Young Mungo is a coming of age story of a 15 year old scottish boy with a broken family. The story is dark, painful, and reflects the era it talks about well. Its set in Scotland in the 90s, during the time when Protestant and Catholic rifts were at its peak.

Mungo is the youngest son of an alcoholic mother. He has two siblings, an elder brother Hamish aka Ha Ha who is the local protestant gang leader and Jodie, his elder sister who practically raises him. The story follows the past and present route, The story starts off with Mungo being forced to go away on a fishing trip with 2 friends of his alcoholic mother so that they can teach him to 'act like a man' over the bank holiday weekend. Then we switch over to see the things that have happened in Mungo's life leading upto that point. We see the relationships he has with his negletful absent mother, cruel and abusive brother, and his loving, smart and skillful sister. The story takes a turns with his new found friendship with a catholic boy James Jameson that slowly blossoms into a sweet lovestory with both the boys exploring their sexuality. There are also some impactful auxillary characters that help, support and love Mungo on the way.

Being this soft soulful boy, stuck in a hard dark and cruel world, Mungo tries to keep on holding to everything he holds dear. The lovestory of Mungo and James is so real and awkward and beautiful. Even though it was only a small part of this deep story, it leaves a permanent mark on you, so that, you can't think of Mungo without remembering James. The dovecot and their little moments of tenderness were so beautifully written. The uncertainty and fear is so real that your chest will ache for them.

I am at loss of words for this book. This book made me angry and hate humanity, but at the same time it gave me some semblence of hope. The book was so dark, with so little joy in it that I found it hard to binge. The writing is so atmospheric, that you feel the changes in moods of the scenes as soon as it switches.

TW: substance abuse/ alcoholism., Violence, homophobia, teenage pregnancy, abortion, child abuse, pedophilia, neglect, abandonment, sexual assault/rape, murder.

Many thanks to Netgalley and RB Media, Recorded Books for the ALC of this book

Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart

Young Mungo is a book about pain of identity, family, violence, and becoming a man. Mungo grows up in Gloscow with his alcoholic mother and brother ha ha who is a protestant gang leader, and his sister Jodie. Mungo meets James a catholic and they fall in-love. This is one of the most beautiful parts of the book two young men falling in love. Mungo's mom send him on a fishing trip with two guys she knows from her AA group. These two men are not sober and they are not behaving like they should.

This story pulls at you in all directions at points I was angry at what was going on and other times I felt the pain of it all. Young love is still beautiful even in a world where it is hard to know how to become a man that society expects you to become. Male toxicity is weaved throughout this book.

This is my first experience reading Douglas Stuart his writing is so amazing he puts the reader into Glascow during that time. You can visualize the setting around by the descriptions that Stuart feeds the reader. This makes this dark and beautiful book come to life.

My only complaint about the book is the narrator was hard to understand at times I had to really focus on the audio book to follow along. I still rather enjoyed the book after a short bit the accent was becoming easier to understand but some words sounded muffled.

I really like that this book was a coming of age book about a young boy discovering his sexuality as a gay young man. This is one of the best written books about this topic that I have read.

Thank you to Netgalley and RB Media for the chance to read this book for an honest review.

I received an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review

I did not think I could love this book more than Shuggie Bain, but if anything, I loved it more. I appreciated the darkness that the author brought to Mungo. The audio narration really set the scene and put me squarely in Glasgow. Probably the best book I’ve read so far this year – easy five

Douglas Stewart has blown me away with this one.
At the start I was apprehensive, it seemed a lot like shuggie Bain which I just didn’t connect with. I could appreciate the beauty of the writing but i wasn’t immersed.

With a similar plot of a drunken neglectful mother I didn’t have high hope but I was so glad to be proved wrong.

The writing was incredible, it was moving, touching and anger inducing. I adored Mungo more than words, watching him grow as a person and overcome so many struggles was both heartbreaking and empowering.

Having grown up just outside glasgow in an area where sectarianism was rife and gang wars was a weekend occurance I could relate a lot to both mungo and James’ feelings on the issue.

This is a book I will keep with me for years to come and recommend to everyone

Young Mungo is a gritty, love story that totally pulled my heartstrings in all the right places.
Narrator, Chris Reilly, did a fantastic job bringing Mungo and James’ tragic love story to life.
I felt Stuart found a way, through his atmospheric writing style, to successfully intertwine two timelines effortlessly. I felt I could picture every minor detail in Mungo’s day to day life. While the first half of the book was bogged down with character dialogue with minor characters, I felt the last half of the book made up for what I felt was lacking. I want applaud Stuart’s efforts in depicting reality of the fear that some societies instills in gay men. I feel this is an issue most people tend to gloss over when thinking of the needs/support within the LGBT community.

Thanks to Grove Press, NetGalley and Recorded Books for the ALC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to listen to this audio book in return for an honest review.
Synopsis
A story of queer love and working-class families, Young Mungo is the brilliant second novel from the Booker Prize-winning author of Shuggie Bain.

Douglas Stuart's first novel Shuggie Bain, winner of the 2020 Booker Prize, is one of the most successful literary debuts of the century so far. Published or forthcoming in forty territories, it has sold more than one million copies worldwide. Now Stuart returns with Young Mungo, his extraordinary second novel. Both a page-turner and literary tour de force, it is a vivid portrayal of working-class life and a deeply moving and highly suspenseful story of the dangerous first love of two young men.

Growing up in a housing estate in Glasgow, Mungo and James are born under different stars--Mungo a Protestant and James a Catholic--and they should be sworn enemies if they're to be seen as men at all. Yet against all odds, they become best friends as they find a sanctuary in the pigeon dovecote that James has built for his prize racing birds. As they fall in love, they dream of finding somewhere they belong, while Mungo works hard to hide his true self from all those around him, especially from his big brother Hamish, a local gang leader with a brutal reputation to uphold. And when several months later Mungo's mother sends him on a fishing trip to a loch in Western Scotland with two strange men whose drunken banter belies murky pasts, he will need to summon all his inner strength and courage to try to get back to a place of safety, a place where he and James might still have a future.

Imbuing the everyday world of its characters with rich lyricism and giving full voice to people rarely acknowledged in the literary world, Young Mungo is a gripping and revealing story about the bounds of masculinity, the divisions of sectarianism, the violence faced by many queer people, and the dangers of loving someone too much.

It’s a rare thing for me to tell you I wish I could’ve given a book 10 out of 5 stars. This is a dead cert prize winner which is an amazing thing in itself, only the second novel by the author and both absolute master pieces. The synopsis for this book reads like a Glasgow based version of Romeo and Juliet or west side story. Dare I say it was everything and more than either of them. The characters were visceral, wholly formed and we already know them somehow, somewhere in the back of your mind you identify with at least one of them. A graphic, violent, tragic yet humorous book with Glasgow shining through in all its sectarian colours. I don’t know how much more praise I can heap on to it tbh but it’s truly fantastic! #Jorecommends

Was Shuggie Bain a once off? Is Douglas Stuart a new modern great? To say that Young Mugo comes with a certain weight of expectation is an understatement, but that's what happens when you're only the 6th author to win the literatures most prestigious prize the Booker with your debut novel, does Young Mugo deliver?

Thank you to Net Galley for granting me a copy of this as an audio ARC.

This book feels very familiar, set in 1980's Glasgow, Mungo is a queer 15 year old and the youngest of 3 children, he loves his very flawed alcoholic mother, much to the displeasure of his sibling and he doesn't have a father. The children grow up in poverty, Mo-Maw is picking up men driving Hackney cabs, there's even a scene with Mungo and Hamish (Ha-Ha) robbing a warehouse together, and you're all like "Douglas, I've read this one before". Does anybody else think of books like Dominos? Half the book is spent putting dominos down in a nice pattern so that at a point the author can just push one over and set off a chain reaction of beautiful events, all the dominos are in the same place as they were with Shuggie; but then we keep going back to this fishing trip and suddenly you realise that this is a completely different story.

One of the things Douglas Stuart does differently is the characters, Jodie and Ha-ha are much more present than Leek and Catherine, they have their own adventures and really add complexity to the story, while Mo-maw is a shadow of Agnus we also have the vivid characters of James, Galgut and St. Christopher. Galgut and St Christopher are taking Mungo away for a fishing trip so he can become a man, while James is a young Catholic boy who protestants Mungo may be more than just friends with.

The star crossed lovers trope runs into direct conflict with the theme of gang violence, and it at times felt like I was reading The Young Team again, all the fighting mentioned in this is real world stuff, nothing is exaggerated. Catholics and protestants have a long history of playing nicely together, "you can have your king on the throne for 20 years and murder as many of us as you like in a reign of terror, then we'll overthrow you and have our turn for 20 years" It's cowboys and Indians if the Indians got a turn. Protestants support Rangers and generally wear blue and live in the West, while Catholics support Celtic and wear green, white and orange and live in the East. Rangers and Celtic are the only two teams with a realistic chance of winning the Scottish premiership and collectively they're called the Old Firm. The 1980's were the golden age of football hooliganism, and this is gang violence is a major themes of the novel, it's the reason Mungo doesn't have a father.

But gang violence is not the darkest place this novel goes, actually this novel has elements in it which might appeal to thriller readers as well as readers of literary fiction. Young parenthood and the alternatives are explored, so too are rape, abuse and toxic masculinity.

One of the criticisms of Shuggie Bain was that it was almost diet LGBT, I don't want to get into whether that's valid or not, but it's not something that will be levelled at Young Mungo, there's a lot more discussion of queerness, homophobia, acceptance, happiness and love in a queer environment, there's not just 1 gay character in this novel, but at least 3 and upto 5 major characters, giving Stuart more variation in his ability to discuss queer issues and topics..

Scottish Dialect can be difficult for some people to follow, and Stuart possesses a unique ability to both engross you in Scottish text and make it easy to follow and understand, his writing is great, he creates a depressing picture of life in Glasgow in the early 1980s. The pacing is probably minorly off, too much seems to happen in the second half of the novel and not enough in the first, however as a whole you can see Stuarts progress as a writer, technically this is the better novel, it's also more shocking and has the better themes, but I didn't get the same emotional gut punch, don't misunderstand me, this book has plenty of big moments, but as a reader who enjoy enjoys characters emotions, this didn't quite cut it for me; objectively is a better book than Shuggie, but personally it's not and I've given Young Mungo 4 stars.

If you like this novel I recommend The Young Team by Graeme Armstrong, meanwhile I'm going to try Scabby Queen by Kirsten Innes.

I was approved for the Audio 🎧 version of this book. I know I am supposed to just rate that and I did not yet have the e-book. I just could not do it. The narrator, Chris Reilly had such a heavy accent I could not follow this book. I was just struggling to hear what was being said and piecing the book together. Douglas Stuart is an excellent writer and I love his beautiful writing style. I knew I was missing most of this. So, I never like to review late, even a day past publication, but I had requested my library purchase this book, in case Grove Atlantic did not get a chance to look at my NetGalley request for the book. So, I waited. My library always purchases the book requested. I did get the book in the afternoon on 4/5. NOTE: If I had not really wanted to read this book, and stuck with the Audio Book, I would have given a bad review. It does not work on any level for this book.

This made all the difference. I really loved Mungo. He is a young person, just 15, but he is such a decent person. He is growing up in Glasgow, Scotland in the 1980’s. It is a place where violence and machismo rule the day. His brother is the leader of this mentality. He is part of a gang that looks to take down Catholics, commit crimes, bully, deal drugs and use drugs. He is not a brother that is going to help Mungo do well in life. He is going to make life difficult for Mungo until he bends to his will. Only, Mungo’s sister Jodie is always there for him. She is smart and loves Mungo. She pretty much raises him, as their Mom is an alcoholic and never around. Yet, even with all this, Mungo can’t help but love his Mo-Maw. He just exudes a well of goodness.

Mungo meets James and finds love. It is pure and straight from the heart. Both want the best for each other. Each is the type that knows life is not easy for them since one of the worst things is to be a ‘Poofster’, yet each yearns for connection and it is transformative. Mungo has grown up around neglect and violence, yet he does not yearn to be tough, mean, or violent. You want him to have goodness in his life. I related to him so much, even though our backgrounds are quite different. It is difficult to be different, but it is especially difficult for Mungo to escape it since he doesn’t have parents to guide him or help get him started in life. He just wants a simple and decent life. That it is so difficult because of the attitude of those around him, does not of course mean anything is wrong with Mungo. What should be simple, to have your first love affair is not at all. So, I think most will route for Mungo and love this book. It is masterfully written. It is sad at times, but worth the effort to get to the best parts. It is raw, crass, cruel, but is it also honest and true. I highly recommend this book.

The audio 🎧 version is just too difficult to follow. This is just too good and rich of a book to give this book a bad review due to a very poor narration choice and think audio would be difficult to follow for this book. I think this will turn people off from the book.

So, thank you NetGalley, Douglas Stuart, and RB Media and Recorded Books for an Audio copy of this book. Goodreads does not even have an Audio choice available, which is probably for the best. I would rate the Audio Book 2* at best.

This is a book that I think should be nominated for awards and also enjoyed by many, it is that good. I just wanted to read it and am glad I waited a day and did.

First, the narrator on this audiobook has such a beautiful brogue. So much so that when combined with the flowing narrative of Young Mungo I was lost. I couldn’t figure out how to focus my brain on both the content and the voice at the same time. I also could not listen a5 more than 1.0x speed and I wasn’t even upset about it.

Douglas Stuart does it again - this was moving and brilliant, just as exquisite as his first novel, which completely blew me away.

ARC of audiobook provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

5/5 ⭐️

I think this book might have just reignited my love for literary fiction. This story was so spectacular that even when I was not reading it, I kept thinking about it! The book follows Mungo Hamilton as he tries to find where he fits within the harsh world of the British working class. The blurb heavily implies that the book centres on the relationship between Mungo (a protestant boy) and James (a catholic boy), but this was not necessarily the case. While their relationship is a feature of the book, the breadth that is covered is more ample than that: it not only looks at Mungo and James' relationship, but also gives a glimpse into the struggles of Mungo's family and community. Personally, I really enjoyed it, however, I wanted to state that clearly since the blurb does imply the book is much more of a love story than it actually is.

Although the love story does not take up the entirety of the book, I still think it was wonderfully executed. The relationship between Mungo and James felt so real and authentic that I could not help but root for them. Often in literary fiction romantic relationships do not feel real, especially when concerning teenagers. However, Stuart does a wonderful job at capturing the essence of youth and first loves. I really loved how this story did not shy away from discussing the attitudes that are present towards LGBTQIA+ youths in those communities; it was very heart wrenching, and for the entirety of the book I was not sure if this was going to end as a romance or a tragedy. The way that Mungo and James support each other was so beautiful and sweet and perfect, I just wanted to put them in my pocket! Just generally, all the characters were just so well constructed and all served their purpose. This was particularly evident with Mungo's family representing each different stereotype you may find in Northern council estates. This exploration of the Northern working class was excellent: this book provided a deep dive on how these communities operate, the pressures and challenges they face, as well as how many of those problems are often ignored or just accepted as fact. Although this was not necessarily the author's main goal, I still found it to be a very eye-opening experience. While I cannot praise this story enough, Stuart's writing is one of the best things in this book. The writing is so smooth and lyrical, whilst still containing Scottish slang, that it made it into an incredible read. There was so much emotion and feeling behind the words that you could tell that Stuart wrote from experience, as well.

However, the main problem with a book like this is that it is very difficult to end it in a way that wraps up all loose ends together and, sadly, this is the case here. The ending was very ambiguous: did James and Mungo really run away together? Did Mungo get caught by police? Did Hamish take the fall? These are all questions still up in the air by the end of the book. While I know that these questions will forever be left unanswered, I do not mind that. I guess that is just very true of life - is there ever a concrete ending? A lot of the 'after' is largely left to the reader's imagination, which I know that it might leave some readers unsatisfied. Overall, I just think that people are either going to love this book or are going to hate it; it is very much a slice of life story where lots of things happen but also nothing at all. Its also important to note that this book does deal with characters that have lots of trauma, as well as experiencing really awful situations throughout the book. At times, it does bridge on being torture porn since so many things seem to happen to the same people, but I would not go as far to call it that. I would highly urge people to check trigger warnings before reading this book.

Note on the audiobook - I personally have some mixed opinions on the audiobook. I understand that for immersion they decided to go ahead with a voice actor that had a very strong Scottish accent, but I can foresee that this may be difficult to follow for some people. While I found that this only made the characters come to life even more, it is also true that I consume a lot of British media so I am used to hearing very Northern accents. If you struggle with understanding non-Queen Englishes, then I would recommend to not listen to this audiobook. Just to note, this is by no means a critique on Chris Reilly's narration - he did a wonderful job! This is just one type of stylistic choice that was made that will either work or not work for some.

I loved this book so much. Douglas Stuart did an amazing job at capturing the dynamics of a working class setting, and I know this is a story that I will carry around in my heart for a long time.

TW: homophobia, gang activity, violence, rape, sexual assault, murder, pedophilia, child abuse, mentions of alcoholism/drug use, child neglect, mildly explicit sexual actions

I’ve been at a loss for how to talk about this book for a few days. It’s a lot of things to me: Being soft as a tremendous act of courage—it hurts so much more, but isn’t the world more beautiful? Grimy streets, city drinking, words that are sharp because it distracts from everything else. Post-Thatcher Glasgow is the world because you were never supposed to see the outside of it. Julien Baker’s “Relative Fiction”—“Do I get callous or do I stay tender / Which is worse and which is better?” It’s about being vulnerable, about being poor, about the life sentence your circumstances can be, about anger and rage. And a lot about love, or the lack thereof.

Stuart’s prose is really really evocative—really poetic in its most lush moments, and absolutely gut-punching in its darkest, most horrifying moments. There are moments you’re made to feel disgusted, distraught, furious—but there are also those quiet moments of hope, when people dare to be more than everything around them. It was hard to read quite often but the dark only makes the hope of the book so much more miraculous.

The audiobook of this was phenomenal, and the narrator Chris Reilly does an excellent job delivering on all of the Glaswegian dialect. I’ve had his accent embedded in my head for days, just a Scottish brogue narrating my internal monologue. I really felt like it brought to life these characters and the way they speak more than it could have on the page.

This book impacted me deeply and a lot of that comes from heavy subject matter. For those interested in the book, please be aware of these CONTENT WARNINGS: violence, domestic violence, homophobia, sexual assault/rape, pedophilia, alcoholism.

Thank you so so much to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for a review. <3

I adore Douglas Stuart’s vivid storytelling, and Chris Reilly did an excellent narration of the beautiful story of Young Mungo.

Thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher for early access to this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

I never read Shuggie Bain so I was coming into Young Mungo not knowing the author’s writing style. While this book seems to be a moving and emotional read, I struggled a lot with the audio. This is probably going to make me sound horrible, but it was extremely hard for me to understand the Scottish accent of the narrator. I loved that the narrator is Scottish to go along with the feel of the novel, but it was very hard for me to follow. I usually listen to audiobooks at top speed and I had to listen to this one at 1.25x and it was still difficult for me.

I am going to get the book to read on my own because I have heard so many great things about this book and author but I would not recommend the audio if you are not familiar with a Scottish accent. I have listened to audiobooks with other accents and never struggled this much.

Thank you to NetGalley and RB Media for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

I never read Shuggie Bain but saw it got lots of accolades. So, I was excited to listen to Stuart’s second book, Young Mungo. But I really struggled with it. It’s not a bad book. In fact, it’s incredibly well written. But it’s such a sad, deep, dark, ugly, depressing story, I had to force myself to keep with it at times.
I didn’t understand that the conflict between Protestants and Catholics raged in Scotland as Ireland. It’s the 1990s and fifteen year old Mungo lives in a Glasgow housing estate. He’s a soft soul in a hard world. His older brother is the leader of a gang and is trying to toughen Mungo up. His mother is a drunk and more absent than present. His sister tries to run the household while living her own life. Mungo meets James, a Catholic, and they fall in love. The only thing worse in this milieu than a cross sect romance is a queer romance.
In a second timeline, his mother sends him off with two of her “friends” from Alcoholics Anonymous. Suffice it to say, they are not on the wagon and their intentions are not pure. I couldn’t begin to understand the mother’s reasoning.
The book focuses on what it means to be a man. Some of the scenes I found disturbing and I am not easily shocked.
The book is uneven. I found it overly long and couldn’t help but think some tightening up would have helped.
The writing is lush, dense even. Stuart firmly puts you in the time and place. I listened to this and I will admit to struggling at times to understand what was being said. It wasn’t that Chris Reilly’s accent was that thick, but that the book includes a lot of Scottish words. I’m not sure if it would have been better to read than listen to it, but it was not an enjoyable audio experience.
I’m also totally torn on how to rate this book. I didn’t enjoy it at all but I can appreciate the writing. The story is so heavy, it’s like walking around with 20# weights on your shoulders. But that’s the point.
My thanks to Netgalley and RB Media for an advance copy of this book.

Oof, this book was so good - moving, powerful, bleak, but a brilliant work of historical literary fiction. It takes place in Scotland in the 1980s, with Thatcher-era cuts on industry, economic insecurity, Protestant/Catholic territorial violence, and homophobia serving as the backdrop for our story about young Mungo Hamilton.

Mungo is a 15-year-old boy, son of an alcoholic, young single mother. Mungo is younger brother to Hamish (or "Ha-ha," as everyone calls him), the local neighborhood tough, street-smart kid who does drugs, sells drugs, starts fights, invokes terror in all the locals, and even has a baby of his own. Mungo also has an older sister, Jodie, who's the polar opposite of Hamish. She's intelligent and excels at school, and she is determined to get out of the Glasgow tenements and make something of herself. She basically raises Mungo when her mother is out on some bender or with a new beau.

Mungo doesn't know about himself. He likes to draw, but he's bad at school. He has no friends, and is sort of aimless - just doing what others tell him to do. But most of all, he's a good person, someone who thinks and cares deeply about the world. One day, he meets James Jamieson, a Catholic boy who's about a year older than him. He has his own doocot, a little aviary where he trains and raises pigeons. Mungo and James quickly become friends, and even more quickly after that, start to become more than friends. Their love is innocent, pure, one of the first and only things that brings either boy happiness. They both know the consequences of this love coming out - James's dad and Mungo's brother are guaranteed to go off in violent rage if they ever found out that a member of their family was a "poofter." But they persist nevertheless.

The overarching theme in the book, to me, was how toxic masculinity - brought about by religious upbringing, socioeconomic insecurity, and the culture of the time and place - slowly quashes the goodness in Mungo, and certainly the goodness in Mungo and James's relationship. You fall in love with Mungo over time - he's a character that you want to protect at all costs, shield from the violence and the carelessness of the world.

The book takes place in two rotating timeframes: one where you're learning about Mungo, seeing him and his relationship with James bloom, and the other some short time in the future, when Mungo's mom sends him on a fishing trip with two guys she met at AA. The purpose of the trip is for those guys to teach Mungo how to "man up," but there is a lot of bad stuff that happens on this trip. Ironically, these things "man up" Mungo more than anyone ever thought possible, in ways that will scar him forever in the future.

There is so little joy in this book, making it a very difficult and taxing read. The writing is beautiful, the characters are strong and full, and the side characters are excellent additions to the story. I can't say it's a book I'd want to read over and over again, but it's a brilliant and important read nonetheless. Thank you to RB Media for the audio ARC via Netgalley.

This was one of my most-anticipated books of the year, but I need to set this down and try again later. Sometimes a book doesn't find you at the right time, and, unfortunately, this was one of those times. I was immediately taken by Stuart's flourishing, atmospheric prose. Because I was listening to the audiobook only, I wasn't tracking a lot of what was being narrated, due to Chris Reilly's strong accent. It would've helped to follow side-by-side with physical text -- I understood immediately that this is a strong, at times difficult, book, and losing some of the language from the narration seemed a suboptimal way to experience the text. I wish this had worked better. A more thorough review to follow once I have the physical book in hand.

In a Nutshell: Depending on what you like as a reader, you are either going to love this book or hate it. Very few will fall in the in-between range. Unfortunately for me, I hated it. The audiobook made matters worse.

Story:
15 year old Mungo is the youngest of three siblings. With an absent dad and an uncaring alcoholic mom, Mungo grows up primarily bonding with his 17 year old sister Jodie, who is forced to take care of the home along with her studies. Their elder brother Hamish is a gang leader and head of a Protestant group who engage in violent fights against a neighbouring Catholic gang.
Protestant Mungo falls for Catholic Jamie, despite their best efforts to suppress their feelings. To “rectify” the issue and the repercussions of this forbidden love, Mungo’s mom sends him away on a fishing trip with two men from her AA group in order to “man him up”.
The story comes in two timelines – one detailing the fishing trip and what happens to Mungo with the two strangers his mom has assigned him to; and one about the events that lead to the fishing trip.
The book is written in a limited third person narration mainly from Mungo’s point of view.


Where the book worked for me:
✔ Some part of the prose is beautifully written.
✔ It is set in the Glasgow of the early 1990s and SEEMS to capture the gloomy part of the city aptly.
✔ I appreciate the fact that more queer love stories are making their way into the world, EVEN THOUGH this is NOT the kind of queer content I want to read.

Where the book did not work for me:
❌ Nothing much happens in the first half and too much happens in the second half.
❌ The book doesn’t feel like effortless writing. It tries too hard to justify the tag of 'literary fiction' and is just as verbose as the blurb indicates. Some analogies work. Most are superfluous and/or superficial. Flowery prose appeals to me only if it is accompanied by a strong plot. When there are miles and miles of prose and barely any signs of a plot, I lose my interest. The plot here goes in every direction except straight ahead.
❌ Atmosphere and literary flourishes have been given the highest priority. Plot progression, the lowest.
❌ I usually enjoy reading grey characters but this time, not a single one of them gained my loyalty or sympathy. The one to come closest was Mungo's elder sister Jodie.
❌ The blurb makes it seem like it's a forbidden love story between a Protestant boy and a Catholic one. This forms just a small part of the storyline. The main story is more like a bildungsroman, but not in a good way.
❌ Make a list of bad things that could happen in a literary fiction. You will find every item on that list in this novel. It felt like misery porn. Not one good thing happens to anyone! Sensitive readers, stay away from the book. I won’t give a list of trigger warnings so just trust me on this: every single triggering issue is in this storyline. Some of these scenes were way too graphic.
❌ I can understand Mungo snapping under the incidents that happened in the current timeline but seriously? Snapping that way? It felt so abrupt and out of character. He was just 15 for God’s sake! What the heck was the intent behind that decision? (Actually, I fail to understand the intent behind this entire plot!)


The audiobook experience:
The audiobook clocks at 13 hrs 40 min and is narrated by Chris Reilly. I really can’t comment much on his narration because the content itself was such that I kept zoning out. He read well but he had a strong Scottish(?) accent which was initially tough to get attuned to. This meant that I couldn’t even increase the speed of the audio for a major chunk of the book.
Furthermore, the audio doesn’t distinguish between the two timelines. Each new section begins with just the chapter number. It's tedious to keep the story straight when you need to keep waiting for a clue about the track playing in your ears. Add in the fact that I couldn’t even concentrate and I found myself totally lost multiple times over. I do NOT recommend the audio version.


I MIGHT have liked this a tad better if I had read it. But as an audiobook, it was a dud. The only reason I grabbed this was because I had heard so much about ‘Shuggie Bain’. I can’t make a comparison between the two because I haven’t read ‘Shuggie Bain’. (And now I am certain that I never will.)

I can see how some readers will go gaga over this book. Those who believe literary fiction serves its purpose best if it delves into the dreary side of human existence might love this story. But it simply wasn’t my cup of tea. This is going to be the very first ARC I am rating as a 1 star and I hate doing this. But giving it two stars will not represent my experience accurately. It was just a waste of my time and a terribly frustrating read. The only reason I didn’t DNF it was that it was an audiobook.

I simply can’t recommend this book. But hey, 86% of GR reviews rate it 4 stars and above. So you might still like it. Do read the other reviews before you make up your mind. If you do decide to read it, please don’t go for the audio version.

My thanks to RB Media and NetGalley for the ALC of “Young Mungo”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the audiobook. I’m very sorry this worked out so badly.

A highly anticipated second novel from Booker Prize winning author Douglas Stuart, Young Mungo follows a young man growing up in Glasgow Scotland and his attempts to hide who he really is.

Young Mungo reads like a Scottish folk tale: a boy forced to conceal his identity, violent forces that threaten to destroy him if the truth is revealed. Mungo discovers a love that promises to change his world and gives him something to live for. The hero of this tale knows of the consequences if his attraction to another boy is discovered. He knows that his mother can't protect him, as she faces her own insurmountable demons.

This is a story of Scotland, a desperate people, struggling to survive in a changing world. It is also a tale of a young man who is forced to avoid and hide the things that can possibly bring him true, sustaining love and happiness in life.

The narration of this audiobook was superb, with a marked accent that transports the listener to Mungo's house and neighborhood with every conversation and description.

4.5⭐️

Moving and vivid, haunting and compelling, Young Mungo is beautifully written and an absolute masterpiece.

Mungo Hamilton grows up in the council tenements of Glasgow. His father died before his birth and his chronically selfish alcoholic mother disappears periodically from his life. His sister Jodie who is a year older than him (who is barely old enough to look after herself) does her best to raise him and his violent gang leader older brother also has a presence in his life. It seems like everyone is determined that they need to make a man out of Mungo. Mungo is sensitive with a gentle soul and the cycle of violence, abuse and neglect is relentlessness. Mungo’s friendship with another boy in the housing estate, James, is life changing for both of them. When they’re together there are touching and tender moments, they can briefly escape their families expectations and the sectarian divide, but shame and guilt is never far away. They know that if their true feelings for each were ever to be discovered it would be dangerous for both of them.