Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

12 reviews

sha's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad slow-paced

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

1.5

The descriptions in this especially when they “suck their teeth” 🤢🤮

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Addiction, and Body horror

Moderate: Bullying, Grief, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Rape, Addiction, Self harm, Vomit, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Violence, and Mental illness

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

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

georgie_mb's review against another edition

emotional 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

5.0

Heartbreaking. I physically ached at certain points for these characters. 

I was absolutely hooked from start to finish, and I’m kind of sad to be done with it. It feels like I’m mourning someone, and I just want to keep hearing about Shuggie. 

Highly recommend the audiobook version too!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Alcohol, Sexual violence, and Rape

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Suicide attempt

megb64's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Drug use, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Suicide attempt, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Self harm, and Rape

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Mental illness, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Fire/Fire injury, and Excrement

josiee123's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective 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

4.5

 it was an absolute masterpiece, I can't stop thinking about it. It's raw, and heartfelt, and devastating.. and funny. The dry Scottish type of humour and sparks of hope in horrendously bad situations. I think I want to read it again soon, and also read Young Mungo because it follows some of the same characters i think. It was an 11/10 and I need to go back to visit Glasgow as soon as possible 🥹 if you're reading it or plan to, I mean there's a lot of brutal violence so if that's not your thing, maybe don't. Several times i had to put it down for a few weeks. But, there's a good review essay about how the novel mirrors romantic relationships between man+woman with the mother and son and how the blurred relationship makes it so difficult for Shuggie to leave his struggling mother, the imagery is really powerful and almost every character draws empathy except for the nasty bastards that you're compelled to hate. But everyone is given a full characterisation 🎉

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Addiction, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Rape, Alcoholism, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Child death, Death of parent, Mental illness, Misogyny, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Fire/Fire injury

linzipop's review against another edition

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Bullying, Child abuse, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Pedophilia, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, and Vomit

danaaliyalevinson's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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

This book is really fucking good. I had read Douglas Stuart’s second novel “Young Mungo” before I read this one and liked it a lot. But this was another level. And I’m glad I didn’t read it before “Young Mungo” because I think I would’ve compared the two and I perhaps wouldn’t have enjoyed his second novel quite as much as I did.

Through the lens of a young queer boy being raised by, and more often taking care of, his alcoholic mother, we explore themes of poverty and addiction.

This book will break your heart… so, of course I loved it. The storytelling is impeccable. The characters are beautifully drawn. Its emotionality burns bright on every page. I highly recommend it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Grief, Alcohol, Self harm, Blood, Child abuse, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Body shaming, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Vomit, and Abandonment

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Pedophilia

feebles640's review against another edition

dark 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Self harm, Vomit, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcoholism, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, and Rape

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Blood, and Body shaming

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Drug use

raisinflakies's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Self harm, Misogyny, Grief, Gaslighting, Child abuse, Bullying, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Violence, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Sexism, Rape, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Mental illness, Homophobia, Hate crime, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Death, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Blood, Car accident, Abandonment, Cursing, Drug use, Drug abuse, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Medical content, Racism, Transphobia, and Vomit