Douglas Stuart has risen as an incredibly gifted writer.
Thoroughly enjoying ‘Shuggie Bain’, I was thrilled to read his next novel, Young Mungo’ and it did not disappoint.
In an early 1990’s setting, Mungo is growing up in a tenement in Glasgow with his older siblings Hamish and Jodie and their erratic and alcoholic Mo-Maw to whom his devotion knows no bounds. Prone to frequent disappearances, Mungo cradles her flaws by remembering the better moments. Mungo loves. Mungo is kind. Mungo is sensitive.
When Mungo meets James, there are differences. James is Catholic and has prize racing birds and Mungo is Protestant and that alone should make them enemies. To these sensitive souls there are no boundaries and they fall in love. The beauty of their meeting, the tenderness of their souls brought light and life to each word.
Mo-Maw wants Mungo to toughen up and entrusting his care to two men (fellow AA attendees) for a fishing weekend presents an opportunity. Mungo’s is excited of being ‘in nature’ but this weekend and these characters are not what was anticipated and Stuart’s writing shines with detail as we experience the unexpected.
This much like ‘Shuggie Bain’ is much more than a novel. It is a journey of experiences, the tenderness and difficulties of love, darkness, light and facing the challenges along the way.
Thank you NetGalley, Grove Press and Douglas Stuart for an ARC in exchange for an honest book review.

Reading this book is like reading about Shuggie Bain's next door neighbors. And, while Shuggie still remains my favorite of Stuart's two novels, Mungo is also a brilliant work. It's heart wrenching to read about the things that happen to Mungo but Stuart is able to ease us along with his exquisite writing and a back-and-forth timeline that helps when things feel overwhelming. Highly recommended for the story, the characters, the setting, and the writing, this book is another triumph. I was given an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This beautifully written book perfectly encapsulates the gritty and atmospheric. Glaswegian strife.

The emotions in the book are overwhelming at times, with the amount of trauma the characters go through. It is hard to read but at the same time, you can’t put it down. It’s trauma after trauma, and therefore I recommend anyone to read the trigger warnings before reading. Just writing out all the traumatic things that happened would seem utterly unbelievable.

You really get attached to the characters and want better for them. They are complex characters with a heartbreaking journey, and you will feel your heart ache.

I did find it slightly hard to follow at times, as the storylines and narrative perspective is somewhat confusing. The Scottish dialect does also make this a bit difficult to read, if you’re not familiar with it normally. For these reasons, I don’t think this book was really for me. But I can appreciate why others are obsessed with it.

This book has been criticised by some as being too like Shuggie Bain, but I mean, if ain’t broke?! If you enjoyed Shuggie, you will undoubtably love this book too. Yes, there are somewhat similar themes and the same gritty atmosphere that Stuart is so good at. But also, this adds a new perspective and new characters that you will love just as much, if not more.

Last year, I adored Shuggie Bain and the struggles and love of family portrayed in a poverty stricken Glasgow. Young Mungo is a similar but darker read. Mungo is a boy who is growing up essentially without parents. His mother has abandoned her children to shack up with a man and to care for his children in order to improve her financial means. She is a deeply wounded individual who turns to alcohol to lessen her emotions and leaves her children to themselves in search of this solace. Mungo has two older siblings in his Protestant family in Glasgow, Hamish is his older brother and bullies Mungo, with the reasoning being that he is trying to “toughen him up” for the streets. There are times where Hamish tries to be the older brother/father figure that is needed, but this is inconsistent. Jodie is Mungo’s older sister who takes care of him and they have the closer relationship. She wants more out of life then the poverty of Glasgow and feels the pressure from others to maintain the status quo.
Mungo is the more complex character. He is recognized early as being gay, although people put that label on him in their gossip before Mungo has even realized what his sexuality is. He then meets James, the nearby neighbor who is Catholic, mostly left to himself due to his father working away from home. He has his basic needs met and shares with Mungo as they spend time in James’ dovecote. James teaches him about the birds and they have this as a mutual interest. Their relationship grows and changes and is a complex first love.
The timeline alternates between the present day and these memories as well as a “fighting trip” that Mungo is sent on with a group of AA members and ex-cons. His mother sends him with a group of men that he doesn’t know and who she doesn’t know well, into the wilderness of Scotland for some fresh air and a bit of fishing. Unfortunately this trip is a disaster and significantly effects Mungo’s life.
This is a tough book at times because it is really the dark side of addiction, poverty, and growing up LGBTQ in Glasgow during a time of prejudice between Protestants and Catholics. This exposes these topics in a frank and brutal way that really has you empathize with the experiences of the characters.
I love the way Stuart writes a story although this one is a harder read than Shuggie Bain. It will likely stick with me for some time.
#YoungMungo #NetGalley #GroveAtlantic #GrovePress

I loved Mungo so much. This is beautiful and heartbreaking but hopefully hopeful (the ending left me unsure). Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I wouldn't want to be in Mungo's shoes. Imagine being pushed around and pulled into ruthless fights by your brother all your life, only finding solace only in your sister's words, being not cared for by your mother. On top of all of these, imagine trying to figure out your own sexual identity, trying to make sense of that fact that there was nothing wrong with how you feel but it was only people who were cruel. Mungo had to go through all of these at a time when the country he lived in had its own problems with its identity.

Mungo's story was told in two story lines: one started with his family life and his love for his significant other, another started with his fishing trip with two criminals on parole because his mother thought they could teach him to be a "man". Tragedy was in between two storylines and lines of those. Soft, sweet Mungo had to experience terrors of an action once he could only consider in his pure, innocent memories.

There are so many things to say about this story; so many traumas were hidden in its passages. Of course, it made even worse that a quiet, young boy had to go through all of these. Someone who had more experience and more guidance to make sense of thing might be able to handle things differently, but Mungo did the best he could.

I really tried so hard to love this, considering shuggie brain was exceptional. The audiobook narration was awful and so boring unfortunately. And even while I switched to the ecopy, I lost interest totally.

What can I say that hasn't been said before... a masterpiece. Absolutely heartbreaking and gripping. Would recommend to all.

I attempted this several times before my netgalley arc expired, but it sadly wasn't to be. I'm not sure exactly what went wrong because I loved [book:Shuggie Bain|52741293] and, in many ways, this is a very similar kind of story with a similar tone.

In fact... could that be it?

Maybe [book:Shuggie Bain|52741293] ate up my quota of misery and gloom for the next ten years or so. All I know is that I really struggled to get into this. Maybe I'll try again when I'm in a different mood.

I had to listen to the audiobook on MUCH slower speeds than I usually do, given the thick Scottish accent of the narrator. I read it along with listening to the audio. This book reminded me of a Little Life, in that it was written beautifully but absolutely wrecked me with its depictions of trauma. Chock ful of triggering scenes, it was a heartbreaking book with moments of simple love.

I went into Young Mungo knowing almost nothing about it and having not read Stuart's debut novel. The book follows Mungo, who is the youngest of three children, who live in government housing in Glasgow during the 1980s. His mother always leaves them to fend for themselves and his older brother is a gang leader teenager with a young baby of his own. The story goes back and forth in time between a fishing trip and a few months prior with the events leading up to the fishing trip. I thought the writing was great and on par for literary fiction and the intricateness of the family and housing community really well woven. It's a heavy one and I think a good look at lower class life, especially from a coming-of-age and queer point of view.

Thank you to netgalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

It was the first book I read by this author and wanted to read it because I was attracted by the blurb.
It was a fascinating and excellent reading experience as the author is a master storyteller and I loved the style of writing and the characters.
Enthralling, riveting, and poignant.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Another winning novel from this master of fiction! I love that he has gotten even better with his second novel.

I want to address something that's been bothering me a lot to start off this review:
<img src="'https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK9h44szXkKgJM4nziQii4igu1L7k3LSBT_6uy_J3nxS-SAhORu5S9KepWHAnShuKOkAAOtRSPOZsO6PfvW9aMmqOXmD6dfs9RWTPbwLpbHCX6vMiQUDo4tN5AIgg034m5eqMmVNrFC_3boTdh6YN8xcw_LZR3R17JlloqrGF2rctD_VlnSUp_u3gPlg/s320/wake-up-this-is-not-a-love-story-33022623.png"width=400>
There. I've said it. I stand by it. Adjust your seatbelts, laddies and gentlewomen, and listen up.

Mungo's a teenager with a truly evil, selfish alcoholic mother, a violent, should-be-imprisoned brother, and a sweet but misguided, loving but naïve sister, and a serious tic gifted to him by his unaddressed, undiagnosed neurodivergence. His life isn't one tiny bit of fun, and unlike Shuggie in Author Stuart's first book, he doesn't have a love object in his entire life. He loves his sister and she loves him, but that's a little like the lame helping the halt. Shuggie was entirely absorbed in loving his mother, but Mungo seldom sees his and when he does, it's usually better for him not to spend much time in her toxic terrible black hole of a presence. Being a neurodivergent person, Mungo fixates on his too-young, too-broken mother for whatever guideposts she can offer; she sucks the whole of his lovingkindness down like her genuine love, fortified wine, and gives none back. So he knows, at least seems to know, she isn't a model he can follow. His sister does the best she can to fill the kindness void, but she's barely older than Mungo by the calendar. She's gotten out of a bad jam, and come to know she can't live in this world...meaning she has to leave Mungo behind. Hamish? All Hamish does, all he knows, is rage and violence. There will be nothing else left in Mungo's life...no other emotional reality.

This, then, isn't Shuggie Redux. Stop pretending it is. Yes, it's set in deindustrializing Glasgow. Yes, it takes place in the working class parts of that world. Alcoholic parent, abusive sibling, all there...but the meat of this story is Mungo, and therefore this story could not be less like the family that slips away from Shuggie, that he just...loses...no fault of his own. The one good thing, as he tells himself (and with which I agree) is that he has is the love he bears for and gets from the Catholic boy who lives near him: James. James, son of a cancer-taken mother, an oil-rig worker father, and in love with Mungo. Who, need I mention, loves James right back. They explore their teenaged awkward bodies, they try to figure out the HUGE new emotions, and they face up to the impossibility of being openly gay in their world. Hamish? He'll kill Mungo; James's father's already had a go at killing him for it. James, older by almost a year, is the one who has to bear the public brunt of their inevitable discovery...Mungo just can't.

Not to say Mungo's not hapless and helpless. He's simply clueless, he lacks a kind of inner compass that warns a person away from impulsive action. In the end, it causes a world of trouble for him, and all of it is his mother's fault. She wants to be alone, to get her funtimes with a new man, so off she packs Mungo (freshly beaten by Hamish for the James-loving faggot that he is) off with...strangers, basically. And that goes epically badly for Mungo. He can think of nothing, no way out of his terrible situation. He's got nothing except what he's seen, what's surrounded him his whole life when Life, the great existential crisis that is Life, crashes down on him. That it is a test is clear; how he responds to the test isn't obviously the way he would have even a day before it came upon him. Mungo makes his whole life anew when he absolutely can do nothing except react, respond to the great crisis.

It is harsh, ugly, and frightening, and it comes from events so hideous that I was sure I would lose my rag and start screaming incoherently at the Kindle. And it was, in this reader's angry, bitter judgment, the only and the best way he could have behaved. It was a boy, cooked in a bath of rage, becoming the only man that bath dissolved the fatty, weakening childness off of him to be.

There is a scene at the very end of the book, a moment, a thing we're not expecting. It is, of course, Author Stuart's last word. He wrote this book, this harsh and unyielding and rageful story, the way he wrote Shuggie Bain: without mercy. It was the perfect ending. And this was the best way he could possibly have followed that book up: darkness has shadows, too.

I picked this book, for one reason alone. The author’s last book won the Shuggie Bain won the 2020 Booker Prize. So I was naturally intrigued.

But the book did not live up to expectations, at least for me. The narrative switches back and forth between a fishing trip Mungo’s mother has forced him into with two strange men, that happens in the present. And Mungo’s upbringing and incidents with his mother, sister Jodie and friend James that happen in the past. It takes a while to get a grip on things while abruptly switching between them.

Also in the dialogue between the characters, there is heavy use of the local slang. And some of the words and sometimes even sentences were beyond me.

Another thing the story’s summary does mention queer love story but it also has some very heavy themes of alcohol abuse, domestic violence, and rape. So this book might not be meant for a wide audience, since it can be triggering for so many readers.

I did find it fascinating to read about Mungo’s tender and caring nature and the relationship between his sister and him despite their mother forever abandoning them to be in profitable relationships with men on top of being an alcoholic. I was touched by Mungo’s thoughts and feelings and his innocence amongst all the chaos and that kept me reading the story.

But Overall due to the above-mentioned points I don’t think I enjoyed the book as much as I wanted to and felt like skipping huge chunks of paragraphs in the chapter because they felt needlessly long to the central plot of the story – Mungo.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of the book.

Like most readers, I was in love with Shuggie Bain. Young Mungo does not disappoint and lives up to Booker-Prize-Winner expectations. That being said, Mungo and Shuggie are so similar as to be almost interchangeable — a bildungsroman of young, poverty-stricken, neglected Glaswegian boy bearing shame and confusion over his sexuality. A few years from now I may recollect scenes from these stories and probably will not be able to remember which scene went with which book.

However, Stuart’s nuanced and intense descriptions put me right into the story. He’s tender and thoughtful with his characters. I understood them, loved them, cared for them, was disappointed for them. Unlike so many other novels, each character had a purpose and a multifaceted, complex persona. I often lost track of how much I had read or what page I was on because I was so absorbed. At one point the writing actually made me gasp out loud.
I have a spot for Mungo on my “favorites” shelf, right next to Shuggie.

Many thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy in exchange for my review.

i was very excited to read this but after a couple of pages i struggled to keep a steady pace. seems so similar to the previous book by the same author although i can see some difference in the sense like the protagonist has moved on in life. probably will give it another time

Could not put this down, absolutely loved this. I definitely want to read more from Douglas Stuart!!!

This is a tough one to review. I’ll start with the more positive aspects for me which are the characters and the setting. Most of the characters in this story do terrible things and are a bad influence to those around them, but there’s depth to them, not being cartoonish evil monsters adds to the heart of the story being told. In the end, I wanted Mungo to be happy and find a path and his sister Jodie to succeed as well. I’ve never been to Glasgow but I felt that the city was very alive and vibrant in the novel.
However, the prose was not for me, I don’t think it added much to the plot points being described. And especially those plot points seemed a bit unresolved to me, Reading about a character being in suffering throughout an entire book and then having everything so unfinished and quickly wrapped up in the end was very disappointing.

There is much in Douglas Stuart’s new book that will remind you of Shuggie Bain. Mungo is a young lad, just 15 years old, wanting only his mother’s love. But his mother is an alcoholic and he never knew his dad. Now his mother is away for days, weeks sometimes, in search of, or trying to hold onto, a new man. She denies the existence of her three children lest they scare off a new squeeze and Mungo is largely brought up by his sister, Jodie.

Jodie is a bright young woman with an academic future in front of her, if only she can escape her upbringing. For the moment, though, she is stuck being a surrogate mum to Mungo and lost in a horrible cycle of trying to please an older authority figure who only wants to take advantage of her.

Hamish is the eldest child. Already lost to the ways of sectarian gang violence, he is trying to teach Mungo to be street wise – and of course to hate Catholics; for that is one of the main purposes of being in a street gang in this part of sectarian Glasgow; the other being the need to take every opportunity to root out homosexuality wherever it is perceived.

Alcoholism, domestic abuse, poverty and above all the toxicity of what it means to be a big man in this city all play a part in making these people who they are. Young Mungo is a heart-breaking story. It is the story of the Montagues and the Capulets set in amongst the East End tenements of Glasgow.

Set across two timelines, the immediate past last January and the present day in May, we meet neighbours who know better than to interfere, but still try their best. We also meet some of the worst of humanity in two men who Mungo will never be able to forget as his mother, Mo-Maw, abandons him to them in the hope that he can learn ‘manly pursuits’ like fishing. Young Mungo is an often bleak and harrowing tale of the loss of innocence and the brutality of male violence and female neglect. It is also a beautiful story of the flourishing of young love against all the odds.

There’s something inherently beautiful in Stuart’s rich imagery and fabulous prose which sets this book firmly apart from others. The writing contrasts with the harshest of the violence and offers a richness that promises more than the abject miserableness of what we are reading. I found that a rare and wonderful thing.

So we have hope; hope in this love among the doocots, that we have to cling on to if the possibility of love prevailing is to stay with us. At its heart, Young Mungo is that most ancient of stories, a story of love against all the odds, made more poignant by the marked differences we see between love with sex and sex without love. There are no easy answers, but Douglas Stuarts, raw, brutal, unflinching story is a real heart-breaker and this character-driven novel is a beautifully wrought work with the merest glimmer of hope to cling on to.