A review by gemmabrown84
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

5.0

I am not sure I can do this book justice, but I’ll give it a go! Set in Thatcher Britain, in the working towns of Glasgow, Shuggie and his family are facing poverty and misery. An alcoholic mother, a string of ‘uncles’ all whilst trying to come to terms with himself as a person as he isn’t like the other boys.

This story, whilst being about Shuggie was about his Mother, Agnes and her struggle with alcoholism. She had no end of love for her children but did not get the support she needed to kick her habit which led to her making some really poor choices with her children. Often favouring the men in her life and their needs as they held the control. She wants more for herself and her children, wanting the perfect life that she cannot have so she turns to alcohol to drown out the grim reality.

There are some really hard to read moments in this book, rape, abuse, domestic violence, gas lighting to name a few however what shines through is the admiration Shuggie feels for his Mother. A little boy forced to grow up way before his time.

This book is excellent. I cannot fault it at all, I was immediately drawn in, there were happy moments, angry moments, sad moments and a few moments where I considered putting the book on the freezer! This book is everything and will be a hard one to top in 2021.