What a beautiful, heartbreaking book. Demon Copperhead is a modern day adaptation of David Copperfield set in Appalachia during the early days of the opioid crisis. Damon Fields, known by the nickname Demon Copperhead, is a young orphan navigating the foster care system after his mother ODs. He is a smart, funny, angry, hurting kid with a talent for drawing and a powerful survival instinct. The depictions of addiction are harrowing, and anger at the pharmaceutical industry is palpable throughout the book. There are also lovely, tender moments, particularly when people show unexpected kindness to Demon, like his thoughtful, gentle foster brother Tommy. It is such a smart idea to transplant the Dickens story to this particular time and place. While it is specific to the struggles of this community that Kingsolver comes from, it also drives home the universal toll of poverty and inequity. A tour-de-force of a book.
Curtis Sittenfeld is a smart and interesting writer so I was excited to read her new novel, appropriately titled Romantic Comedy. Sally Milz is a writer for The Night Owls, a late night Saturday Night Live type sketch comedy show. As a single woman in her late thirties, she is surrounded by the phenomenon of her average looking male co-writers dating famous models and actresses generally considered to be out of their league (presumably inspired by real life examples such as SNL headwriter Colin Jost marrying actress Scarlet Johansen). Sally writes a sketch lampooning that kind of relationship and how you never see the reverse gender dynamic of a super handsome famous man dating an average, non-famous woman. Sally is therefore somewhat mortified when she finds herself in that exact position, falling for that week’s guest host, the handsome and slightly aging pop star Noah Brewster. Sally, being a comedy writer and aspiring romantic comedy screenwriter, is acutely aware of the tropes of the genre and approaches the relationship with the kind of ironic detachment she brings to her sketches. She also struggles with the ways in which she has internalized the very gender dynamics she critiques in her sketch work. While she is a smart, funny, successful writer, her insecurity about her looks and the disparity in their social positions frequently get in the way of her fully opening herself up to the relationship. Sally and Noah both have degrees of the vanity, insecurity and obliviousness that seemingly surround the world of show business, but they are also mature and decent people who strive to treat each other well (none of that enemies to lovers trope here). Having their relationship develop in 2020 in the shadow of the pandemic also underscores the fact that there are bigger and more important things going on, even in the world of this book, than this relationship. But it also highlights the importance of embracing a chance at happiness when it comes your way. This is a funny, smart, enjoyable read, and if you’re a Saturday Night Live fan you will enjoy the insider references.
The London Séance Society is an atmospheric historical mystery that tackles the dark side of the séance craze that ran through London during the Victorian era. Lenna Wickes has traveled to Paris to apprentice under Vaudeline D’Allaire, a spiritual medium who specializes in helping families of murder victims discover who killed their loved ones. Lenna is not a believer herself, but she is there to try to find answers about the murder of her sister Evie, who had been immersed in the world of séances and had herself studied with Vaudeline. The two women are brought back to London after the head of the London Séance Society, an all male club, is found murdered. As with Penner’s previous novel, The Lost Apothecary, the story is grounded in the difficult plight of women in this culture, and the ways in which things like poverty, social class, and in the case of this book, sexuality, and even grief, made women particularly vulnerable. I found the story of the London séance phenomenon fascinating, and I enjoyed the supernatural aspect of the book. A satisfying read.
Stratham Library's Recommendations 