Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart

86 reviews

juliep810's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Pregnancy, Outing, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

viccctk's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.25

A hard, emotional read with some really difficult scenes. Some beautiful parts about being in love amongst all the brutal suffering.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Religious bigotry, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, and Abortion

jdrummond's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

It took me a bit to get into this, but once the story kicked in, it’s hard to forget Mungo Hamilton and James Jameson. I hope they, and those like them, found their place in the world.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Outing, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cancer, Cursing, and Classism

ladystardust1979's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Hate crime, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, Outing, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Eating disorder and Death of parent

Minor: Drug use

katcass's review against another edition

dark emotional funny sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Abortion, Murder, Outing, and Alcohol

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Emotional abuse

steffi_jo's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, and Blood

Minor: Death, Drug use, Miscarriage, and Murder

emmaura's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated

Struggling to give a rating. This book is incredibly violent and miserable and I didnt enjoy reading most of it, but having finished it I do really the value of having read it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, and Abandonment

Moderate: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Abortion, and Death of parent

Minor: Drug use and Classism

jumart's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Abortion, Murder, Outing, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

claudini's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Minor: Abortion

andrea_lachance's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

God, my feelings about this book are so complicated. Stuart writes with such lyricism and beauty that makes the extremes of violence and beauty in this book dance on a razor's edge. It's a good book. It's heartbreaking, and it is not for everyone.

The beginning of the book is slow going, trying to parce who's-who and what exactly is going on takes time. The second half really kicks into gear with gut-wrenching revelations. Mungo is a babe in the woods, and this book beats the innocence out of Mungo in the worst possible ways.

It's a good read. An important read. There are probably people with much better reviews for this book, this is me spitballing.

Personally, the detailed descriptions for characters dealing with alcoholism were so tough for me to read because it was so realistic. It's horrifying what kinds of details one notices when a body is so ravaged by alcohol abuse.

I give it a 4.5 because the emotions I went through reading this book were so viceral, and for me personally that's one of the most important things a book like this can do.

Mungo's relationship with his mom is codependent, incestuous, and emotionally abusive. This book speaks volumes about class and poverty directly impact the cycle of abuse in families. It's painful to read about, especially when it takes the whole book and Mungo being violently assaulted twice for Mungo to realize that his mother will never love him the way he loves her. It's brutal. The phone call between Gallowgate and his mother was such a horrid moment of realization for me. 

The glimmer of hope at the end is a sigh of relief. The ride in the car with the nice man was a reprieve. Poor Mungo isn't young when he comes home. He knows his family will never be the same, Josie will go to college and never come back, Mo-maw will keep drinking and being with whatever man will give her attention, and Hamish will keep stirring shit with the Catholics. So he leaves. We don't get to know where. But he's choosing to break the cycle of abuse.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Sexual assault, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Drug use, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Abortion