A review by foxonabook
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I don’t know where to begin with this. I was warned that this book would bawl me over but nothing could prepare me for the heartbreak. This story brings to life the Glasgow of a bygone era, the Glasgow I’ve heard so much about. It depicts the struggles of addiction, undoubtedly familiar to many working class Glaswegians, in such a compassionate and gripping way. Douglas doesn’t shy away from the ugliness of addiction and what it does to families, but it’s not Agnes’ addiction that is the most heartbreaking aspect, but Shuggie’s hope, unwavering at first, that things will be okay. Everyone can sympathise with Shuggie’s desperate hope that his mother overcomes her addiction. And we can all probably empathise with how heartbreaking it is to be so undeservedly let down by the people in your life over and over again, all while trying to come to terms with being ‘not right’.
Douglas Stuart has written a wonderful fictionalised account of his life, and this book easily made its way onto my list of the best reads in 2021. 
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