Demon Copperhead

The brief for this one is always stated as “David Copperfield in opioid Appalachia,” and, uh, it is. Past a certain point I couldn't put it down, the narrative voice is appealing too which goes a long way toward making an otherwise bleak family saga readable. It's hard to describe the actual events in Demon Copperhead without spoiling the narrative, simply because so much of the novel's actual engaging qualities come from the serial qualities retained from the source material. This book could easily be used in an AP English class to teach narrative structure and the impact of style and voice on tone and theme.