Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart

88 reviews

kayarosee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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

This was a hard and heartbreaking book to read. I resonated a lot with the character of Jodie as an older sister myself and saw my younger brother in the main character Mungo. It took me a lot longer to read than many other books this year. But a heart-wrenching novel. I would call this the more depressing, more poverty-stricken “Call Me by Your Name”. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Sexual violence, Miscarriage, Blood, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Excrement, Alcohol, Murder, Homophobia, Abandonment, Addiction, Rape, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, and Pedophilia

fkshg8465's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

I think the author may have had a very sad life based on the two books I’ve now read. But both those one and Shuggie Bains have great protagonists - young men with the deck stacked against them since birth but who continue to learn their value and insist that they matter and eventually figure out how to hang into the most important part of themselves.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Abandonment, Abortion, Kidnapping, Addiction, Confinement, Physical abuse, Bullying, Rape, Torture, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Classism, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Murder, Domestic abuse, Death, Pedophilia, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual assault

lilycouper's review

challenging dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, and Animal cruelty

ryanem7's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Abortion, Rape, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Abandonment, Suicidal thoughts, and Self harm

torismazarine's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• 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: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Murder, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Gaslighting, Religious bigotry, Blood, Classism, Cursing, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Kidnapping, Outing, Violence, Abortion, Addiction, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Hate crime, Sexual violence, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Police brutality

forestfloor's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

I honestly don't know how to start this review... I've just finished reading. I feel gutted and hollowed out. It's beautifully heart wrenching. 

Reading this made me feel like I had a cord tied to my diaphragm and someone was continually tugging at it, there's something terribly tender about it. The characters come to life with a brutal realism and the descriptive prose is absolutely gorgeous, like I was reading a film. It's praise when I say that I wanted the plot to leave Mungo alone a bit, only a reflection of how deeply the writing pulled me to care for him. 

The plot starts off slow and as the mystery of what got Mungo from the "before" timeline into the "after" setting unravels, the pace picks up. It's tense and I think it's a really good structure for the story. However, the main thing that stops me from giving this 5.0 stars is that there's not a lot of clarity or warning about how the plot jumps between timelines and different character's points of view. I think that honestly, just formatting with that little squiggle some books use between two paragraphs would've solved that for me. 

I also wished that it would've held on just a little longer before ending. Just enough to know for sure that Mungo could follow that set of splinted, beckoning fingers to safety. Instead, the ending is a bittersweet, trembling thing, a silver through a cloud that promises of sunshine and the clearing of rain, but could just as easily be covered again by a drab blanket of grey. I do think that the ending suits the story, no matter how selfishly I wanted to see Mungo and James definitively safe, on a bus together. 

I also have to say, just to be clear, that this is a heavy read. I saw it described as a gay, Glaswegian, Romeo and Juliet and I can't emphasise enough how much that refers the violence of the play, as well as the romance. Definitely read the trigger warnings before deciding to pick this book up. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Abandonment, Rape, Alcoholism, Murder, Pedophilia, Outing, Religious bigotry, Drug abuse, and Homophobia

Moderate: Abortion and Classism

Minor: Racial slurs and Eating disorder

oscarlavista's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Reading Young Mungo was like slowly moving your hand closer and closer to a hot stove; You know it's going to hurt, it's probably going to leave a mark, you might cry, but at the end of that you're going to have learned something even if it was the most painful way to learn. It's tense, stomach knotting writing that was an unbelievable joy to read even if it hurt the entire time. 

It's simply a masterpiece. I've not read anything like this before and I will probably never read anything like it again. It's the best worst time I've ever had. Now I'm off to have a good cry 😢

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Bullying, Classism, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Abortion, Pedophilia, Confinement, Cursing, Hate crime, Violence, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Religious bigotry, Addiction, Animal death, Sexual violence, Rape, Murder, Alcohol, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Animal cruelty, and Child abuse

Minor: Incest and Self harm

nineinchnails'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? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

i was prepared for this to be a little depressing but i was taken aback by how heavy the actual content was so i definitely suggest checking the trigger warnings before picking this up. it's a testament to douglas' talent that i repeatedly felt physically nauseous while reading. the imagery is incredibly vivid and i felt like i was right there - unfortunately this was also the case for the fishing trip chapters. despite the bleakness of the novel, james and mungo were incredibly sweet and i couldn't help feeling anxious for the two of them. mungo is a tender soul in a very cruel world!! i just wanted to protect him

all of the characters were well developed and fleshed out but jodie was particularly interesting to read about. she was one of the only characters to treat mungo with love and care relatively consistently. she was something of a mother figure to him, despite only being a year older - to me this shone a light on mungo's naivete as well as jodie's parentification. they had a teenage brother but the responsibility of raising and caring for the two of them still fell on her shoulders alone. jodie "hated" their mother, but

was the one who almost repeated her mistakes - a case could be made for hamish but it's not really comparable (in my opinion) as women are required to sacrifice so much more to raise children,

even more so 3 decades ago. even though she was arguably the most kind and loving towards mungo

she was far from accepting of his sexuality when he told her - this feels much more like a consequence of the world they live in than a judgement on her character, however. i got the impression she was scared for him, not disgusted with him

. i think the novel ended with

mungo slightly bitter towards her because he felt much more hurt by her rejection than anyone else's - "If Jodie, of all people, could not love him, all of him, perhaps he could not be loved."

really highlights this.

mungo seems to be endlessly loving, endlessly obedient, and endlessly forgiving. it's painful to see him repeatedly get taken advantage of by the people in his life. his mother has pretty much no redeeming qualities and just seems to take and take with no regard for the wellbeing of her own children. getting to the end and finding out

the full context behind her sending him away with those men is absolutely sickening

i came out of it absolutely hating her guts after starting it disliking  and mildly pitying her. on the other hand, there's hamish who is violent and abusive. their father died before mungo was born, so hamish is the closest thing he has to a father figure and mungo loves him in spite of the way he treats him. mungo doesn't embrace masculinity the way his older brother does, and it seems to be an endless source of frustration for hamish. he brings up needing to "toughen him up" constantly, and i got the impression that some part of him genuinely thinks he is acting in his brother's best interests. it doesn't excuse his behaviour but he is more redeemable (to me) than their mother, who doesn't seem to care about anyone other than herself.

the ending of the fishing trip did feel a little dissonant considering the overall tone of the novel and the characterisation of mungo up to this point. of course, he was put in a situation where he had few options and i am more than relieved that he ended up

killing his rapists. i pray for every rapist to meet the very same fate

so i'm not upset at all at how it ended, outside of it feeling like it didn't quite fit the story/character. i didn't mind it (and absolutely wouldn't recommend it being amended, since the setting is very much crucial to the story being told) but there is a lot of scottish slang and i struggled a little even as a british reader but you do get used to it. 

i didn't expect to tear up for the reason that i did when i finished this. it was very shocking while also making complete sense for

hamish to take mungo's place with the police

and i am probably wildly delusional but i saw it as a sign that he loves him deeply, in his own way. it could absolutely be a show of masculinity or family loyalty but i'm choosing to be an optimist after all the misery and desolation of this book. all in all i would highly recommend this book given you check the trigger warnings!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Sexual harassment, Religious bigotry, Addiction, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Violence, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Sexual violence, Murder, Sexual content, Homophobia, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Animal death, Sexism, Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Classism, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, and Abortion

Minor: Terminal illness, Infidelity, Death of parent, Cancer, and Pregnancy

Child sexual abuse, Grooming, Child neglect, Poverty, Student/Teacher relationship, Backstreet/unsafe abortion, and Prostitution/sex work

pencilspeaker's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Sexual violence, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Violence, Bullying, Alcoholism, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Child abuse, Ableism, Abandonment, and Classism

Minor: Death of parent, Abortion, and Pregnancy

blues's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

5.0

Che viaggio spettacolare. Questo libro mi ha catapultato in una Scozia degli anni 80-90, in un ambiente chiuso, iper-mascolinizzato e religioso (con annesse lotte tra la parte protestante e la parte cristiana) e me l'ha fatto sentire a 360 gradi. Mi ha fatto conoscere Mungo, ma con lui anche tante altre persone con cui sono riuscito ad empatizzare, nonostante questi non fossero sempre personaggi molto positivi. Vediamo questi personaggi sia nei momenti "pieni" di trama, sia in quei momenti di quotidianità (soprattutto Mungo ovviamente), il che ci aiuta molto a capirli meglio, a capire come ragionano e quali sono i loro punti di forza e le loro insicurezze. 
Ho adorato particolarmente tutte le metafore che Douglas Stuart ha utilizzato per descrivere i sentimenti di Mungo e di tutti questi personaggi, facendomi sempre capire appieno la sensazione che voleva trasmettermi. 
Un'altra cosa che ho amato sono le descrizioni degli ambienti: riuscivo davvero a sentirmi dentro ai posti che raccontava. Non solo li vedevo nella mia testa, ma ne sentivo anche gli odori, i rumori e i sapori. Ero davvero insieme ai personaggi.
Questo libro mi ha preso il cuore e me l'ha strappato in mille pezzi, ma mi ha anche lasciato una parte di Mungo, che si muoverà con me ovunque io andrò. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Violence, Outing, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Abandonment, Homophobia, Murder, Pregnancy, Abortion, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Sexism

Moderate: Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Infidelity, Death, Blood, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Vomit, Bullying, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Minor: Toxic relationship, Death of parent, and Grief