Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart

68 reviews

tarsier's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual violence, Rape, Blood, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Addiction, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, and Abortion

Minor: Death of parent, Drug abuse, Racial slurs, Drug use, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

rachpach's review

challenging dark sad fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Drug use, Pedophilia, Homophobia, Abortion, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Death, Murder, and Sexual violence

dontwanthvn's review against another edition

challenging emotional

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Rape, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, and Emotional abuse

levtitticus's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad medium-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: Animal death, Cursing, Drug use, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Pedophilia and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Abortion

babymoomoocow's review against another edition

dark emotional funny 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

4.25

This is a heartbreaking book. Douglas Stuart writes characters so real you easily get sucked into the book. You really just want to hug Mungo and tell him it'll be okay and that he should run away with James. But life really isn't like that and neither is this book. 

This book is definitely a book you're gonna want trigger warnings for because it's not for the faint of heart. 

I was listening to the audiobook as I read the physical copy and I think that's ideal because you hear the glaswegian accent and how things flow. It makes for a much better reading experience.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Alcohol, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Abandonment, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Blood, Murder, Sexual assault, and Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Classism, and Pregnancy

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

notthatcosta's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-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? No

3.25

This was a book of two halves for me. I loved it as an ethnography slice of life from the East End of Glasgow in the 90s, which I found very interesting. The characters were very well fleshed out and the 'world' felt incredibly vivid and visceral. Douglas Stuart is clearly very talented at world building. 

However, the flashes forward to the plot at the loch veered into misery porn in a way that felt unnecessary. I hate the countryside as much as it is, and I don't feel like the events that transpired really added anything to the book, nor did it really inform the plot. I feel like it would have been a total triumph had it completely erased that sub plot, including the ending.

Overall the excellent parts outweigh the part I resented having to read, and I'm keen to read Shuggie Bain off the back of this.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment, Animal death, Alcohol, Sexism, Child abuse, Grief, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Gore, Homophobia, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Abortion, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Excrement, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Body horror, Classism, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Hate crime, Rape, and Sexual assault

pierrojenesais's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

“Young Mungo” creates a great depiction of how toxic masculinity treats young boys in society. My love for Mungo is deeper than a fictional character should be able to make me feel. But his love and suffering feels too real and I can’t help it. He will surely haunt my mind for a long time.
Also this book stomped on my heart so many times I felt like it couldn’t get worse. It did. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Homophobia, Gaslighting, Animal death, Sexual content, Violence, Misogyny, Alcoholism, Pregnancy, Death, Abandonment, Pedophilia, and Blood

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Abortion, and Domestic abuse

jaiari12's review

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexism, Sexual content, Addiction, Sexual harassment, Religious bigotry, Death, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Abandonment, Sexual violence, Violence, Alcoholism, and Homophobia

Moderate: Pregnancy, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death of parent, and Abortion

violairgendwas's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Sexual harassment, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Rape, Homophobia, Sexual assault, and Murder

johannamrr's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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

3.0

first of all, this book needs a fucking content warning jesus christ
anywayyy, the pacing was a bit off for the first 150 pages in my opinion bc nothing happened and it was getting slightly boring imo 
the writing is great though it‘s just the plot (and how graphic it is) that I struggled with
also, this book is advertised in such a weird way?? like people need to start making it clear when a book is as violent as this one is because they really didn‘t and I don‘t like when stuff like this is being jumped on me (my bad for not looking up the content warnings first, i guess)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Homophobia, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Violence, Abandonment, Murder, Addiction, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Hate crime, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Abortion, and Physical abuse