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A review by tanya_reads
Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
I read and loved Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart last year, and was so excited to receive an advanced copy of the author’s second book Young Mungo from NetGalley.
This book started off really slow for me, but if I remember correctly so did Shuggie Bain. There were a LOT of similarities between the two books - poor families in Scotland, alcoholism, parental negligence - in some parts it felt too similar, especially the parts with Mungo’s mother. Maybe it’s unfair to compare the two books but it’s hard not to.
Young Mungo started to feel like its own story at about the halfway point. It is told in two timelines, one a few months before the other. In the first one Mungo and his siblings live mostly on their own, as their alcoholic mother is absent, spending time at her boyfriend’s house and caring for his children instead of her own. Mungo, teased for his facial tic and for being “soft”, befriends a boy his age and they develop romantic feelings for each other.
In the second, Mungo’s mother sends him away on a fishing trip with two HORRIBLE men from Alcoholics Anonymous (who are CLEARLY NOT in recovery) in the hopes of helping him “man up.” Things took a dark, strange turn on the trip, and not in a good way.
I’m disappointed that I did not love this very much. Stuart is a talented writer, no doubt, but I was underwhelmed. From the descriptions I’d read about it I expected a forbidden love not only between two boys but between a Catholic and a Protestant. That is such a small part of the book. It’s more about miserable adults doing awful things to children mixed in with gang violence. I expected a sad, yet tender story like Shuggie but that’s not what this is at all.
I don’t want to give any spoilers but there are a lot of trigger warnings, including pedophilia and rape, which made it really difficult for me to read.
Thank you to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for an advanced digital copy in exchange for an honest review.
This book started off really slow for me, but if I remember correctly so did Shuggie Bain. There were a LOT of similarities between the two books - poor families in Scotland, alcoholism, parental negligence - in some parts it felt too similar, especially the parts with Mungo’s mother. Maybe it’s unfair to compare the two books but it’s hard not to.
Young Mungo started to feel like its own story at about the halfway point. It is told in two timelines, one a few months before the other. In the first one Mungo and his siblings live mostly on their own, as their alcoholic mother is absent, spending time at her boyfriend’s house and caring for his children instead of her own. Mungo, teased for his facial tic and for being “soft”, befriends a boy his age and they develop romantic feelings for each other.
In the second, Mungo’s mother sends him away on a fishing trip with two HORRIBLE men from Alcoholics Anonymous (who are CLEARLY NOT in recovery) in the hopes of helping him “man up.” Things took a dark, strange turn on the trip, and not in a good way.
I’m disappointed that I did not love this very much. Stuart is a talented writer, no doubt, but I was underwhelmed. From the descriptions I’d read about it I expected a forbidden love not only between two boys but between a Catholic and a Protestant. That is such a small part of the book. It’s more about miserable adults doing awful things to children mixed in with gang violence. I expected a sad, yet tender story like Shuggie but that’s not what this is at all.
I don’t want to give any spoilers but there are a lot of trigger warnings, including pedophilia and rape, which made it really difficult for me to read.
Thank you to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for an advanced digital copy in exchange for an honest review.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Gaslighting