Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

48 reviews

bookhoarder_alissa's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Rape, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

Moderate: Child abuse

books_coffee_rambling's review

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Suicide attempt

carrielucas's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad slow-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? Yes

3.5

Honestly it was just way too sad for me. Also had, like, every trigger in the book. Is this the new A Little Life?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Pedophilia, Alcoholism, Vomit, Gore, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Self harm, Rape, and Mental illness

Moderate: Death of parent, Homophobia, Cancer, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Infidelity and Drug abuse

nataliemason's review

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Violence, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Self harm, Rape, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Homophobia, Grief, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, and Drug abuse

lunacarmona's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Child abuse

lizziereads608d5's review against another edition

I found this book really hard to get into, and i tried to continue with it even when i thought about giving up on it but once shuggies wife moved and he left her i gave up as i really wanted a happy ending for her and her children. Glasgow is a tough city to grow up in if you live in the 'wrong' part

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Violence

deedireads's review

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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

TL;DR REVIEW:

Shuggie Bain is a gutting but beautiful and impressive novel about poverty, addiction, love, and hope.

For you if: You tend to enjoy slower-paced, emotional literary fiction.

FULL REVIEW:

“She was no use at maths homework, and some days you could starve rather than get a hot meal from her, but Shuggie looked at her now and understood this was where she excelled. Everyday with the make-up on and her hair done, she climbed out of her grave and held her head high. When she had disgraced herself with drink, she got up the next day, put on her best coat, and faced the world. When her belly was empty and her weans were hungry, she did her hair and let the world think otherwise.”

The existence of the book Shuggie Bain is a bit like a fairytale. Written buy a regular guy in between long days in corporate America, inspired by his childhood in poverty, kept close to his chest until he landed his dream agent, rejected by more than 30 publishers…and then it wins the Booker Prize. The BOOKER PRIZE. Can you even??

And, friends, it earned that win. Shuggie Bain is beautifully, heartbreakingly written, with big, round, devastating and hopeful characters who will earn your love a hundred times. It pulled me out of an episode of anxiety-driven restlessness and rooted me to my seat, engrossed.

The book focuses on two main characters: Shuggie, of course, who for most of the book is a child; and his mother, Agnes, who loves hard and holds her head up proudly but gets crushed by poverty, lack of opportunity, and severe alcoholism. 

At its core, this book is about the love and hope between mother and child, devotion, struggle, and resilience. It’s not an easy read by any stretch of the imagination, and it’s paced pretty slowly, but it’s a beautiful novel that I really enjoyed.

One other thing I’ll share is that the dialogue in this book is written to reflect the Glasgow/Scottish dialect. I found this a little tricky to read on the page, and I also found it tricky to follow in an audiobook. But when I listened to the audio alongside reading the printed book, it all clicked perfectly and really, really enhanced the reading experience for me. I definitely recommend.

TRIGGER WARNINGS:

• Severe alcoholism
• Sexual assault and rape
• Domestic abuse
• Pedophilia
• Suicidal attempts
• Drug use
• Homophobia and homophobic slurs
  
  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Addiction, Sexual assault, Rape, Pedophilia, Domestic abuse, Suicide, and Homophobia

Moderate: Drug abuse

emilistevenson's review

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Cancer, Cursing, Drug use, Drug abuse, and Religious bigotry