Reviews

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

kcronin's review against another edition

3.0

I decided to read this after seeing it on a few lists of the best 2020 books. It is a pretty dark and depressing book, but the character’s raw emotions definitely come through. I do appreciate poor Shuggie’s resilience in the story. Honestly though, my 3 star review is because I felt like the pace of the story was pretty slow and I felt the book could’ve been about 100 pages shorter based on the storyline. I had a hard time getting into the book and thought the beginning was hard to follow.

gracenagy's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

lall80's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

jesstckr's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

cwb40's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

millsjeff's review against another edition

2.0

Vastly overrated and in need of a good edit. I have questions for the Booker jury.

moirastone's review against another edition

4.0

Back in January of 2020, I stood still as a post in my kitchen, eyes closed, afraid to read the next sentence of the story in that week's New Yorker. In the space of a page, maybe less, I had lost myself to a young man's queasy, near-annihilating desire to be seen and touched, and if the date he was on with an older man was about to take a bad turn I knew it would crush me. I clutched the magazine in my fist and shoved it in the recycling bin. I don't think it was more than a quarter hour before I knelt on the floor, fished it out, and finished the story there in front of the bin.

That push-pull is how I read Shuggie Bain, the novel that story is excerpted (in a way) from. I would read a hundred pages in a gulp, and then abruptly slam up against an image of beauty or pain that would drive me from the book for days.

It's astonishing and brutal, and like another debut novel that kept me in a pained thrall, I cannot say that I did something so banal as enjoy it; I consumed and was consumed and feel lucky to have finished it without damage.

liszt91's review against another edition

challenging emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

cerisarah's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.75

myiajac's review against another edition

5.0

What a brilliant read!

I found the characters had so much strength, humor, defiance and resilience is the face of chronic hardship and misogyny

For me the book was about being different and how to survive in a very rigid cultural normed society - Agnes and Shuggie were so very different and agnes so incredibly defiant in her difference to those around her

The book is about love and compassion, addiction and it’s fallout. Connection and a look at an unbearably tough time

I just know that Shuggie will grow up to be an incredible human with amazing empathy and compassion

Such amazing insight to the human condition.