Reviews with content warning for Rape - Shuggie Bain

5 stars
Shuggie Bain tells the beautiful story of the relationship between a mother and son, tainted by the struggles of alcoholism and poverty.
In this covert tragedy, Stuart highlighte Shuggies unconditional love for Agnes, from the ages 6-17, despite how she fails him throughout the years.
Stuart perfectly depicts the affects of addiction on a family dynamic and makes Agnes a lovable character despite her flaws, showing the reader that she has clear love for Shuggie but is helpless in her decisions to become sober.

Content Warnings

corinnaxsophie's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

This book felt grey & muddy brown throughout. It put me in a reading slump after about 1/3rd because it was just all so hopeless and devastating.

“The happy year” was just a tiny ray of sunshine in this book that disappeared way too quickly again. But the very end really touched my heart and i thought it was beautiful

An amazingly written book, but it was just almost unbearable for me to read. Please mind the content warnings.

Content Warnings

ruthmac's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad medium-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

4.25

Content Warnings

shelby1994's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

3.0

“Look, ah’m no trying to get ye drunk. Ah’m trying to have ye try a drink.”

“But why?” Agnes was suddenly very tired

“Because…Because it’s what normal people do.”

Stuart’s story about two people convinced that they can fake their way to normal made me deeply grateful for our generation’s increased embrace of sobriety. The downside of sobriety becoming “cool” is that mocktails can cost you the same $16 as a cocktail, but the upside is that sober folks are catered to at more and more places, and aren’t seen as begrudging oddities.

Winner of the 2020 Booker Prize, Stuart is an expert at exposing the schadenfreude of insular communities. Agnes and Shuggie may be the main characters here, but their community is the prime motivator; it sucks them into its depths and smothers them with its worst intentions. I don’t know that it’s possible to “like” this book - be affected by it, saddened by it, frustrated by it, sure. But I thought it would pull me in more. Maybe I distanced myself from it in the same way that I fail to relate to child-protagonists in movies or shows. I lack the ability to look back and really understand the world through the eyes of a child. And in order to not want to throttle everyone in this book, it requires the willingness to look at a mother through the ever-hopeful eyes of her little son.

Read If You:

Love Tiffany McDaniel
Want to read about a Scottish community that mirrors the former coal-towns of Appalachia
Feel like you waited your whole life to find a real friend

Content Warnings

emilymdxn's review against another edition

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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

2.25

Content Warnings

mj_trearty's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This is not an easy read but it is a very worthwhile read.

The book focuses on the Bain family, mainly Shuggie, the youngest son, and Agnes his alcoholic mother, living in 80s and early 90s Glasgow. It shows the desperation of many without work due to the mines closing and the fall of the ship building industry amongst others. What life was like in the council houses and tenements and how it was dealing with alcoholism.

The character of Shuggie does not fit in, smaller and more effeminate than other boys, he is bullied throughout his life while having to deal with hunger and desperation as his mother spent the dole and child support on cans of Special Brew. All he wants is his mum to get better and if he tries hard enough she will, in his young mind that is enough.

This is a beautifully crafted and harrowing account that brought tears to the eye on more than one occasion., definitely one of the best books I have read in years.

I think this line sums it up "the more you love someone the more they take the p**s out of that. They will do less and less of what ye want and more and more of just as the f****n' please." That is definitely how life was for Shuggie

Content Warnings

leah_grace7's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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