A redheaded orphan fights foster care, football, and the opioid flood drowning Appalachia.
Who drives the story
The narrator, born to a teenage mother in a Lee County trailer, named for the copper hair and dark skin of the Melungeon father who drowned before he was born. He survives foster farms, football stardom, and oxyContin addiction, and finally tells his people's story in drawings.
The farm-supply owner's daughter who dropped out of school to nurse her dying father. She and Demon fall in love over stolen fentanyl, and she dies of an overdose on the bathroom floor.
The star quarterback and fellow foster boy who runs Creaky Farms from the inside, dealing drugs and taking the younger boys' stipends. He uses girlfriends as bait for dealers and dies falling from the rocks at the Devil's Bathtub.
Coach Winfield's daughter, who grows up fending off U-Haul's obsession while Demon lives in her house. She is the person who stays, and the one he drives toward the ocean with.
Demon's wiry paternal grandmother, who shows up the day he's born and again when he runs from the McCobbs. She places him with Coach Winfield and, decades later, nudges him toward Angus.
The Peggot daughter, a nurse in Knoxville, who warns Demon off pills and rescues her adopted daughter Emmy from an Atlanta drug den. She later sponsors Demon's rehab stay.
The neighbors' grandson and Demon's inseparable childhood best friend. He drifts into Goth alienation, and ends up in juvenile prison for supplying Hammer the drugs that got him killed.
June's adopted niece, blonde and bold, whom Demon adores as a kid. Fast Forward draws her into drugs and likely hands her to dealers; June finds her in an Atlanta drug den and sends her to rehab.
The celebrated, alcoholic coach of the Lee High Generals who takes Demon in and makes him a star tight end. He embezzles funds, a secret U-Haul uses as leverage.
Coach's assistant, a slime-oozing false humble man who has watched Angus since she was ten. He threatens to expose Coach's embezzlement to force her into bed, until Demon and Angus drive him out.
Fast Forward's former foster sister, permanently scarred when he tried to kill her, who loves him anyway. She is the one who tells Demon what Fast Forward does to his girlfriends and where to find him.
The neighbors who give Demon his only stable childhood, feeding and watching out for him. They cry when he begs to be adopted, but they're too old to do it.
A teenage single mom Demon loves helplessly, who relapses and dies of a second oxyContin overdose while pregnant. He remembers her in the casket looking like a wax doll left out in the sun.
Also in the story
The Peggot cousin by marriage whose love for Emmy is crushed when she takes up with Fast Forward. Heartbroken, he starts using, brings a rifle to the Devil's Bathtub, and drowns trying to save the man he meant to kill.
The Creaky Farms orphan who draws skeletons to cope and becomes Demon's lifelong friend. He works at a local newspaper, helps Demon publish the comic strip, and moves to Pennsylvania to marry Sophie.
The trucker Demon's mother marries, who shoves Demon and calls him a little bastard. He pays for her rehab after her first overdose, then outlives her.
The foster couple who take Demon in for the DSS money, house him in a former dog room, and keep him hungry. Their finances collapse, and Demon runs.
A Dalit immigrant from India who pays Demon cash to sort recycling at a gas station with an implied meth lab. He treats the boy with gruff kindness when nobody else does.
The teacher who teaches Demon the history of Union-fighting Virginians, and his hippie art-teacher wife, who nurtures his drawing. Annie later contacts him about publishing his graphic novel.
The Creaky Farms foster operator who works his boys on tobacco and barn repair, keeping conditions just good enough for DSS. He profits from the state's neglect.
How they are connected
DoriDemon Copperhead (Damon Fields)
She and Demon fall in love over stolen fentanyl, and she dies of an overdose on the bathroom floor.
Angus (Agnes Winfield)Demon Copperhead (Damon Fields)
Coach Winfield's daughter, who grows up fending off U-Haul's obsession while Demon lives in her house.
Angus (Agnes Winfield)Coach Winfield
Coach Winfield's daughter, who grows up fending off U-Haul's obsession while Demon lives in her house.
Angus (Agnes Winfield)U-Haul (Ryan Pyles)
Coach Winfield's daughter, who grows up fending off U-Haul's obsession while Demon lives in her house.
Betsy WoodallDemon Copperhead (Damon Fields)
Demon's wiry paternal grandmother, who shows up the day he's born and again when he runs from the McCobbs.
Demon's wiry paternal grandmother, who shows up the day he's born and again when he runs from the McCobbs.
Betsy WoodallAngus (Agnes Winfield)
She places him with Coach Winfield and, decades later, nudges him toward Angus.
She places him with Coach Winfield and, decades later, nudges him toward Angus.
June PeggotDemon Copperhead (Damon Fields)
The Peggot daughter, a nurse in Knoxville, who warns Demon off pills and rescues her adopted daughter Emmy from an Atlanta drug den.
The Peggot daughter, a nurse in Knoxville, who warns Demon off pills and rescues her adopted daughter Emmy from an Atlanta drug den.
She later sponsors Demon's rehab stay.
Maggot (Matt Peggot)Demon Copperhead (Damon Fields)
The neighbors' grandson and Demon's inseparable childhood best friend.
The full story act by act, the ending explained and a quick quiz.
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