Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead (2022) is a moving and engrossing novel. It is a contemporary retelling of David Copperfield (1850) by Charles Dickens, set in the mountains of southern Appalachia in the USA, rather than in Victorian England. It employs a first-person narrative from the perspective of Damon Fields, a red-haired boy also known as Demon Copperhead. The plot focuses on his life while facing poverty, foster care and substance abuse. Kingsolver’s writing has received praise for its authenticity, winning awards such as the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction. Demon Copperhead presents a realistic portrayal of adverse childhood experiences, and the purpose of this essay is to analyse them within the context of this story.

Adverse childhood experiences are experiences that deviate from the expected environment and require substantial adaptation by the child, considering psychological, social and neurodevelopmental systems. Some examples of adverse childhood experiences include neglect; family separation; caregiver-related adversities such as substance abuse, mental illness and incarceration; and different types of abuse including physical, sexual and emotional. These experiences are associated with outcomes such as substance abuse, suicidality and premature mortality. In Demon Copperhead, Demon is born to an adolescent single mother with substance use disorder (who dies when he is 11 years old); he is also physically abused by his stepfather, suffers neglect during foster care and lives under dismal conditions (for example, he sleeps in a dirty and undersized laundry room). In addition, still during his teenage years, he is swept into opioid addiction. Through his and his friends’ lives, readers can recognise how adverse childhood experiences have a cyclical nature (intergenerational effects that repeat themselves) and unfortunate consequences.

The opening line, ‘First, I got myself born’, reveals that, from the beginning of his life, Demon faces adversities. It is an accurate representation of the life of children exposed to adverse childhood experiences, in which they can feel that hardship defines and permeates their existence. The nickname ‘Demon’ adds to this view. It serves as a symbolic critique of how people can judge these children as ‘troublemakers’ and ‘bad’. This novel shows that they are not ‘demons’ but humans who need care and consideration.

Demon Copperhead exposes the reader to several situations, from school abandonment to death by overdose. Through its immersive prose, mental health professionals can experience the reality of adverse childhood experiences. It can help clinicians understand their patients’ backgrounds. Similarly, it can inspire researchers who design interventions to enhance resilience. Through its precise depiction of child adversity, this novel can be a source of inspiration to help children.