Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - Young Mungo

This was one of those books that i liked much more at the end. This gets a 4.5 because of how much emotion I felt at the end—surprised, sad and angry yet hopeful for Mungo, and anticipatory with every page turn. Definitely a dark and sad book at times, dense with violence, but that’s also where Douglas Stuart’s writing packs the most punch. Pun partially intended.

In fact, i didn’t feel as though I strongly enjoyed this book until the ending fourth-ish, when the plot line gains momentum and tension. Most of the book is good, but doesn’t always have a clear course or direction of tension and action. Not that that’s always a bad thing, but have patience. The romance, for example, is slow to come on and honestly not the bulk of the book, like I thought it would be. This isn’t really about the love between Mungo and James. Most of this story foregrounds Mungo’s fucked up family and his relationship with each person in it. The other half of this story is his odd excursion with two gross men, which is also interesting but takes a while to really pull you through.

That’s not to say it isn’t a well done novel, or that it was boring, but I did find the prose a bit lacking in pull for me. Even if the idea of the story was steady and interesting, something about the pace or the words didn’t always do it justice. For a while, i was just ready to be done with it so that I could hit the climax. Again, the story was still interesting, but I can see someone giving up too soon if they aren’t willing to him just trust that the story will pick up tension and interest. Just bask in the words and nice sentences and trust the process lol.

One last thing—I think Douglas Stuart did a great job capturing character complexity. The people here exist in a gray area, where we even get uncomfortably close to the bad ones. I especially found mungo’s brother Hamish interesting—violent and scary, but with brief flashes of something almost kind(?)

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kayarosee's review against another edition

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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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amygower's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

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thaliaw's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.25

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hannahwishart's review

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challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

4.5

Another heartbreaking story from Douglas Stuart. This was bleak, tense and graphic.
The characters are well fleshed-out - most of them vile - and the setting is immersive. It’s uncomfortable and feels claustrophobic, in the sense that you struggle to imagine how Mungo might ever get out of this environment. Jodie is a protective factor for Mungo despite having her own traumatic events. I liked that there were a few supportive male characters who appeared to show Mungo kindness, empathy and safety, e.g chickie, Calum. I also enjoyed the development of Mungo and James’ relationship.
The cultural references were interesting, as was the portrayal of sectarianism and gang violence.
This book covers very heavy topics in graphic detail but I didn’t feel it was done in a tasteless, sensational way.
I struggled somewhat with the timeline at times and I felt that the ending wasn’t completely clear - maybe that’s just me.

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