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xrayetedreads 's review for:
Shuggie Bain
by Douglas Stuart
Oh man. Where do I start to unpack this review? This novel goes deep into the slums of Glasgow, Scotland in the 1980's of a family in poverty and a mother who is an alcoholic and the kids with an absent father. There are a plethora of TW for this book so I'd look those up before deciding to read this.
This book, as painful as it is made me care for these characters so much and I was rooting for them despite the recurrent bad decisions Agnes (the alcoholic mother) makes. I felt like the book was a lot of the time revolving around Agnes despite the title of it being Shuggie Bain (who is the youngest son). I would say that it circles a lot around her addiction and the impacts of her decisions on her children not just as its happening, but long term throughout their lives. I felt for Shuggie and Agnes so much and just wanted to give them a huge hug at multiple times during this read. I wanted more for this family that what they were delt with. It's like with that type societal class, it's very difficult to get out of especially with the kind of people they're surrounded with and that was shown very much throughout this novel.
The Scottish slang in the beginning of the book took some times to get used to. It was a little deterring at first but if you push through, you'll start picking up on it / googling meanings that keep recurring throughout the book. I felt like that kind of dialogue made the characters more real and dimensional.
Reading this book was eye opening to a culture and time I wasn't aware of. It got me googling places and historical events during this time and the kind of culture the slums of Glasgow was experiencing. Even though this was such a sad read, I did enjoy my time reading it and the awards this book has is well deserved.
This book, as painful as it is made me care for these characters so much and I was rooting for them despite the recurrent bad decisions Agnes (the alcoholic mother) makes. I felt like the book was a lot of the time revolving around Agnes despite the title of it being Shuggie Bain (who is the youngest son). I would say that it circles a lot around her addiction and the impacts of her decisions on her children not just as its happening, but long term throughout their lives. I felt for Shuggie and Agnes so much and just wanted to give them a huge hug at multiple times during this read. I wanted more for this family that what they were delt with. It's like with that type societal class, it's very difficult to get out of especially with the kind of people they're surrounded with and that was shown very much throughout this novel.
The Scottish slang in the beginning of the book took some times to get used to. It was a little deterring at first but if you push through, you'll start picking up on it / googling meanings that keep recurring throughout the book. I felt like that kind of dialogue made the characters more real and dimensional.
Reading this book was eye opening to a culture and time I wasn't aware of. It got me googling places and historical events during this time and the kind of culture the slums of Glasgow was experiencing. Even though this was such a sad read, I did enjoy my time reading it and the awards this book has is well deserved.