Reviews with content warning for Violence - Young Mungo

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart

439 reviews

mothumn's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Arc review for audiobook
Young Mungo is beautifully written and heartbreaking to read. I read Douglas Stuart’s first novel, Shuggie Bain, earlier this year and loved it, but I think that Young Mungo is somehow even better. So much is captured, both beauty and ugliness, violence and hatred and also love. It was at times difficult to read, I had to put it down for a bit because of what happened in it. But it was a very good, but difficult, read. Douglas Stuart is an incredibly talented writer who is able to capture the beauty in what many people would only see as ugly.

I also received an arc for the audiobook which I played along while reading. I don’t have much to say about it, I thought having a Scottish narrator helped to transport you into the story. Although at some points I felt the narration was a bit flat and lacked emotion, overall I didn’t have much of an effect on my reading experience.

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sundaynessie's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Strong character development? Yes

3.0

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adriennne's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.75

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deedireads's review against another edition

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emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.

TL;DR REVIEW:

Those who liked Douglas Stuart’s Shuggie will like this, and vice versa. I thought it was a bit repetitive of Shuggie and started a little slow, but I loved the Romeo & Juliet retelling and liked the book overall.

For you if: You like emotionally devastating queer literary fiction.

FULL REVIEW:

Thank you, Grove, for the advanced review copy of Douglas Stuart’s highly anticipated second novel, Young Mungo. I was a big fan of Shuggie Bain, and so it’s no surprise that I enjoyed this one too.

Young Mungo is about a 15-year-old boy in Glasgow, Scotland who’s secretly gay and caring for an alcoholic mother (sound familiar, Shuggie readers?). We bounce back and forth in time; in the “present,” Mungo is whisked off on a “fishing trip” with two imposing men his mother met at AA. In the “past,” we see him meet and fall in love with another young man named James, manage the expectations of his infamous older brother and doting older sister, and forgive his mother over and over — until the two timelines crash together, tragically. No spoilers, but I will say this: mind the trigger warnings on this book, if you have any need of them.

I liked this book overall, but I’ll start with the parts that didn’t work as well for me: First, this felt really, really repetitive of Shuggie. That’s sort of obvious from the synopsis, but even the mood, tone, and pace mirrored Stuart’s first novel. And that leads to the second thing: I felt so impatient as I made my way through the slower first half of the book; when would I get to something that felt different?

But if you can make it to the halfway mark, you’ll be rewarded; it does pick up and distinguish itself. Young Mungo is, eventually, a much more explicitly gay story (a love story!). And I didn’t realize this before I read it, but it actually turns into a legit Romeo and Juliet retelling, which was a fun discovery that I loved. It’s what finally lent the book a fresher feeling, in my opinion. By the end, I couldn’t tear my eyeballs away.

Fans of Shuggie will like this one, I think, and vice versa. I can’t wait to see what others think!

Content Warnings

brewsandbooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

After reading two of Stuart's books, I can't deny he's an amazing writer. He really takes you into the story and the world, I can visualize everything that is going on in such a cinematic way, but also feel so deeply for all these characters. Mungo is so heartbreaking. He is so naïve and wonderful, it's hard not to love him. I will also always commend him on showing how complicated relationships can be with absent parents.

I will say that some of this book (at least the first half) almost felt like it was treading old ground. An alcoholic mother, a loving sister who wants to leave, and a brother who is stuck in the area for a while. Then at the 50% mark the entire story fell out from under me. I both liked it and wished it had gotten to that point sooner, almost if we back tracked from one point and not the fishing trip beginning at the beginning of the entire novel. However, I ended up loving seeing Mungo grow and become a man on this weekend, how much he came into himself while still keeping some of his youth. Reading about this character growing up in the nineties in Glasgow is fascinating, and each character really brought it in perspective. I also loved James. He is such an interesting and dynamic character, along with the siblings. It really shows what potential trauma can do to a family.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

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becca_thegrimreader's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

Douglas Stuart broke my heart with this book. A tender, breathtaking, and gorgeously written book, I have no doubt that readers will fall in love with “Yung Mungo.”

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I preferred this book to “Shuggie Bain.” Both books have a lot of similarities, and I will say that when I began reading this I thought that it was almost going to be an exact replica of his previous book. We have the same family dynamic of an alcoholic mother with three children. Mungo is the youngest child devoted to his mother, and I did question at the beginning if this was almost imagining a slightly older Shuggie. I have read some reviews that have been disappointed that this revisits a lot of the same themes or material from his previous book, but I think that the focus is different here.

Mungo is a fifteen year old boy who doesn’t fit in. He struggles at school, has a facial tick, and is abandoned for long periods of time by his mother. We see throughout the book how many characters tell him to “man-up” and see this toxic masculinity fester within him. From his brother demanding him to take part in gang fights, to his sister waiting for him to grow up and take charge, Mungo is torn between what others want from him and his own nature. Then he meets Jamie who demands nothing from him, and both boys can each be themselves in each other’s company. This leads to a lovingly told relationship between the boys.

This book is told in two halves, one told from the point of view of the months leading up to Mungo’s relationship with James and the relationship itself, and the other being the aftermath of the relationship where Mungo is sent off on a fishing trip to learn to become a man. We switch between both narratives throughout the book, until our timeline comes to an end in the last chapter which is painfully beautiful and devastating. This book is one that will stay with me, and I will reread for it’s beauty and tragedy.

Content Warnings

foxonabook's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

I am going to need a moment to recover, because… wow.

I loved Shuggie Bain and it was hands down my best read of 2021, and as soon as it was announced, Young Mungo became my most anticipated read of 2022.

Douglas Stuart has done it again. Young Mungo is a raw, brutal and captivating coming-of-age story. Just as with Shuggie Bain, the characters are so well written they could have easily been real people you’d heard of through friends. Not all characters are likeable, especially Mo-Maw and Hamish, however Stuart’s skill means that you are still capable of pitying and sympathising with characters who seem to have little to no redeeming qualities. Stuart also did a brilliant job at making Glasgow a secondary character, with its the sectarian and working class culture presented as facets of the city’s complex personality.

Although the book explores similar themes as his debut, such as growing up in a dysfunctional household with an emotionally immature, addict single mother, this book is a lot darker than Shuggie Bain. I don’t want to share too much of the plot out of fear of spoiling it, but I will say that it is heavy with some light, tender moments in between. I was hooked from very early on, but I had to put the book down at several points just to give myself some breathing space before continuing.

I loved the ending though I’m not sure if many will feel the same since it doesn’t offer the reader the same cautiously optimistic and hopeful ending that things might turn out alright like Shuggie Bain did. Instead, I was left mourning for the innocence that Mungo was so violently robbed of, with the ending being reminiscent of the working class Glaswegians who were surrounded by sectarianism, addiction and gang violence.

I’m now going to make myself a very strong cup of tea and nurse this book hangover (which was absolutely worth it). Thank you NetGalley, Picador and Douglas Stuart for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

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tanya_reads's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense slow-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

2.25

I read and loved Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart last year, and was so excited to receive an advanced copy of the author’s second book Young Mungo from NetGalley.

This book started off really slow for me, but if I remember correctly so did Shuggie Bain. There were a LOT of similarities between the two books - poor families in Scotland, alcoholism, parental negligence - in some parts it felt too similar, especially the parts with Mungo’s mother. Maybe it’s unfair to compare the two books but it’s hard not to.

Young Mungo started to feel like its own story at about the halfway point. It is told in two timelines, one a few months before the other. In the first one Mungo and his siblings live mostly on their own, as their alcoholic mother is absent, spending time at her boyfriend’s house and caring for his children instead of her own. Mungo, teased for his facial tic and for being “soft”, befriends a boy his age and they develop romantic feelings for each other.

In the second, Mungo’s mother sends him away on a fishing trip with two HORRIBLE men from Alcoholics Anonymous (who are CLEARLY NOT in recovery) in the hopes of helping him “man up.” Things took a dark, strange turn on the trip, and not in a good way.

I’m disappointed that I did not love this very much. Stuart is a talented writer, no doubt, but I was underwhelmed. From the descriptions I’d read about it I expected a forbidden love not only between two boys but between a Catholic and a Protestant. That is such a small part of the book. It’s more about miserable adults doing awful things to children mixed in with gang violence. I expected a sad, yet tender story like Shuggie but that’s not what this is at all.

I don’t want to give any spoilers but there are a lot of trigger warnings, including pedophilia and rape, which made it really difficult for me to read.

Thank you to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for an advanced digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

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bookshelf_of_jess's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

After reading and falling in love with Shuggie Bain, I had very high hopes for Young Mungo and Douglas Stuart did not disappoint. 5 out of 5 stars just doesn’t feel like enough. With beautiful and, at times almost lyrical, writing, this was an absolute joy to read. This book reads like a gay, Glaswegian Romeo and Juliet - with a much grittier underbelly. At times beautiful and full of love, and at others, difficult to read yet impossible to put down. A masterful exploration of masculinity, love, family and social status - Young Mungo details Mungo’s journey to find and protect himself in a world that is not yet ready for him and holds danger at every turn.

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ruddsreads's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring sad slow-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? Yes

5.0

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