Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

59 reviews

burnourhistory's review

dark 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Bullying, Death of parent, Vomit, Sexual assault, Mental illness, Rape, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, and Violence

Moderate: Drug use, Forced institutionalization, and Abandonment

readbycarina's review against another edition

Too dark for my mood right now. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Addiction, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Rape

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Infidelity

Minor: Homophobia and Pregnancy

fkshg8465's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-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? Yes

4.0

Such a sad story, though an honest portrayal of alcoholism and addiction. This is about everyone who has fallen through the societal cracks and those whose resilience is more than others can handle. Shuggie is brilliant.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Outing, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Homophobia, Abandonment, Suicide attempt, Rape, Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, War, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Body shaming, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Infidelity, Sexual harassment, Violence, and Vomit

melwheelz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, and Alcohol

Moderate: Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Rape, Infidelity, Abandonment, Self harm, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Homophobia, Suicide attempt, Suicide, and Death

laura6891's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Grief, Sexual violence, Infidelity, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Rape, Classism, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, and Domestic abuse

mikom10's review against another edition

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Homophobia, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Addiction, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Drug abuse, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Infidelity, and Rape

leastsquares's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death of parent, Homophobia, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Sexual assault, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Rape, and Suicide attempt

mashedpotatoandsaladcream'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? Yes

5.0

if you hate a bleak and depressing read then you’ll hate this, however if you do like those kind of books you’ll probably love this. 

it mainly follows shuggies relationship with his mother as he grows from 5-15 watching and caring for his mother as his siblings draw away, forced or willing, as she falls into alcoholism and poverty in 1980s scotland -not only does he struggle with this but he also has to struggle with being an effeminate and seemingly clearly gay kid during a time rampant with homophobia and strict acceptance on what a man should act like. it does have a major list of trigger warning so look at them first if needed but although i said the book is depressing -it almost doesn’t feel that way when you read it. like yes it’s sad and it’s hard reading it at parts and yes it starts sad and ends slightly less sad and i think there’s only like a year period of his life when things are actually happy? but the way he’s written the scenes feels different to me. certain scenes will strick for me (the dancing scene, eugene and the fancy meal with agnes, etc) but the characters just had character and they felt like people to me. 

one of these being agnes herself someone who annoyed me so much with how she’d seemed to never try to get better for the kids she seemed to genuinely care for but alcohol seemed to just matter more in its control over her and yet even as she lived in pitshead and all of what happened she still had a pride that was almost inspiring if it didn’t mean it would only lead to her drinking more and pushing her kids away. 

and yet when he’s young she relies on him so much that as he grows up we barely ever know anything about him as a person, there were few scenes where shuggie was just shuggie and his identity revolved around his mother -that you wouldn’t know something happened to him until it was referenced once in his narration when with his mother and yet at the end he’s changed and he finally has a friend -something he never had during the rest of the book, in fact most would be shown once and no longer appear and yet by the end he actually calls them a friend. 

anyway it’s a good choice if you like a bleak read and i’d recommend for that but not really if you hate them because you’ll just hate this even more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Infidelity, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Sexism, Drug use, Pedophilia, Cursing, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Sexual harassment, Addiction, Bullying, Cancer, Classism, Rape, Death of parent, Homophobia, Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Grief, Blood, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, and Death

butlerebecca's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

4.0

I put this down for a few months because 1) it is very sad 2) the pace tends to drag a bit. I'm glad I returned to it because overall it's beautifully written. Ideally, the book would be shorter but all in all a good read! That being said definitely read the trigger warnings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Violence, Addiction, Death of parent, Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, and Pedophilia

leontyna's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

4.0

Good writing but it was super depressing read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Suicide attempt, Vomit, and Homophobia

Moderate: Child abuse, Rape, and Infidelity

Minor: Drug use, Violence, and Death