Demon Copperhead - Barbara Kingsolver

Demon Copperhead is a once-in-a-generation novel that breaks and mends your heart in the way only the best fiction can.

Demon's story begins with his traumatic birth to a single mother in a single-wide trailer, looking 'like a little blue prizefighter.' For the life ahead of him he would need all of that fighting spirit, along with buckets of charm, a quick wit, and some unexpected talents, legal and otherwise.

In the southern Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, poverty isn't an idea, it's as natural as the grass grows. For a generation growing up in this world, at the heart of the modern opioid crisis, addiction isn't an abstraction, it's neighbours, parents, and friends. 'Family' could mean love, or reluctant foster care. For Demon, born on the wrong side of luck, the affection and safety he craves is as remote as the ocean he dreams of seeing one day. The wonder is in how far he's willing to travel to try and get there.

Suffused with truth, anger and compassion, Demon Copperhead is an epic tale of love, loss and everything in between.

 

What did I think?

Oh my goodness, what a stunning book.  It's a weighty book at 560 pages long but it fully immerses the reader in the deep south of America where poverty is rife and people struggle day to day to simply survive.  The survivors are the lucky ones.

I thought it would take a while to get into the book with it being so chunky but I was hooked from the very first page.  The writing is raw and visceral which gives Demon his unique and memorable voice from the moment he is born.  I could have read much more than 560 pages of this sublime writing that's for sure and I already have my eye on Barbara Kingsolver's back catalogue.

Although I own a vintage copy, I have never read David Copperfield and I will definitely read Demon Copperhead again after reading David Copperfield to fully appreciate Barbara Kingsolver's brilliance in this modern day retelling.  Dickens gets a mention too which is a really nice touch.

I am struggling to put my feelings into words about this book as it totally consumed me and I don't think Demon will ever leave me.  It's heart-wrenching at times, especially the things that Demon has to go through at such a young age, and it's sobering to think that Demon's story is mirrored by countless youngsters in real life.

Harrowing, gritty and completely extraordinary, Demon Copperhead is a stunning novel that unreservedly deserves a place on my shelf of favourite novels.  Very highly recommended.

I chose to read a gifted copy for the Tandem Collective readalong and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

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Housewife - Karen Crawford

 

Wife. Mother. Drug Lord.

Erica Forsythe is a wealthy New York City housewife who feels undervalued and unappreciated. On a rainy day, she dashes into a diner, where she meets a mysterious man. 

Plagued by boredom and loneliness, Erica decides to go home with the intoxicating stranger. She is seduced by the dangerous and lurid world of a notorious drug cartel and abandons her family.

Becoming a high-ranking member of the cartel, Erica believes she has found the excitement she has been craving, but her world shatters when she spirals into the true darkness and violence of working in the drug trade.

What did I think?

Housewife is something very different from Karen Crawford.  I absolutely love her Taryn Winter series set in Las Vegas but the streets are definitely much darker and more dangerous in New York City, where Housewife is set.

Erica may appear to have it all; a wealthy husband, three healthy children and a New York City penthouse, but as The Beatles said: 'Money can't buy me love'.  Feeling ignored by her family, Erica is finally noticed by someone when she meets an exciting and attractive man in a diner and her world changes forever, although not necessarily for the better.

It does feel as if fate had a hand in Erica meeting Alejandro that day as they seem very much in love.  Normally, I wouldn't be able to understand a mother walking away from her family but it's easy to empathise in Erica's case.  Erica is so selfish and superficial so its no wonder that her children are also self-absorbed - they are the monsters that she created.  Of course, her husband must also shoulder some of the blame but he is a typical patriarch and sees his role as the breadwinner, bringing home the money to keep his family in the lifestyle to which they are accustomed.

Entitled, rich and selfish, there's nothing much to like about Erica or her family but it was heartbreaking to read about her descent into the darkness of drug addiction and the effect of her disappearance on her family.  It's incredibly disturbing to see how quickly drugs can take hold and it was very harrowing to see the devastating effects of addiction.  As she rises to the top of the drug cartel, Erica is in contact with very few people and the warning signs of her addiction go unnoticed.  I've always said that you never notice the decline of someone you love as you see beyond the outer shell; so as mad as I was at Alejandro for not doing something to help Erica, I could also understand that he may not have seen it.

With characters you will love to hate, Housewife is like a cross between The Sopranos, Breaking Bad and Billions.  It's harrowing, disturbing and emotive but sobering in its powerful message about addiction and recovery.

Many thanks to Karen Crawford for sending me an ARC to read and review; this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

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BLOG TOUR: Layer Cake - J. J. Connolly

 

Layer cake (n): a metaphor for the murky layers of the criminal world.

Smooth-talking drug dealer X has a plan to quietly bankroll enough cash to retire before his thirtieth birthday. Operating under the polished veneer of a legitimate businessman, his mantra is to keep a low profile and run a tight operation until it’s time to get out .

When kingpin Jimmy Price asks him to find the wayward daughter of a wealthy socialite who’s been running around with a cokehead, he accepts the job with the promise that after this he can leave the criminal world behind with Jimmy’s blessing. Oh, and he needs to find a buyer for two million ecstasy pills acquired by a crew of lowly, loud-mouth gangsters, the Yahoos. Simple enough, until an assassin named Klaus arrives to scratch him off his list, revealing this job is much more than it seems at first.

From the glitz of the London club scene of the 1990’s to the underbelly of its criminal world, Layer Cake is the best in British crime fiction.

What did I think?

I didn't realise that Layer Cake was a book before it was a film until the 20th Anniversary edition of the book was advertised.  I watched the film before I read the book so I was intrigued to see how they would compare.  I really wanted to be able to say that the book was better, which it is to a degree, but J. J. Connolly wrote both the book and the screenplay so the film storyline follows the book very closely indeed.  Reading the book actually enhanced the film for me as I got to know the characters better and accessed more details of the story.

One thing I struggled with at first was the usage of slang in the book so I found myself stopping to google things every few minutes.  It does give massive authenticity to the story but I could've done with a little glossary at the end of the book where I could look up things like boob, lolly pops and lionels.  The slang is completely necessary though as it immerses the reader into the heart of drug-fuelled London and it feels like the main character is talking to you and taking you into his confidence.

There is no honour among thieves and there are no friends in the drug scene.  It's all very cutthroat and it's a business that the main character, X, wants to retire from as he approaches his 30th birthday.  The drug scene is kind of like a beehive with a king instead of a queen at the top and various levels of workers beneath him, hence the title of the book: Layer Cake.  X just wants to make enough money so that he can spend his days sitting on a beach sipping cocktails in the sun, but getting out of the business might not be that easy.  When he is given a strange task to find a missing girl, X becomes the hunter and the hunted.

Dark, gritty, brutal and brilliant, Layer Cake is a stunning portrayal of the British drug scene in the noughties.  The writing is so vivid and fresh that you feel as if there is a movie being projected into your brain from J. J. Connolly's intense and authentic words.  You've seen the film, now read the book; it's an absolute classic.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

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BLOG TOUR: House of Straw - Marc Scott

‘Beautifully brutal, dark and twisted’  

Traumatised by the tragic death of her twin brother, Brianna falls into a state of deep depression, isolating herself from the world and all those that care about her. When a twist of fate reveals that she has a half-sister she finds a new purpose in her life and sets out to find her sibling, desperately hoping she can fill the void left in her world.

Poppy has not enjoyed the same privileged lifestyle as her sister while growing up. Abandoned into the care system at the age of eight, she has encountered both physical and sexual abuse for most of her life. Passing through the hands of more care homes and foster families than she can remember, the damaged product of a broken upbringing, Poppy has never found a place to feel truly safe. Kicking back at society, she turns to drug abuse and acts of extreme violence to escape from reality.

When the two siblings are finally united, they discover that they have much more in common than their DNA. Their paths are shrouded with sinister secrets of betrayal and regret and both girls share a deep-rooted hatred for one of their parents. As the dark truths of their lives are unveiled they realise that nothing can ever be the same again...  

What did I think?

House of Straw turned out to be a lot darker than I expected from reading the synopsis and it's always good when a book surprises you.  It's very hard-hitting from the start as we read about the death of Brianna's twin brother, Jamie, but there's much more to this story than meets the eye.

Brianna, who prefers to be known as Bree, spirals into a pit of despair after Jamie's death and she only has one friend for support.  Bree's relationship with her mother is almost non-existent and it only gets worse when she finds out that she has a half-sister, Poppy.  If I thought Bree was a damaged character, Poppy is smashed beyond repair.  

Poppy's life is a stark contrast to Bree's and it was heartbreaking to read about her past and present.  Poppy's story is so devastating that it was often hard to read the graphic details and I felt myself recoiling in horror as her abuse was described.  As much as the violence had me wincing as each blow was dealt, some of the words used in the sex scenes had me cringing.  I'm not a prude by any means but I think it's better to leave some things to the imagination.&nbsp

Although the storyline is gripping and intriguing, it took me a little while to get used to the writing style as the speech is quite stilted.  It feels a bit odd for characters who are a little rough around the edges to be speaking the Queen's English, for example using 'I am' instead of 'I'm'.  I did get used to it though, it just meant that speech didn't flow as well as it could have done.

I found it really interesting that both Poppy and Bree try to pin the blame for absolutely everything and anything on anybody but themselves; it's almost as if it's in their genes.  It's really quite startling that some people don't accept responsibility for their own actions and waste so much time blaming others that they get stuck in a rut of negativity.  I loved the thread of blame running throughout the novel; it's woven into the story brilliantly.

Shocking and hard-hitting, House of Straw is a very good first novel from Marc Scott and I'll be keeping an eye out for his new novel coming later this year.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

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About the author:

Marc Scott was born and bred in the heart of East London. His dark and gritty writing style has earned him much praise with readers.

He worked in the film and video industry for more than twenty years, the highlight of which was spending twelve months based in Hollywood, organising marketing campaigns for a UK film distributor.

More recently he spent several years working with young offenders as part of his role associated with the court service. It was during this time he became deeply moved by the tragic story of one young girl who was struggling to come to terms with the neglect and abuse she had suffered throughout her life. Her tragic case inspired him to write his first novel HOUSE OF STRAW.

The book has already received excellent reviews from bloggers and buyers and his second book is planned for release at the end of 2020.

His favourite book is Birdy by William Wharton, which he confesses to have read at least half a dozen times. He also enjoys the works of Kazuo Ishiguro. ‘I love authors that can find something that is extraordinary in ordinary people’ he says. ‘A reader wants to feel like a bystander all through the journey and that only happens if they can feel an emotional attachment to the main characters’.

Marc lives in Buckinghamshire and has three grown-up children George, Marissa and Amie. He says his daughters have been the main motivation behind his love of writing. ‘I always run everything past them. Their honest appraisals definitely keep me on the right track’ he says.

He is a keen sports fan and has an undying passion for Leyton Orient Football Club.

Twitter: @MARCO1918253109

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BLOG TOUR: Who's There? - Kerena Swan

Appearances can be deceptive…

Arnold Eastwood is thrilled when social services allocate him a flat all of his own. Independence hasn’t come easily to a young man with Downs Syndrome but now he has the chance to live free from his mum’s nagging, find a girlfriend, watch endless movies and make new friends.

Meanwhile a London drug gang is setting up a supply line in Arnold’s town. They’re looking for someone to deliver drugs for them and somewhere to set up a base of operations.

Soon Arnold and his flat are in the drug gang’s sights. Drawn into the dark underworld of crack cocaine and modern slavery, Arnold soon discovers that friends can in fact be deadly enemies.

The question is: can he break free?


What did I think?

Who's There? is a book that intrigued me immediately; it's quite a simple idea really, a drug dealer taking advantage of a disabled person, but Kerena Swan has created such multi-dimensional characters who carry the plot along at a rate of knots.

Arnold Eastwood is a brilliant character who I took straight to my heart.  Disability aside, I loved how he was addicted to Clint Eastwood films and saw the world as a much kinder place than it actually is.  It was lovely to look through his trusting eyes for just a second before reality struck and Arnold got trapped in drug dealer Poker's web.  I was so angry at the way Arnold was taken advantage of; I felt like I wanted to reach into the book to rescue Arnold and give Poker a good hiding while I was there (and I'm not a violent person!).

Although it's quite a dark story in relation to drug use and drug gangs, there are a lot of heartwarming and hopeful moments.  I can't forget shop owner Madge who took a chance on Arnold and gave him a job or Chip who tried to help Arnold escape Poker's clutches.  I also found it quite eye-opening regarding Social Services; Arnold was forgotten about when his case worker went on holiday, but rather than feel angry about this I could see how much strain Social Services are under.  It's easy to point the finger in that direction and they often get bad press but Kerena Swan humanises Social Services and reminds us that they're only human after all.

A thought-provoking and highly suspenseful thriller, Who's There? is one of those books that you could easily read in one sitting, if you have the time available.  I was completely invested in Arnold's story and couldn't read fast enough to find out how it would all play out.  Who's There? is a very scarily realistic thriller with a big heart.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

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About the author:

Kerena Swan trained as a Social Worker and worked for Social Services for over 25 years. For the past 14 years she has owned and managed an ‘outstanding’ rated agency for children with disabilities. Following serious illnesses she decided to fulfil her long-held ambition of writing a book and getting it published. ‘Dying to See You’, published by Bloodhound Books, was her debut novel.

After many years of writing professionally in the course of her work, Kerena has discovered the exhilaration and deep joy of writing fiction and can be found at all hours in front of her computer. Her second novel ‘Scared to Breathe’ is now available and her third book, ‘Who’s There?’ will be released on December 13th 2019.

Kerena lives with her family in a small village in Bedfordshire, UK and her books are set in the surrounding areas.

Drawing on her extensive knowledge and experience of the problematic world of social work and social studies, Kerena adds a unique angle to the domestic noir and crime genre.

If you would like to hear more about new releases, read Kerena’s blogs and download a free short-story – the prequel to Dying to See You – then visit www.kerenaswan.co.uk and join her mailing list.

Facebook – Facebook.com/kerenaswan

Twitter- @kerenaswan

Instagram – kerenaswan

Goodreads link – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48763828-who-s-there

Amazon link – https://www.amazon.com/Whos-There-Kerena-Swan-ebook/dp/B081D5JWXG/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=Kerena+Swan&qid=1573648513&s=digital-text&sr=1-2

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