect in a murder. The best-selling adult novel of 2019 and the 2022 Reese Witherspoon-produced film.”
The Goldfinchby Donna Tartt
“The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt 2013 review. Theo Decker, thirteen, survives a Metropolitan Museum bombing that kills his mother and ends up with a stolen painting that defines the next decade of his life. Pulitzer Prize 2014.”
Educatedby Tara Westover
“Educated by Tara Westover 2018 review. The memoir of growing up in a survivalist Idaho family that kept her out of school until age seventeen, and her subsequent education through Brigham Young University and Cambridge. The PEN/Bingham winner and one of the canonical contemporary memoirs.”
FAQ
Common questions about Demon Copperhead read-alikes
- What is the closest match for Demon Copperhead?
- James. Same Dickensian-adjacent structural project, same sustained moral indictment of institutional violence done to specific children, same willingness to use the form of the nineteenth-century social novel for twenty-first-century work.
- I want more Barbara Kingsolver.
- The Poisonwood Bible (1998) is the obvious other Kingsolver, a multi-narrator novel set in 1960s Belgian Congo. Animal Dreams (1990) and Prodigal Summer (2000) are the canonical Kingsolver Southwest novels. None are reviewed here yet.
- I want more Appalachian fiction.
- The catalog is light here. Ron Rash (Serena, Above the Waterfall), Silas House (Southernmost), and Wiley Cash (A Land More Kind Than Home) are the canonical contemporary Appalachian fiction writers. None reviewed here yet.
- Should I read David Copperfield first?
- No. Demon Copperhead works on its own. Read Demon Copperhead, then read or re-read David Copperfield afterward to see what Kingsolver has done with the scaffolding.
The original