Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - Young Mungo

This book is gorgeously written with prose that washes over you just beautifully and characters and settings that are rendered full of life. But it does verge towards what some might call tragedy p*rn; I don’t think it’s for the faint of heart. It hurts in places and I had to take a few prolonged breaks.

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shaleen64's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

A beautifully written but heartbreaking portrayal of poverty, alcoholism, sexuality, homophobia and sexual abuse.

Stuart explores all of the issues above in a completely open and raw manner that does not sensationalise or trivialise.

The book captures life in Glasgow during the 80’s exceptionally and whilst some may struggle with the language used it is, within the limits of fictional writing, accurate.

I would recommend this book to anyone and believe I will be thinking about it for a long time to come, but for most it will be worth reading the trigger warnings prior.

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shobhana's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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jasonmango's review

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2.0

This book was too brutal for me, I think it's one of the most violent books I've ever read and I really struggled to get through it. The depictions of abuse are pretty harrowing and visceral and I had to brace myself to listen to more of it. That said, I really liked the narrator, and I liked learning a bit more about Glasgow and the social issues and history and the characters have somewhat stuck with me, but more by force than anything else lol.

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imsaneipromise's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I don't understand people who compare this book to a little life, or say this is what it was trying to be. I haven't read a little life but I know it was written with intent to be gratuitous trauma porn. That's not what young Mungo is, or is trying to be.

A book about a young gay boy growing up in the east end of Glasgow in the 90s was always going to be sad and difficult, because life was sad and difficult. It wasn't about writing something shocking and upsetting, it was about writing something real. Lots of people are saying the descriptions of violence were unnecessarily explicit, but isn't that one of the things that made you feel so deeply while you were reading it?

I'm of the opinion that some of the best books are ones that elicit visceral responses, because you can literally feel the impact being had on you. I cried while I read this book, and felt joy and heartbreak and despair and hope.

Aside from that, I read this book in two parts because life got in the way, and ended up spending a lot of time in Glasgow in between. It was pretty special to read a book that started off as pure fiction, then continued with being able to imagine the characters standing in those real life places where I'd also stood, or how the sun bounces off the tenements, or how the close stinks of piss.

I think the ending is so fitting too. The happiness and hope of knowing James is alive and finally leaving, paired with the anxiety and foreboding of the police sniffing around about the two deaths, not knowing if Mungo will join James, if Mungo will ever leave the east end. Life has no certainty,

and as a brutally honest book it stays true to itself to the very end.

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andyparr's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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lugalante's review

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challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Really very sad, wish the ending had been more conclusive. Good or bad, just give me something.

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