A beautiful, gritty, true story about a young boy growing up in poverty in Glasgow in the 1980s. Couldn't put it down!

This was one of those heartbreaking yet powerful stories that holds your heart the entire time. The emotional roller coaster of a ride will be one you will not soon forget. The sadness compiled on top of sadness was the hardest thing for me to comprehend. How could one lost soul get to a point that they actually want to come back, to be loved again. Trial and error, this book hits hard. You will cry, laugh and cry some more.

5 out of 5 stars


Thank you to NetGalley as well as the author/publisher for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

Shuggie Bain is a fragile soul who will live in my mind for a long time. The beauty and pain of life is evident throughout this masterpiece.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to review this title, but my reading interests have changed. I will not be finishing this book, but look forward to others in the future.

There's not much I can say that hasn't already been said about this incredible book. What I will say is, it's incredible and I can't believe it's taken me so long to read it! Onto Young Mungo!

Incredible. Dark and sad in the best way. Very invested in the characters. Excited to read Douglas Stuart’s follow up as well. Incredible writing. Highly recommend.

This book deserves all the hype and accolades it has received. I couldn't stop reading and yet I didn't want it to end. I thought it was so beautifully written and you really felt like you were there watching it all unfold in front of your eyes.

Unfortunately this book was not for me. Other readers may enjoy it more, but I could not get into it and ultimately did not finish it.

Heartbreaking, raw. This story took a deeeep dive to show us where Shuggie Bain really came from. Much of the novel is told when he is around 11 years old but also gives a good look into the past of his mother and grandmother. This took me awhile to get through because it was also painful to read, but that's not to say that pain can't be beautiful in its own way. It also allowed me to spend more time with the characters, who were well developed in their own right, and truly feel the story.

This book is thick and slow at times but I still get the hype. I would selectively recommend it based on people’s reading preferences

Thanks to Margaret Thatcher and her policies, shipbuilding was closed in Glasgow and unemployment raged in the eighties throughout Scotland as she closed industries and mines. In fact, most of northern England suffered under her government.
And here we we find Agnes and her three children - Catherine who’s counting the days until she’s married and can leave, Leek who is an apprentice who is also just counting the days and Hugh (Shuggie - who is ‘no right’) is Agnes’ youngest. A wonderfully proud woman, Agnes took great care of her appearance, making sure her white roots didn’t show, that she always ‘had her face on’ and always got dressed up to go out, even to the store. The neighbours could always hear her high heels click clicking along the pavement. Eventually, when husbands deserted her there is only her and Shuggie, she turns to drink and life goes downhill for both of them. She drinks away the dole money but Shuggie is incredibly loyal to his mum, as he tries in vain to keep away the neighborhood woman that come sniffing around with their cans of lager looking for a good time.
This is a heartbreaking, gut wrenching story of Shuggie Bain. A kid fighting for his mum’s sobriety with neverending loyalty. This, while fighting his own demons - the other kids would bully and abuse him because he wasn’t masculine enough and because he had a posh accent.
I highly recommend this wonderful book. The writing is excellent. Shuggie Bain just gripped my heart from beginning to end.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Wow, what a book. Took me a little time to get into this and understand it. I got a bit confused on who Shuggie was. Turns out there is a Shug (father) and Shuggie (son) so once I got to realise that difference, I was away.

Some pretty harrowing descriptions that are gonna be close to the bone for some but needs must to show how alcoholism affects children not just adults. There's hope, neglect, abuse and lots of emotions felt by characters and readers. Some may find this book tough to read but bare with it.

Definitely worther the Bookers Prize though. Gutted to read this book is written from first hand experience.

Scottish author Douglas Stuart’s debut novel, Shuggie Bain tells the story of a young boy’s life with his alcoholic mother. Shuggie lives with his mother, father, older sister, and brother in his mother’s parents’ home in Scotland.





Shuggie’s mom Agnes left her first husband for her handsome second husband. She soon tires of his cheating, and he tires of her alcoholism. He moves the family to a remote, impoverished neighborhood into a home of their own.



The neighborhood women take an instant dislike to Agnes, with her stylish clothes and good looks. Agnes looks down on them as well. Shuggie’s dad stays away for longer and longer at a time until he finally leaves for good, and Agnes falls deeper into her depression and alcoholism. She spends the money the government gives her for food on alcohol.



Shuggie’s sister leaves to get married as soon as she can, and Agnes throws out his older brother in a fit of anger. Young Shuggie is the only one left to care for his mother and himself.



Shuggie Bain is a lyrical, emotional portrait of a young boy whose life is defined by his mother’s alcoholism. The writing is powerful and beautiful, and Stuart based his book in part on his own life. It also gives the reader a look at how Margaret Thatcher’s economic policies affected everyday people. It deservedly won the prestigious 2020 Booker Prize for fiction.

This is a raw account of how life could be in Glasgow , throwing open a door to alcoholism, abuse, poverty, bullying, abandonment and many more hard to swallow issues.
This was a gut wrenching read but worth throwing yourself into. With complicated and diverse characters.

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Wow, this book is incredible, and I can absolutely see why it won the Booker prize. I love stories with complicated, character driven plots. Such a great read.

Shuggie Bain was a gut-punch. For someone who is new to Scotland, albeit not Glasgow, the book taught me more than I have learnt about this country during my stay here these past few months. At first, the Glaswegian slang is difficult to grasp but with time, it grows on you as do the characters. One doesn't have to have gone through the kind of acute hardship that Agnes and her children live through to deeply empathise with the situation. An abusive relationship, alcoholism, mother-child relationship - the nuances underline the human condition in all its muddy, grimy complexity and vulnerability. The scenes are so well-captured that one doesn't stop thinking of them long after the book ends. Agnes and Shuggie are characters that cannot be forgotten. It is a deeply personal book yet also extremely political. Hard to believe this is the author's debut novel.

This is a gritty story but it left me underwhelmed.. I found the dialog is difficult to follow, and it is just not the book for me and sadly, I have given up on it.

Thank you to Douglas Stuart, NetGalley and the Publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

This is such a beautiful book! Absolutely Stunning!

I feel this is like one of those 'it's not you, it's me' break-ups.- I'm fairly sure there's a good book there to be discovered but I'm just not able to appreciate it because it's just too grim, gritty, and miserable for me.
I know it's an award-winning book, and I can appreciate the power and emotion that's packed into it, but I just don't enjoy immersing myself in that much misery.
With thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for a free copy in return for an honest opinion.

I often do not agree with the choices of the jury for winner's of the Booker Prize. In this instance, however, I was in complete agreement. Although the book is often grim and portrays a very dark side of the miners community the author has drawn characters that come alive. The struggles of Shuggie Bain, from his childhood to his teens and the portrayals of his relationship with his alcoholic mother leave the reader gasping. Not an enjoyable read but one that leaves a deep impression.