Ultimately I had to DNF this book because it was too much for me. I've read Shuggie Bain, so I was expecting similar levels of violence and dark content, but this book contains more. I'm a firm believer that Netgalley needs to start requiring publishers to list trigger warnings on their listings so that this doesn't happen. Reviewers need to be protected just as readers are, and if I had a more detailed list of trigger warnings I wouldn't have requested the book at all.

Young Mungo is another brilliant book from the author of Shuggie Bain. It's a darker book than Snuggie, though, with many scenes of violence and abuse that made the book difficult to read at times. Mungo, the young gay Glaswegian endures greater hardships but he does find romance. The romance didn't play as large of a part to the story as I expected. It was more of a coming of age story. Stuart's evocative descriptions and engrossing characterizations kept me turning the pages; me, a reader who tends to shy away from violence in literature. It's a book that stays with you long after you put it down. And it's impossible to put down! Stuart won the Booker for Snuggie and he's going to win it for Mungo.

Thank you Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for this arc.

This book wrecked me up. I have not read Douglas Stuart previous book but I imagine Shuggie Bain is as heartbreaking as this one. Set in 1990s Glasgow, we follow Mungo, named after Glasgow’s patron saint, the youngest son of an absent alcoholic single-mother known as Mo-Maw (short for Monday-Thursday Maureen) - her AA name - and his other two siblings, Hamish and Jodie.

The novel evokes the tensions between Protestants and Catholics, depicting poverty and violence during Margaret Thatcher government. Mungo is struggling to survive in working-class Glasgow. His mother often disappears, his older brother is a gang leader, and his sister, who ends up taking care of him and being responsible for household, is a teenager herself. It is in this dysfunctional family that Mungo grows up.

Trying to find his place in the world, to be loved and cared for, Mungo meets James, his friend and lover. They are aware of all the difficulties they will face if they decide to stay together, not only because of their same-sex relationship but also because Mungo is protestant and James is Catholic. And then one day Mo-Maw sends Mungo to a fishing trip with two men she barely knows from the AA (once more showing her lack of care or responsibility towards her children), with the excuse it was for Mungo’s “own good”.

As a mother, it broke my heart seeing these kids growing up in depravation, lacking love and affection, how Mo-Maw manipulated Mungo’s feelings, and seeing how his family did not accept the fact he was gay. The cover of the book is astounding and tells a lot about this story. Young Mungo is dark, emotional, brutal but tender, and not an easy read. It is about love, sorrow, survival, loss, and hope.

Content warnings for death, violence, alcoholism, sexual violence, homophobia. This is a fenomenal novel that torn me apart. I can’t recommend this book enough.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me the Advanced Review Copy of this book.Having read the debut book of this author 'Shuggie Bain ' which won the pulitzer prize,I was eager to read his second book when I got my hands on it.

This book is even more heartbreaking than Shuggie Bain. Mungo, is the youngest of three kids of an alcoholic women,who ignores her own children to the extent that her character makes you angry and you want to knock some sense into her.

This book also describes the atrocities that the gay people has to face in society. They have to for the longest time hide their natural tendencies for the sake of societal acceptance. It makes us realize how difficult it must be for them to come out of the closet.

This book also makes us realize how alcoholism destroys families and how children are made to grow up too soon and they are snatched of their childhood.

This book is a must read for everyone as it will open your eyes and make you think about the taboo topics which are seldom discussed. It will make you realize how we have failed as a human race and the steps that needs to be taken in order to make the world a better place to live in.

I was very excited to get this book but was very disappointed that this was another book that was not in ebook format but was instead a document to scroll through. The font is too small and you can’t make it larger so it was basically unreadable. I will definitely read when it comes out in April but I’m disappointed with NetGalley for having books that are unreadable.

beautifully written and immediately need to go back and read Shuggie Bain!
I will say this is definitely more coming-of-age story/family drama, if you’re expecting more of a romance because of its summary you might be disappointed. the romantic elements are a very small portion of the story, and it’s really more about Mungo coming into his own, and his family members also have their own storylines.

Named after the patron saint of Glasgow, Mungo Hamilton is coming to realize that he is gay in a merciless city that demands conformity. At its core, Glasgow is a working-class town where the jobs have been replaced by rampant poverty and alcoholism. It’s an insular place where the people identify as either Protestant or Catholic and often express their fealty with violence and hatred. A sense of hopelessness pervades life for many. At its core, this is the story of Mungo’s coming-of-age in such an environment.

Stuart tackles a broad array of themes in his novel. Underlying everything are the socioeconomic issues surrounding working-class life, including poverty, job loss, substance abuse, and class. But family is another focus. Fifteen-year-old Mungo has an absent father, an alcoholic mother with a penchant for disappearance, and two siblings. His sister, Jodie, takes responsibility for just about everything but longs to escape. As the leader of a brutal teenage gang, Hamish nurtures hatred for Catholics and the establishment. In the face of self-loathing, Mungo longs for his mother’s love, the recognition of his two older siblings, and a meaningful human relationship.

Of course, the central theme of the story involves gender. Stuart deftly develops a tender relationship between Mungo and his friend James. Both boys are largely on their own in this hostile world. James’ widower father is away a lot working the oil rigs in the North Sea, while all of Mungo’s family is focused elsewhere. The boys’ relationship develops around James’ homing pigeon coop. This serves as a sanctuary from the toxic masculinity and indifference that both experience. This relationship takes on a Shakespearian quality since both enter it from opposite warring camps: one is Protestant and the other Catholic.

The true joys of reading this novel are its vivid depiction of interesting characters and Stuart’s flare for the local dialogue. Even the minor characters are noteworthy because they portend some grim possible futures for Mungo. Poor-Wee-Chickie is a gay man who regrets his decision to stay in Glasgow. Mrs. Campbell, the Hamilton’s caring neighbor, is a loyal spouse to an abusive out-of-work husband. St. Christopher and Gallowgate are a couple of ex-cons who are brutal drunks with pedophilic urges.

The narrative has two plotlines set a few months apart. One follows the boys’ developing relationship and familial efforts to discourage what they perceive as less than masculine identities. Hamish forces Mungo to participate in a brutal religious fight, while James’ father requires him to seek a girlfriend. The other story involves a fishing trip with St. Christopher and Gallowgate designed by his mother to give Mungo some much needed male bonding. Both storylines have unfortunate outcomes. Clearly, Stuart is too good a writer to have either story end happily, but he subtly does suggest some hope for the pair in the final pages.

A gritty story, full of achingly sad episodes, beautifully written. Poor Mungo is at a disadvantage, from his alcoholic mostly absent mother to his violent older gang leading brother. He has moments of respite with his smart and caring sister, a few kind neighbors, and the pigeon keeper James.

We go back and forth in time. In the present Mungo is on the most bizarre fishing trip to the loch imaginable, chaperoned by two questionable drunks. We eventually build up to the events leading up to that fateful trip. They're heartbreaking, and inevitable.

It's not all tragedy and violence though. Humor punctuates the sadness throughout the book. In describing his brother's infant: "The baby was fussing and colicky sounding. Its five measly hairs were gathered together and bound with a jolly bow."

The reader is fully in Mungo's corner. He's trying his best given his surroundings and tragic circumstances. He holds onto hope when most would give up. We see him clinging to his self-assigned role as his mother's keeper. We see his big heart:

"Yet Mungo had all this love to give and it lay about him like ripened fruit and nobody bothered to gather it up."

Young Mungo is an intricate story. I didn't want it to end. It left me with hope. Fans of Shuggie Bain and A Little Life should seek this out.

Thank you to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley in exchange for my review.

In case anyone is wondering if “Young Mungo”, is as good as “Snuggie Bain”, by Scottish-American Douglas Stuart, the gifted 2020 Booker Prize winner - the answer is YES!!!!

It’s a deeply felt - heartbreaking-powerful & beautiful complicated story of a young gay man dealing with traditionalism, tolerance, open-mindedness, responsiveness, observance, freethinking, noncompliance, and ‘young love’…..
….with some of the most gorgeous writing and intimate storytelling there ever was. From tender to bloodthirsty brutal…..
Douglas Stuart opens our eyes, minds, and hearts to fear, love, family brokenness, manliness, manhood, masculinity, (gut wrenching examination from every angle) > fragile, rugged, confidence, power, force, muscled, typical traits, ‘Boys Will Be Boys’……a deep look at the traditional and negative effects.

In need of a Man-up weekend?
Know where the term came from?
It seemed to emerge from the sub language of American football (figures).

In need of a little camping trip?
A little fishing?
…. Fishing rods, plastic shopping bags filled with childish things,?
A little bloody homophobic violence?
A little devastating trauma, childhood abuse?
A couple of strangers to lead the way?
A little alcohol addiction?
A little shame?
A few days of happiness?
A few laughs?
A few tears?
YOUR HEART MELTING ….with the passion of young love?
Glasgow - home - identify- soul searching?

“One weekend away doesnae
make you a man. Ye’re not to big to go over my knee”…….

It took me a little getting used to the dialect. In the beginning— I had to re-read the first few pages — (my own lack of confidence that I might not understand it)….but not so!!!
If I could figure out the dialect- as American as apple pie— anyone can.
It actually became so much fun to engage in the Glaelic-Scottish dialect- (the endangered language), that I’ve started saying *Aye* instead of yes, to my husband. And…..”Ye’re only a wee, thing, ye?” ——I got very funny looks from Paul - but he laughed and rolled with my new word play.
But when I asked Paul when did “yer balls drop”? ….Paul knew I had flipped my lid. (we chuckled)
I looked up a few words - and even a TV British series. [Hyacinth Bucket].
I didn’t mind visiting Google. It was part of the pleasure. Besides, I already knew the Scottish talk funny…..with euphemisms being - both -charming and offensive.

Mungo is fifteen. (sweet, gentle, innocently naïve, obedient nature).
He grew up in Glasgow, from a working class-dysfunctional-protestant family. His sister, Jodie is only a year older—but she adopted the role as surrogate-mother to Mungo. (for good reasons)…Jodie doesn’t want Mungo to turn out like their older brother, Hamish- a gang leader. (personally, I loved Jodie’s character).

Mungo’s mother - Maureen - ‘Mo-Maw’ — sent him off on a fishing trip with strangers: St. Christopher and Gallowgate.
“We’ll look after ye, Mungo. Nae worries. We’ll have some laughs, and you can bring yer mammy some fresh fish”.
“Yer mammy felt us all about that mess ye got yourself into with those dirty Fenian bastards. Catholics, man. Butter widnae melt. Mungo had been trying not to think about it”.
“Dinnae worry, grinned Gallowgate. We’ll get you away free that scheme. We’ll have a proper boy’s weekend.
Make a man out of you yet, eh?”
The *Pals* (strangers), were friends of his mother.
“They are members of Alcoholic Anonymous. S’pose my maw thought it would do us awesome good to get some air about us”.

“Young Mungo” is crafted in two timelines. Both blended together with such an ‘ease-flow’.
One minute we are taken by Mungo’s inner thoughts back home about his bearable and insufferable family - sister, brother, mother, grandmother, father, growing up….
And the next minute we are on a dangerous fishing trip where Mungo meets James, a Catholic, a little older, a pigeon fancier.
And…..
…..from friendship—love blossoms.

Filled with heavy issues - dark as dark ever was - this novel is incredibly seductive…..encompassed by the mastery-passionate-storytelling.

A few excerpts:

“Mungo found himself marveling at his sister, Jodie, ….a woman of superior design. She was able to take the blows and reward them with a feeling of warmth and protection. It wasn’t like when you punched a man. On the rare occasion he dared to retaliate against his brother, Hamish, his “very fiber reached back out with Bone and gristle and muscle to return the pain up Mungo’s arm. When you hurt a man, he hurt you back”.


“The falling darkness ate the clouds out of the sky. As the lights came on in the slick streets the protestant boys began to pour out of the tenement mouths and crow at one another like nocturnal scavengers. Mungo watched from the third-floor window
as the older Billies congregated outside the Paki shop on the corner. They gathered in the light of its open doorway, fluttering like colour-blocked moths. From high above, Mungo could tell they were jumpy and unpredictable with adrenaline, looking forward to a fight, dreaming of their own glory, anything that would put a shine on their name”.
“They hung on each other affectionally, wide manly hugs, bodies never touching but full of love and rage, eager to stab and maim the Royal Catholics”.

“Some of the alcoholics were eager for the meeting to be over, others were worried about what would happen when it was”.
“They congregated in groups of four or five and shared their news. Mungo couldn’t hear what they were saying but he appreciated the way they laid their hands on each other’ arms, and when they spoke, he liked how everyone listened and seemed to feel it deeply in their own bones.
It was a funny thing to observe; near strangers who had shared some of their deepest shames, their most vulnerable moments, were now gathering to make small talk about the weather or if
Cranhill-Cathy would make it to the regionals and the ladies curling tournament. They had told the most heartbreaking truths, and now in the space of twenty minutes, they were laughing about Hyacinth Bucket”.

“If it’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s snobbery and one-upmanship. People trying to pretend they’re superior. Makes it so much harder for those of us who are”.


5+++++ stars!

Split into two timelines, Young Mungo follows Mungo, a fifteen year old Glaswegian Protestant. His older brother, Hamish, is a respected gang leader, while his sister Jodie is brilliant. Hamish wants Mungo to be a man and join the gang properly, while Jodie wants him to do better and escape their working class, rough life. Mungo meets James one day, a boy a bit older who keeps pigeons, and strikes up a friendship with him - a friendship which becomes love.

The first timeline chronicles Mungo’s life in the city, while the second chronicles a fishing trip Mungo goes on, in the near future to the first timeline. Stuart’s framing works beautifully here, giving you bits and pieces of clues as you go along, to understand how Mungo ended up on a seemingly random fishing trip.

If you enjoyed Shuggie Bain, you’ll enjoy this. Once again, Stuart is compassionate and kind; the trauma of this book is never gratuitous or bleak. This is tender despite its content, and Mungo is a sweet, loving teenager in the midst of a society that will not allow him to be. A beautiful story of queer love and working class Scotland.

Spoiler alert: this review contains information about plot points that may be considered spoilers.

I was expecting great things from the 2020 Booker winning author, but Young Mungo far surpassed my expectations. Despite being a harrowing read, Stuart writes so deftly and with flashes of humour, that it was difficult to put this book down. Trigger warnings though: this book contains scenes of extreme violence and child abuse.

I can definitely see why this novel is being touted as a modern-day Romeo and Juliet. The love story at its centre is heartbreaking and charming, with the character of Mungo fast becoming one of my most favourite, vividly written characters. I raced through the final chapters, which felt almost cinematic in their detail, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the novel since.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this was nominated for more accolades this year, and it would absolutely be worthy of them. If you liked Yanagihara’s ‘A Little Life’, you’ll love this too.

Close to perfection.

If you don’t know how much and for how long I’ve loved Shuggie Bain, then I don’t know where you’ve been.
I wasn’t worried I wouldn’t like Young Mungo, just concerned it might be too similar to Shuggie. It isn’t. Yes, the setting in the tenements of Glasgow’s East End and the poverty depicted are similar but this is a new story.

Mungo: he’s almost 16 and sweetly naïve but far from stupid. He’s constantly being encouraged to ‘be a man’ and ‘find a lassie’ as well as support his brother in petty crime or gang fights. He and his older siblings have been all but abandoned by their young, alcoholic mother; only Mungo remains forever forgiving of her.

However, Mungo is discovering his sexuality and it’s not a lassie he wants – it’s James Jamieson. Not only a boy, but Catholic.

As much as I loved it, I have to admit to being totally lost in the first chapter. We’re brought in near the end of the story and alternate between a Bank Holiday fishing trip and the events leading up to it. Once I got the hang of these parallel storylines I was hooked!

It could’ve been just another Romeo and Juliet retelling, but the sweet romance interspersed with a darker storyline is what makes it! And it is dark – the fishing trip chapters really give a sense of dread and growing unease and then we’re back to the comfort of the love story (even if that’s not all easy reading either). And I must point out that though love stories don’t usually interest me, this one did! I was cheering Mungo and James on all the way.

Anyway, to say it was all plot that made it great would be an insult to Douglas Stuart’s writing. The characters ring true, and it’s the tiny details we’re given that build a picture of the time and the circumstances, like Mungo’s wonder that a pillow could be full of feathers!

Thank you NetGalley and Picador for this much anticipated ARC!

When I saw that this book was out, I had to read this one after having really been blown away by this author's first book. This book, just like his first one, was brutally painful and emotional to read at times. Mungo is coming of age in an area that is not for it's bigotry, hate, and lack of choices. Mungo is one of three unfortunate children that have been born from an alcoholic mother that made the only choices that were plausible in the world that she lived in. Mungo is raised primarily by his older sister who strives for more, however almost loses it all. He is kept in line by a gang leader brother who is living in the tenements with his very young wife and baby, waging war on all around him and making a living by taking from others. The book has an alternative timeline running through it that outlines an unfortunate occurrence that is lifechanging. I really wish this would have been arranged differently because I felt that it lost the power that it had.

This book is part love story, drama, tragedy, carnage, war. and so many things. Young Mungo is coming to understand that he is queer in an area where this can very well end in death. I felt that this book was extremely important and was one of the best books that I have read in quite some time. It is not an easy read, however it is transformative, brave, and powerful at it's core. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley.

Stuart is a master of Scottish working class, queer, coming of age stories. Through all the trauma, there's a glimmer of relief, if not hope at the end.

In Young Mungo, Douglas Stuart creates a novel that pulls the reader in a time and situation that is as terrifyingly heart gripping as it is hopeful and ecstatic. By dividing each alternating chapter between two different timelines that race toward the novels conclusion, the reader is held in a sense of urgency and heart pounding suspense. In one timeline we see a poor young Mungo (named after a Scottish Saint) who is discovering who he is as a blossoming first love unfolds. The second is one that tells of a trip he is forced into going on with less than favorably described strangers into a secluded area on a fishing trip to make him a more masculine man. The ending is one that left me feeling angry yet hopeful. While temperatures and views on sexuality and masculinity have changed dramatically for most of the first world, other cultural differences in Young Mungo's setting and time persist everywhere today. This novel stands among some of the best I have read that deal with similar themes. Hanya Yanagihara's recent novels "Little Life" and "To Paradise" tend to be melodramatically heavy handed I felt as reading Young Mungo. (Many of my friends could barely make it through the first half of the first story of "To Paradise" because of such suffocating conceits) Young Mungo is a masterpiece. Young Mungo is as good, if not better than "Shuggie Bain" in many regards. Thanks to Net Galley for the Epub!

Set in working class Glasgow in the early 1990s, Douglas Stuart’s second novel focuses on Mungo, a protestant boy who falls in love with James, his catholic neighbour.

‘Young Mungo’ is a masterclass in characterisation. I was taken aback by how vividly-drawn Mungo, his family and neighbours are. I saw them, heard them and knew them in ways that I feel only few writers, for me, have managed to evoke on the page.

What touches me so much about Stuart’s characters, I believe, is the compassion that has clearly gone into his crafting of them. Many of these characters are truly despicable people, but they are written in such a nuanced way, that I couldn’t help but stand back and consider the ways that they have been failed themselves; by society, by the people around them, etc., without forgiving the awful things that they do.

Setting and place play such a remarkably breathtaking role in this novel. Glasgow itself feels as though it is a character in its own right, central to the heart and soul of the stories taking place within.

There is a deep course of trauma and tragedy that runs through this novel that I occasionally struggled with, though for being a bit faint of heart, or because it runs a little *too* deep, I wasn’t sure.

Despite this book’s truly heavy subject matters (I feel I’ll be carrying it around with me for some time) I have to pause to marvel at its structure and craft. This novel is a real work of passion, and though I feel it is a bit of a loaded thing to say, it has many of the makings of a modern classic.

Young Mungo is a grim, Glaswegian, gay coming-of-age tale, set sometime in the late 80’s to early 90’s, going by a reference to a Smiths song on a mix-tape.
Mungo is a sweet teenage boy with a nervous tick who bad things happen to. The story begins ‘The May After’ with our titular character heading off on a fishing trip with two men his mother met at an AA meeting. ‘After what?’ you ask, and that question hooks you in right from the start.
I thought Mungo might be a nickname, but no, it is the poor boys real name – his mother named him after the patron saint of Glasgow. Our Mungo is a person of exceptional goodness, surrounded by others who are less virtuous. His mother, Monday-to-Thursday Maureen (as she is known for the days she attends the alcoholics anonymous group) is frequently absent and a liability when she is not. His older brother Hamish is a teenage father, drug dealer and is immersed in the street violence between the Catholics and Protestants. Only his sister Jodie takes care of him, treating him like her own child at times, although there is only a year or two between them. Like the Patron Saint, Mungo is rooted in his town, and to his family, particularly to his mother, whom he loves regardless of her neglect. Young Mungo is similar to Shuggie Bain in that respect, with themes of family, poverty, queerness, and addiction.
I found the descriptive language to be visceral and unique, transporting you to cold, clammy Scotland and dumping you in misery of Mungo’s life. There were times I couldn’t put the book down, and times I had to take a break because Mungo’s reality was too harsh. The story is structured so that it alternates between bleakness and joy – the fishing trip and the months before when he met James. James is a Catholic boy a year older who’s hobby is capturing prize pigeons. There is the tenderness of first love interspersed with the terror of violence on the streets of Glasgow and as you work your way through the book there is a growing sense of foreboding. It keeps you on edge, keeps you turning the pages. The cutting back and forth seesaws you between emotions and one of my favourite descriptions was when Mungo says something about the hot and cold taps of loveliness and shame washing over him.
The only thing I would have preferred is if it had all been from Mungo’s perspective. There were a few times it dipped into the heads of other characters and it threw me a little, I think most of it was unnecessary and could have been done through dialogue or just emitted entirely. That doesn’t change the fact that this is a bloody marvelous book.
Some of the subject matter is hard and Stuart doesn’t shy away from painting a grim picture, but he does so with just the right amount of detail so as not to be gratuitous. However, this is a book that should be read with caution and come with a heap of trigger warnings, including homophobic violence and child abuse.
It wasn’t always a pleasant read but, in my opinion, it is even better than Shuggie Bain, and since that won the 2020 Booker Prize, I hope Young Mungo gets the same kind of recognition as it is well deserved.

I was excited to read Young Mungo and had high expectations for it which were most definitely realised. This book is not afraid to challenge a myriad of societal issues such as alcoholism, poverty, toxic masculinity, homophobia, religious sectarianism, child abuse etc. Although bleak and desolate throughout, the prose is engaging and captivating. It is beautifully written and I found the passages describing the munros and the loch charming and visual. I think some readers might struggle with the starkness of the plot and might find parts of it triggering. However, this is the reality that we live in unfortunately and Douglas Stuart does an amazing job at depicting the cruelty and sadism that exists. Overall, it was a thoroughly engrossing book that I would recommend to all to read.

𝑵𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒆𝒏 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒚𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒇𝒆𝒍𝒕, 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒊𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒅𝒊𝒅, 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒑, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒇𝒖𝒄𝒌𝒊𝒏' 𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒊𝒔 𝒅𝒂𝒎𝒑 𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉.

𝐸𝑁/𝐹𝑅

| WARNING: This digital A.R.C was kindly sent to me by the publisher via NetGalley after I requested it in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. |

TRIGGER WARNINGS: I can’t list them. Because It’ll spoil a good part of the book.
But please go into it while keeping your mental health in check because trust me, It’s going to hurt.

There is latent poetry of watching the life of someone else plays, in a play that will never be yours.
Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart nailed me to my chair, to offer me the picture of a life that has never been, and never will be, mine.
By inking in me the story of Mungo, named after a Scottish saint, he leaves behind a trace that I do not wish to erase.
In the decline of the industrial era of Glasgow, Mungo is fifteen years old, and he is seen by all as the somewhat simple, too candid and naive kid of Maureen, Mo-Maw as his children call her, a young alcoholic woman who doesn’t know what to do with what she has created during her own adolescence.

Hamish, the eldest, reproduces a vicious circle of perversion well-oiled and surrounding all the young people of the neighbourhood; gangs, drugs and daughters made mothers too early. Hamish knows only one language, violence, and he masters it better than anyone, especially against Catholics.

Jodie, the only girl, is too intelligent for her own good, clear-sighted, and cruel in reaction to those she meets, digging, grasping and making her way to a better life, despite everything.

Mungo is the last one, the one who has a facial ticking and a hard time understanding why what people say and think are not always the same. Why his mother disappears for days or seem to be absent while she sits in the living room, nose in the drink.
Why he cannot simply be friends with James, the Catholic boy on the opposite flat who takes care of his pigeons and actually looks at him, for the first time among the others.
Why feeling alive at a boy’s side is so dangerous.

Why months later, when everything in him is twisting with pain, he is sent to the shore of a lake with two strange strangers, acquaintances of his mother to learn to sin and «become a man».

Young Mungo is one of his stories that everyone seems to be surprised that I can appreciate.
Locked in my fantasy bubble, I tend to forget that the most monstrous stories are often human, confessed in half words behind the curtains drawn from poverty that no one wants to touch.
In an English closer to the Scottish slang, which was not the easiest for me as I’m not a native English speaker, I followed the pains and joys of Mungo, sailing this world which decidedly does not want to leave him in peace. Who doesn’t want to let him breathe. Or perhaps it would be better to drown.

The pain and disgust I felt at certain moments were matched only by the beauty of a description, a gesture, and a smile.
I want to believe in a happy ending for him and for James, a quiet place where the landscape is only a detail and not a cage that forces you to fold until you forget yourself.

As this book has been an ARC, I must thank Douglas Stuart and the publisher Grove Press once again for giving me the chance to read this book before its release.
It seems to me that it is particularly suitable for people who have read A Little Life, even if it is not yet my case.
I can only encourage you to pre-order it as soon as possible, as I did the moment I closed it.

------ 𝐹𝑅 -----

| WARNING : Cet A.R.C digital m’a été envoyé par l'éditeur via NetGalley suite à ma demande en échange d’une revue honnête. Toutes les opinions exprimées sont miennes. |

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Je ne peux pas les lister. Parce que cela spoilerait une bonne partie du livre. Mais s’il vous plait, commencez votre lecture en gardant un œil sur votre santé mentale car croyez-moi, ça va faire mal.

Il existe une poésie latente à regarder la vie d’un autre se jouer, dans une pièce qui ne sera jamais la nôtre.
Young Mungo par Douglas Stuart m’a cloué sur ma chaise, pour m’offrir un spectacle de vie qui n’a jamais été, et ne sera jamais, le mien. En encrant en moi l’histoire de Mungo, nommé d’après un saint écossais, il laisse derrière lui une trace que je ne souhaite pas effacer.

Dans le déclin de l’ère industrielle de Glasgow, Mungo a quinze ans et il est vu par tous comme le gamin un peu simplet, trop candide et naïf de Maureen, Mo-Maw comme l’appellent ses enfants, une jeune femme alcoolique ne sachant que faire de ce qu’elle a engendré depuis sa propre adolescence.

Hamish, l’aîné, reproduit un cercle vicieux de perversion bien huilée et entourant tous les jeunes du quartier ; les gangs, la drogue et les filles-mères trop tôt. Hamish ne connait qu’un langage, la violence, et il le maîtrise mieux que quiconque, surtout contre les Catholiques.

Jodie, l’unique fille, est trop intelligente pour son propre bien, clairvoyante et cruelle en réaction à ceux qu’elle côtoie, creusant, agrippant et se frayant une route vers une vie meilleure, malgré tout.

Mungo est le dernier, celui qui a tic facial et une difficulté à comprendre pourquoi ce que les gens disent et ce que les gens pensent ne coïncident pas toujours. Pourquoi sa mère disparait pendant des jours ou semble être absente alors qu’elle est assise dans le salon, le nez dans la boisson.
Pourquoi il ne peut pas simplement être ami avec James, le garçon catholique de l’appartement d’en face qui prend soin de ses pigeons et qui le regarde, réellement, pour la première fois parmi les autres.
Pourquoi se sentir vivant aux côtés d’un garçon est si dangereux.

Pourquoi des mois plus tard, alors que tout se tord de douleur en lui, il est envoyé au bord d’un lac avec deux inconnus peu avenants, connaissances de sa maman pour apprendre à pécher et « devenir un homme ».

Young Mungo est l’une de ses histoires que tout le monde semble s’étonner que je puisse apprécier.
Enfermée dans ma fantasy de prédilection, j’ai tendance à oublier que les récits les plus monstrueux sont souvent humains, avoués à demi-mots derrière les rideaux tirés d’une pauvreté que l’on effleure.

Dans un anglais écrit à l’écossaise, ce qui n’était pas des plus aisés pour moi qui ne suit pas anglaise native, j’ai suivi les peines et les joies de Mungo, naviguant ce monde qui décidément ne veut pas le laisser en paix. Qui ne veut pas le laisser respirer. Où peut-être vaudrait-il mieux se noyer.

La douleur et le dégoût que j’ai ressenti à certains passages n’ont eu d’égal que la beauté d’une description, d’un geste et d’un sourire.
Je veux croire en une fin heureuse pour lui et pour James, d’un endroit calme où le paysage n’est qu’un détail et non pas une cage qui vous force à plier jusqu’à vous oublier.

Ce livre ayant été un ARC, je me dois de remercier une dernière fois Douglas Stuart et la maison d’édition Grove Press pour m’avoir donné la chance de lire ce livre avant sa sortie.
Il me semble qu’il est particulièrement indiqué aux personnes ayant lu Une Vie comme les Autres, même si ce n’est pas encore mon cas.
Je ne peux que vous encourager à le précommander au plus vite, comme je l’ai fait à l’instant même où je l’ai refermé.

#Young Mungo
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The synopsis of this novel is so promising, and although this wasn't a novel for me I still give it a 4 out of 5 because this novel is a great piece of literature. There is no doubt about that. The themes and conflicts in this book, to me, are an interest. I love LGBTQ reads, I find myself an alley and have many people in my life who are apart of the community and their stories are always full of people who hurt them in some way. Whether they be emotional, verbal, and sometimes physically. It's wrong of people to discriminat others all because of their sexual orientation. We are people, we are all trying to live our lives in the best of way. And to me this novel, although I didn't give it a full 5 stats. It still hits my emotions because of the way its written and the way the themes, like I mentioned are shown in such deep and rich description.