The cover is enough to tell you that this is not a feel-good book or a book that ends with HEA (at leat not in certain terms).

This is a book which is dark and disturbing. A book that should come with a separate Content Warnings page because believe me, there are far too many.

Set in Scotland 1980s, the book revolves around Mungo, a 15-year-old gay boy born to an alcoholic mother and practically taken care of by his older sister, Jodie, who is well liked and intelligent. His older brother, Hamish, is a local gang leader, for whom his reputation is everything. And then Mungo meets James, a catholic, which sets Mungo's life into sudden motion.

The narrative of the story switches between past and present throughout the book. In the present, Mungo is on a fishing trip with two older men whom his mother knows from AA meetings. In the past, events leading up to this fishing trip are told. The writing style flows smoothly but the switching between the two timelines is a bit confusing at first.

The characters are well fleshed out, even the ones that I would've been fine to know very little about. I can't say I enjoyed this book, the writing was gripping, yes, but this is not a book you can enjoy. It has a lot of disturbing elements and is very heartbreaking. The themes include familial relationships, love, sibling dynamics, forced gender norms, and religious conflicts. Content Warnings are at the end of the post.

I was very disheartened by the events of the book but the book ends on a satisfying note, providing readers with a glimmer of hope. The hurt for what Mungo has gone through doesn't diminish because of it but it still makes you feel hope for the young boy to find his place in the world with the boy he loves.

Queer people want joy, we want validation, we want to live without having to explain ourselves at every single turn of our lives, we want to be our true selves and not have to hide a single aspect of ourselves. The stories that are about such queer characters are the stories that give us hope for a better future, a hope that maybe someday we will be able to live however we want.

But stories where bad things happen, where the queer characters have to go through so much for a single moment of happiness, are also important. Because these things do happen, even today. The cishet-normative world puts us through a lot and these stories need to be told. Which is why Young Mungo is a very important book.

I won't recommend it to everyone because of its dark themes but if the synopsis interests you, be sure to check out CWs before reading the book.

CWs (graphic): rape, violence, pedophilia, adult/minor relationship, alcoholism, murder and many more (please check them all out on Storygraph or on booktriggerwarnings.com)

Actual rating: 4.5⭐

Audiobook review: I think it wasn't a good choice to have a narrator with such a strong Scottish accent. It fits with the book and I usually love to listen to book-specific narrators that have similar accent to where the book is set but unfortunately, the accent is too strong here, especially for people not familiar with it. So much so that I considered DNFing the book and reading again as an ebook. It took me 30% of listening to finally find a speed that worked well with the narrator. But I did have to concentrate much more than usual. Wouldn't recommend.

Thank you to the publisher RB Media and Recorded Books for providing and audiobook ARC via NetGalley for an honest review.

I am not and never have been a literary fiction girl. I generally find that the genre - especially modern works - rehashes the same tired tropes under the pretense of fictionalized human trauma. It doesn’t allow the author the creative boundaries of speculative fiction, nor does it have the emotional impact of nonfiction stories that explore the same experiences through actual human lives and stories. But in the same way there is an exception to every rule, I wanted to give Young Mungo a try given the widespread critical acclaim of the author’s debut novel Shuggie Bain in 2020.

I almost gave this book a middle-of-the-road star rating with the thought in mind that while it absolutely didn’t work for me, it could genuinely connect with someone else with much more patience for this type of writing. But I can’t in good faith give a rating that doesn’t reflect how lackluster my reading experience was. Between an audiobook narrator with a Scottish accent so strong he was near indecipherable at times, and the story’s downward trajectory of human suffering that seemed to be pleading with the audience to feel miserable - I left it with an unshakeable sense of disgruntlement.

Despite this story following three distinct timelines in Mungo’s teenage life, I found myself confusing what timeline I was reading because Mungo’s own voice is so completely indistinct in each time. He maintains this same dull, steady state narration at every stage in the story - despite the wild swings in emotional highs and lows he experiences throughout the book. One could argue this was intentional emotional detachment on the part of the author, but that didn’t make the book itself any less flat and disengaging to listen to.

There’s really no nuance to any of the characters that surround Mungo. His mother is the archetype of both a narcissistic parent and an alcoholic. A terrible mix to be sure, but not one that allows her to be anything but exactly the sum of those two attributes. His sister is remarkably inconsistent and seems to exist mostly to show that teenage girls - yes - are also horrifically abused and routinely taken advantage of. That is her character arc. And I’m frankly beyond reading these types of characters working only as setpieces to the main character's troubled childhood.

I love that more queer stories than ever are being pushed by publishers, especially own voices novels. I just don’t think I can in good faith recommend Young Mungo to anyone looking for a book with fleshed out, fully realized queer characters given the way its plot seemed to run endless circles around itself with a bizarre sense of emotional detachment. Perhaps those who have read Douglas Stuart’s previous debut work may be able to find this same ability to connect with his recent release. But I think I’ll leave this one for the critics to enjoy.

An advance copy of this audiobook was provided courtesy of RB Media, NetGalley, and the author Douglas Stuart in exchange with my honest review. Thank you so much! I was looking forward to listening to this second novel from the Booker Prize-winning author of Shuggie Bain.

The audiobook is narrated by Chris Reilly, who does a good job. The story is set in Scotland and it may take a bit to get used to if you are used to American accent.

It is about Mungo, a Glasgow teen growing up in a project, with an alcoholic mother and an older brother Hamish, a local gang leader, in a gritty environment. He falls in love with James, a Catholic, against all odds. Given this set up, there is plenty of danger and violence lurking, amongst which tender love develops.

I haven't read Shuggie Bain but told the set up in gritty Glasgow and tender main character is somewhat similar. You might enjoy this book if you liked Shuggie Bain, or would like to take a glimpse into this set up - working class Glasgow. To me, constant encounter with violence and tense situation has gotten too much over 14 hours of audiobook to handle and started to distance myself from the story. If you are sensitive to triggers, be sure to look into content warnings. Ultimately this book wasn't for me, but still appreciated to be exposed to tender first love. Thank you!

Huge thank you to RB Media, Recorded Books, Penguin Random House Canada, and NetGalley for sending me an advance reader copy of both the audiobook and ebook

Set aside the inconsistent pacing in the first half and distracting formatting errors in the eARC, the last 50% of this book really blew me away. I haven't read Shuggie Bain so I went into this with absolutely no expectations. I had a hard time getting into the story, the scots dialect wasn't impossible to navigate, but pairing the text with the audiobook narrated by Chris Reilly turned this into an immerse and emotionally intense experience.

Young Mungo is a heavy and heartbreaking slow/medium paced story about a young queer teen named Mungo as he navigates his first love. The story flits back and forth between Mungo and James's relationship and a fishing trip to a loch in Western Scotland that Mungo's mom forces him to go on with two strange men she meets in AA. The writing is both gritty and lyrical, certain pages absolutely floored me. I beg you to carefully read through the content warnings below because this read isn't enjoyable, it's heartbreaking and emotionally draining but exquisite.


content warnings: homophobia, rape, sexual assault, parental abandonment, pedophila, violence, sexual violence, physical abuse, addiction, child abuse, domestic abuse, emotional abuse, hate crime, bigotry, injury, animal cruelty/death, drug/alcohol abuse, body horror, gun violence, abortion, hate crime, murder police brutality, mental illness, body shaming, panic attacks/disorders, death of a parent

Releases 4/5/22, I read an advanced reader copy. This was my first audio ARC. The audio was a good format but the reader/actor has a Scottish accent that may be difficult for Americans. I have to admit it influenced my review a little bit. I really liked Stuart’s debut novel Shuggie Bain, but found Young Mongo, while good, not as well written. Violent, gang violence, rape, child abuse, but with a thin shimmer of hope. The ending leaves you wondering what Mungo does.

While I enjoyed the overall experience of reading this book and I love the authors writing style, I am also irritated about the ending. Maybe I'm not clever enough to understand it, but it just feels as though the author spent hundreds of pages weaving the threads story together only to forget to knot them together at the end. Essentially I'm saying that I need an epilogue to see how it all turned out, because right now, I feel teased and lack the climax.

The story itself is very dark and devastating at points. I found it quite difficult to read and very triggering at around the half way point. I very much enjoyed Shuggie Bain, and I feel like the cast of characters from that book has been picked up and put in a slightly different scenario. Most of the characters though are extremely vividly painted and most of them are very unlikeable. I feel that in order to justify Mungo's actions, a couple of the characters were one dimensional, which is understandable, however unrealistic.

This is not a romance, it's more like a dark family drama. My overwhelming feeling after finishing this book is one of sadness. Sadness because things like this do actually happen in the world. Sadness that because he's gay, Mungo is condemned to a life of either pretence or persecution. Not all LGBTQ+ stories have to be so desolate. Please just give us a ray of optimism.

I received the arc in audio form through Netgalley in exchange of an honest review. All opinions are solery based on my own opinion listening to the book.

So I am still excited to read the book and know the story however, I am afraid I have to DNF the audiobook at 2%.

It might be just me but unless you are listening in x1 speed and actually focus listening to every word, it's pretty hard to understand what the narrator is saying. Don't get me wrong I absolutely love to hear different accents and intonations in my audiobooks since I believe adds a lot more to the story but in this particular case the narrator having such a strong accent might have not been the best of choices, specially considering it's for a book that seems to have such a complex plot.

Personally, when I listen to an audiobook I do so while I'm doing something else at the same time, that being cleaning, working, working out and so on and being unable to speed it up it is a problem for me at least.

I still plan on reading the book but it's a pass of me with the audiobook.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

Note: so far the rating I'm giving it, it's only based on the audiobook itself

I LOVED THIS book so much. I didn’t think I would become as invested in the characters as I did. We follow the story of Mungo - a young lad who lives in the schemes of Glasgow and who discovers that he’s different. But to be different in those days and in those schemes was not accepted, by families and society both. Needless to say, Mungo’s life is a difficult one and his story is infinitely sad.

His mother is an alcoholic, his father is dead, his elder brothers life centres around drugs and sectarian gang fights. His only refuge is his sister, who in many ways is his surrogate mother. Then he finds James. A boy he feels he can relate to, a boy he finds attractive, a boy who is Catholic and therefore strictly forbidden to Mungo.

This book, which I listened to on audiobook, is so wonderfully told. It is thought provoking, it is emotive and it’s addictive. If one thing can be taken from this wonderful book, it is that love is love. Highly recommend this book.

My sincere thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an unbiased review.