Barbara Kingsolver's book is a grueling coming of age novel of an orphan growing up in the rural south. Demon is born to a junkie mother, abused by a step father and foster care, blows out his knee playing football, and gets addicted to drugs. Despite the best efforts of two teachers, a bullied friend from foster care, the Paggots, June, and Angus, Demon takes a long road to the bottom with drug addition. The book highlights the opioid and meth epidemic in poor communities in the US, along with its origin. Demon and Tommy explore the plight of the poor rural south through comics and a pending graphic novel. They compare the hustle in the cities for money verses the struggles of the poor land people. They defend the resilient people of the land as having the advantage of finding a way to get by with little to no money and the help of the local community. At least before the drugs.
