Reviews - Il giovane Mungo

7.24k reviews for:

Il giovane Mungo

Douglas Stuart

4.38 AVERAGE

matthiaskaiblinger's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

mouthy_books's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

There a layers in this book.. You have Mungo who comes from a broken, council estate protestant family with a mother who drinks heavily and an older brother who is a gang leader... Mungo falls in love with a catholic boy his own age.
It's a story of fixing your identity and how difficult that can be since you are living in a very closed environment and atmosphere where being gay is still wrong.

There are difficult moments where Mungo is assaulted and raped by people his mother trusted him to and even then they use his homosexuality against him as a justification for their actions.

I loved the way it was written. I loved the fact the author was proud and true enough to write in a glaswegian accent. I believe that is really important.

Content Warnings

josephamus's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Strong character development: Yes

janemast's review against another edition

3.0

This book often feels like Mungo was a martyr saint. I don't know exactly how to explain the experience of reading this book... There's a certain calmness in the chaos, perhaps that's Mungo. He often feels still amidst the rapid movement that blurs around him. I guess sometimes in the calmness of the forest you dont register the silence as a warning sign. And I don't know really what to say about it..