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Unsurprisingly, given the authors previous book, this was absolutely heartbreaking. So well written, there were a couple of moments where I had to have a little break because it‘s SO. HEAVY. But absolutely beautiful.

And #bookspin #doublespin for October! Looking forward to ticking some off for #hauntedshelf 😁

I really loved Shuggie Bain. Young Mungo is even better!

5/5 ⭐

All'inizio ho faticato ad abituarmi ai dialoghi scritti nell'accento di Glasgow (che comunque non cambierei, perché sono parte dell'autenticità del libro), ma sono contenta di non aver desistito: ho adorato questo libro. Adesso che l'ho finito, Mungo mi mancherà molto; mi ci sono affezionata molto e in molti punti avrei voluto strapparlo dal libro, proteggerlo e abbracciarlo.

P. 282

Happy #fffs day! Thank you so much for my package, @amiable! I very much appreciate the sock hunt you went on, as these are absolutely adorable! Perfect choices all around. 🙂'

Thanks to @chrissyreadit and @avanders for hosting. #fallingforfallswap

Heartbreakingly good. I read “A Little Life” a very long time ago (aka i remember how it felt but not rly what happened) and this had similar vibes. It was beautiful but bleak- I know people who grew up like that, and it just feels rly shitty. Glad I read it tho, and overall it was hard to put down- HIGHLY recommend the audio version 💗

I found this quite slow & struggled to get into it. I think it's partly getting to grips with the glaswegian slang.
However, I stuck with it, and it paid off. This is a remarkable story. It's heartbreaking, dramatic, & unique.

Mungo is a teenager who is neglected by his alcoholic mother, raised by his teenage sister & bullied by his older, violent brother. His mother sends him away on a fishing trip with two men she doesn't know. Bleak enough?

Oh Mungo 💔. That is almost all I can say. The writing is brilliant; you can‘t look away as the tension builds and you wait for the inevitable. Mungo captured my heart, which then broke for him. Douglas Stuart writes these tender, gentle, troubled boys so well. The brutality just floored me; these harsh lives in post-Thatcher-era Glasgow. As with Shuggie Bain it is the boys‘ love for their very flawed mothers despite everything that breaks me

#temptingtitles #withyoung @Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

#TemptingTitles Day 29: #WithYoungYouth - one of the titles I bought while in the UK.

I don‘t normally pay attention to trigger warnings, except when it related to animals…. But holy shit! I have NEVER seen a book with so many trigger warnings. 😶

I need to stop reading books that break my heart. I heard this described as a gay Romeo and Juliet set in the early 90s in Glasgow Scotland. I can see the similarities, but this is more about toxic masculinity, and it‘s legacy in a post Thatcher atmosphere. It is bleak and needs all the trigger warnings. Beautifully written. 5 ⭐️

#readaroundtheworld #Scotland The streets and housing schemes of Glasgow are once again the setting forStuart‘s second novel about a young man finding a place for himself with an alcoholic mother, a capable older sister and a violent older brother. The detailed descriptions, the realistic secondary characters and the tension of the plot combine to enhance the love story amidst extreme violence.

#12Booksof2022 🎶 On the eighth day of Christmas my true love read to me, a devastating drama 🎶

For my twelve, I‘m highlighting my favorite audiobooks of the year. Great books that were all the more enjoyable thanks to outstanding narration &/or production.

This is the only #doublespin (or #bookspin) I‘ve bailed on this year, but I just couldn‘t continue on a story this bleak at Christmas. Nor do I really want to pick it up again. #toblonglist

Mungo is a gay, Protestant youth from the rough streets of 1980s Glasgow. He falls in love with a young Catholic boy. When his mom discovers it, she sends him on a camping trip with two very bad men she knows from AA. I‘ll put the CWs I remember in a spoiler.

I'm behind on posting for #adventrecommends @emilyrose_x

This book completely destroyed me, much like his previous work Shuggie Bain, but I still loved reading it. It is depressing, it has almost any trigger warning one could think of, but Stuart's writing is phenomenal and I will continue to read his books and let him break my heart into a million pieces.

First sunny day in over a week, so I thought I‘d snap a picture of my current and upcoming shelf! I‘m in the middle of Young Mungo, and it‘s not as good as Shuggie Bain for me. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Some of the rest will hopefully be tackled later this week! 😁📖

#tob longlist

Wow, that was brutal. Mungo is growing up in deprived sectarian Glasgow. When he falls for a Catholic boy at the same time that his violent older brother is dragging him into a life of crime, his alcoholic mother sends him away on a camping trip with two men she barely knows.

Whilst there was a sense of menace in the first half, I was beginning to think this wouldn‘t be as tough as Shuggie Bain. Then something happened that ⬇️

I was stunned + traumatised by this story of a teenager in 90s Glasgow growing into a sexuality that is not acceptable in a v masculine society where his brother's violence dominates. Drawing on the theme of mother/son depicted so well in shuggie bain this is a brutal book with also tenderness of a sister he loves, but the forbidden love of Catholic James. Some scenes are tough but it is 5*
@alisiakae @Cinfhen @Barbara #booked2022 #acomingoutstory

Damn you Douglas Stuart, you write a damn fine book.

A brief video showing the little ferries that connect downtown Vancouver with Granville Island, while my voiceover describes attending a Douglas Stuart event at the writers festival. #VWF2022
https://youtu.be/ZqbCVbIl5nc

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Raw, tender, beautifully written.

Going from very tender innocent sweet moments to nerve racking potentially violent ones made me jumpy and anxious at times. I loved Mungo and didn‘t want anything to happen to him. Great book, this was my first Douglas Stuart book and I loved his writing.

Finally finished. It‘s taken me ages to listen to this as it‘s so bleak I could only do it in small doses. The writing is beautiful, Stuart really brings the characters and settings to life but it will break your heart. A book I certainly won‘t be able to forget in a hurry

High expectations after Shuggie Bain. I felt Young Mungo was in many ways too similar to Shuggie in terms of plot. But it didn‘t share the incredible language and potent imagery. Young Mungo was too unrelentingly brutal for me and the hurtling head on train wreck of the characters lives was very hard for me to bear witness.

Reading this highly anticipated (by me) book at my favourite local cafe #douglasstuart #winterreading

Bought it today, I can‘t wait but also girding my loins

Oh, sweet Mungo. I really feel like I‘ve been through the emotional wringer finishing this today. Tragic and brutal, but also tender and deeply moving. And, as with Shuggie Bain, just stellar writing.

This is the worst time for me to be reading dysfunctional family dramas. Going in I knew it would a tough read. There are some authors who know how to break your heart into tiny bits. Mungo is a sweet, loving, gay teenager with a drunk unfit mother and a hooligan for a brother. Mungo falls in love and that part is told in the sweetest of ways. But evil lurks all around him with both his mother and his brother sending him off to obvious harm.

Excited anticipation for this most marvellous author‘s second novel. He is born to write

Phenomenal. Bleak. Heartbreaking. Haunting. And with almost every trigger warning you can think of. But absolutely phenomenal. Just like Shuggie Bain was. Douglas Stuart is a master of writing stories and characters that you become invested in and I think he might be my new favourite author. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️…obviously.

As brilliantly written as Shuggie Bain. Young Mungo is both heartbreaking and breath taking as one witnesses abuse, violence, poverty, alcoholism in Mungo's life while he also discovers love and occasional kindness. The ending leaves one hopeful too. While intense and raw, the plot makes for a compelling read.

"The air was clearer than he had ever tasted; he tilted his head back and put his tongue out into the breeze. It tasted green like spring grass, but there was a prehistoric brownness to it, as though it had searched an entire age through damp peaty glens and ancient forests, looking for its way to wherever it was going. To Mungo, it was green and it was brown and it was damp and it was clean. He had no words for it. It just smelled like magic."

Pride Month: Day Fifteen! ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

Just finished this book today...and wow. What a heartbreaking story. If you thought Shuggie Bain was sad, this is a million times worse. Lots of poverty, parental neglect, violence, and sexual assault. But...the story still retains a hopeful ending, and Mungo has a future worth fighting for. Just an overall terribly sad story, told in an exquisitely beautiful way. 💕

#pridemonth #queerbooks #lgbtq

"Jodie said he was gullible. Mo-Maw said she wished she had raised him to be cannier, less of anybody's fool. It was a funny thing to be a disappointment because you were honest and assumed others might be too. The games people played made his head hurt."

What a beautiful yet heartbreaking quote! ? If there is one thing this book and Shuggie Bain have in common, it's their sweet boy protagonists who have to try and survive in a bleak world.

I didn‘t connect with Shuggie Bain and DNF the physical copy, but managed to finish it on audio. This was completely different and I don‘t know if it‘s because I heard Stuart talk about this last week or if it‘s the book.

The Hamish family lives in Glasgow‘s East End. The mum, Mo-Maw, drinks and is putting her own happiness ahead of her children‘s. Hamish is the oldest and leader of a gang. Jodie is the middle sister who has tried to take care

It's hard not to compare YM with SB because the basic story is the same - a dysfunctional family, a complicated relationship between an alcoholic mother and children, in this book - Mung's older brother, who is brutally violent, a sister who sees a way out to the better life - but this means giving up Mungo in a way, and ultimately Mungo himself - with his sexual identity and all the problems posed by homosexuality, queernes in a very toxic … 👇

5🌟/5🌟

Did I just buy Shuggie Bain last weekend? Yes. Did I then go ahead and purchase the author‘s second book before reading the first? Also yes! It was on sale on Amazon and I couldn‘t resist!

I thought Shuggie Bain was hard on my heart - this one is brutal. Abandoned by his mother, bullied by his brother & heartbreakingly cared for by his sister Mungo is a gentle soul alone & unprotected in a violent, lawless society. When he makes a connection with another boy the consequences are vicious & devastating. Stuart writes so well, but his subject matter does not make for pleasant reading. TW: violence, homophobia & sexual assault.
#gaymay

https://youtu.be/Jx03_FgMtDo

Intro

Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart

She Came from Mariupol by Natascha Wodin, Alfred Kueppers (Translation)

Sedating Elaine by Dawn Winter

Young Mungo is the story of a teen growing up in Glasgow. Mungo is named after the saint of the town, but Mungo struggles with family issues and his own budding sexuality.

Mungo meets James, a young man in the neighborhood who races pigeons. They build a deep friendship and fall in love.

This novel is traumatic and raw, but completely engrossing. Douglas Stuart creates characters that triumph over the brutality that they are forced to endure.

#BookMail

This book is heavy. The ending is page turning, and the plot picks up speed mid-way through the novel. It‘s dark and uneven- I‘m glad I finished this one about a poor, gay boy in Glasgow, but it took a bit of effort to get through some dark events. Great ending.

More exquisite prose from Young Mungo that just pulled at my heartstrings...

A beautiful, disturbing & heart-wrenching story of two teenage boys from the streets of Glasgow, who fall in love & must keep their relationship hidden from the world around them.
While similar to Shuggie Bain ("write what you know!"), Young Mungo elevates the work of Douglas Stuart to a new level. Fully formed, dimensional characters that practically leap off the page alongside beautiful prose & a story that will have you riveted to the end.

So bleak and so beautifully written, Young Mungo really hurt my feelings. Perhaps not as structurally sound as Shuggie, but more complex in its characterisation and narrative arc. Young Mungo was highly anticipated and everything I wanted it to be.