Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart

95 reviews

jennipiccalo's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, and Abortion

sakisreads's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

✨ Gifted ✨

This book took me a little while to get into initially, but once I was about 25% in I was ready to invest. I spent a LOT of time thinking about this book.
There are many content warnings that are required, so if any of those below upset you please do not read.

What a deeply draining book! I came away and breathed a sigh of relief, because Mungo went through a LOT. 
I can’t imagine having lived through a period like that, and yet Douglas Stuart wrote this in such a way that you could see everything and understand all that Mungo endured.
Maureen was by far the most complex character I felt; there could be a book written about her too!

Lots of love for Mungo, James Jodie and surprisingly Calum? ❤️ I wasn’t expecting the feature from him towards the end 🥹

4 out of 5 stars from me, thank you ✨

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

eviejayne's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Another heartbreaking and challenging book from Stuart that brims with painful, beautiful prose.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Blood

tolu_odejide's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

You can’t live for other people. My heart ached for all the characters in this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Rape, Violence, Vomit, and Abandonment

Moderate: Bullying and Abortion

pkc's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

At the half way point, I couldn’t have envisioned giving this book five stars. Some of the subject matter is harrowing and tough to read, but tell me why I finished reading it, feeling, of all things, hopeful? Mungo as a protagonist is sweet and complicated. His journey of discovery is as joyful as it is harrowing in places and seeing him endure what he does filled me with a deep sense of anger and hurt and seeing his transition at the end of the novel left me feeling conflicted.

No one should endure what he has to, but the result is that he survives his ordeal with his brother and the loch and comes back with a sense of perspective - he will fend for himself and do what is right for himself.

 

All in all, a much bleaker picture than ‘Shuggie Bain’ but definitely more complex and engaging.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Outing, and Injury/Injury detail

klaloha's review against another edition

sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Violence, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Bullying, Abortion, and Death of parent

lauraevelyn's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Abortion, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

remimicha's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Outing, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

maggiemaryamos's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

notthatcosta's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

This was a book of two halves for me. I loved it as an ethnography slice of life from the East End of Glasgow in the 90s, which I found very interesting. The characters were very well fleshed out and the 'world' felt incredibly vivid and visceral. Douglas Stuart is clearly very talented at world building. 

However, the flashes forward to the plot at the loch veered into misery porn in a way that felt unnecessary. I hate the countryside as much as it is, and I don't feel like the events that transpired really added anything to the book, nor did it really inform the plot. I feel like it would have been a total triumph had it completely erased that sub plot, including the ending.

Overall the excellent parts outweigh the part I resented having to read, and I'm keen to read Shuggie Bain off the back of this.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Police brutality, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism