Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - Il giovane Mungo

Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Il giovane Mungo by Douglas Stuart

332 reviews

kittiesss's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

synthesizeher's review against another edition

4.25

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

this book is so slow paced, it took me 2 months to work through. i feel like it got really interesting in the middle, but the ending felt suddenly really rushed?

Content Warnings

witherbeak's review against another edition

5.0

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Content Warnings

kate_elle's review against another edition

4.25

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

senoyreve's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I found young mungo started slow, it dragged on, and honestly I felt I wouldn't be finishing it. then along came James, the writing flourishes after James is introduced, because I think that Stuarts main strength lies in his descriptive prose, even in the beginning the descriptions of the landscapes, characters, or actions kept me enthralled. the book is wonderful because you can feel like your in mungo's shoes, looking at the world through his lens, it never breaks even if you are seeing it from an outside perspective. there is a beauty in every page of this book, even the violent ones the undercurrent of beauty lies.

Content Warnings

gbrl's review against another edition

4.0

dark sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

oscarlavista's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Reading Young Mungo was like slowly moving your hand closer and closer to a hot stove; You know it's going to hurt, it's probably going to leave a mark, you might cry, but at the end of that you're going to have learned something even if it was the most painful way to learn. It's tense, stomach knotting writing that was an unbelievable joy to read even if it hurt the entire time.

It's simply a masterpiece. I've not read anything like this before and I will probably never read anything like it again. It's the best worst time I've ever had. Now I'm off to have a good cry 😢

Content Warnings

nineinchnails's review against another edition

4.75

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

i was prepared for this to be a little depressing but i was taken aback by how heavy the actual content was so i definitely suggest checking the trigger warnings before picking this up. it's a testament to douglas' talent that i repeatedly felt physically nauseous while reading. the imagery is incredibly vivid and i felt like i was right there - unfortunately this was also the case for the fishing trip chapters. despite the bleakness of the novel, james and mungo were incredibly sweet and i couldn't help feeling anxious for the two of them. mungo is a tender soul in a very cruel world!! i just wanted to protect him

all of the characters were well developed and fleshed out but jodie was particularly interesting to read about. she was one of the only characters to treat mungo with love and care relatively consistently. she was something of a mother figure to him, despite only being a year older - to me this shone a light on mungo's naivete as well as jodie's parentification. they had a teenage brother but the responsibility of raising and caring for the two of them still fell on her shoulders alone. jodie "hated" their mother, but

was the one who almost repeated her mistakes - a case could be made for hamish but it's not really comparable (in my opinion) as women are required to sacrifice so much more to raise children,

even more so 3 decades ago. even though she was arguably the most kind and loving towards mungo

she was far from accepting of his sexuality when he told her - this feels much more like a consequence of the world they live in than a judgement on her character, however. i got the impression she was scared for him, not disgusted with him

. i think the novel ended with

mungo slightly bitter towards her because he felt much more hurt by her rejection than anyone else's - "If Jodie, of all people, could not love him, all of him, perhaps he could not be loved."

really highlights this.

mungo seems to be endlessly loving, endlessly obedient, and endlessly forgiving. it's painful to see him repeatedly get taken advantage of by the people in his life. his mother has pretty much no redeeming qualities and just seems to take and take with no regard for the wellbeing of her own children. getting to the end and finding out

the full context behind her sending him away with those men is absolutely sickening

i came out of it absolutely hating her guts after starting it disliking and mildly pitying her. on the other hand, there's hamish who is violent and abusive. their father died before mungo was born, so hamish is the closest thing he has to a father figure and mungo loves him in spite of the way he treats him. mungo doesn't embrace masculinity the way his older brother does, and it seems to be an endless source of frustration for hamish. he brings up needing to "toughen him up" constantly, and i got the impression that some part of him genuinely thinks he is acting in his brother's best interests. it doesn't excuse his behaviour but he is more redeemable (to me) than their mother, who doesn't seem to care about anyone other than herself.

the ending of the fishing trip did feel a little dissonant considering the overall tone of the novel and the characterisation of mungo up to this point. of course, he was put in a situation where he had few options and i am more than relieved that he ended up

killing his rapists. i pray for every rapist to meet the very same fate

so i'm not upset at all at how it ended, outside of it feeling like it didn't quite fit the story/character. i didn't mind it (and absolutely wouldn't recommend it being amended, since the setting is very much crucial to the story being told) but there is a lot of scottish slang and i struggled a little even as a british reader but you do get used to it.

i didn't expect to tear up for the reason that i did when i finished this. it was very shocking while also making complete sense for

hamish to take mungo's place with the police

and i am probably wildly delusional but i saw it as a sign that he loves him deeply, in his own way. it could absolutely be a show of masculinity or family loyalty but i'm choosing to be an optimist after all the misery and desolation of this book. all in all i would highly recommend this book given you check the trigger warnings!!!

Content Warnings