Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

3 reviews

josiee123's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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

4.5

 it was an absolute masterpiece, I can't stop thinking about it. It's raw, and heartfelt, and devastating.. and funny. The dry Scottish type of humour and sparks of hope in horrendously bad situations. I think I want to read it again soon, and also read Young Mungo because it follows some of the same characters i think. It was an 11/10 and I need to go back to visit Glasgow as soon as possible 🥹 if you're reading it or plan to, I mean there's a lot of brutal violence so if that's not your thing, maybe don't. Several times i had to put it down for a few weeks. But, there's a good review essay about how the novel mirrors romantic relationships between man+woman with the mother and son and how the blurred relationship makes it so difficult for Shuggie to leave his struggling mother, the imagery is really powerful and almost every character draws empathy except for the nasty bastards that you're compelled to hate. But everyone is given a full characterisation 🎉

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Child death, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

biggareader's review against another edition

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

annicanns's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I really loved the writing in this book.
I picked it up after reading A Little Life in hopes of finding something as emotionally exhausting as I tend to find comfort in reading books where characters have experienced similar things to me.
For the majority of this book, I was completely enticed and wrapped up in the book.
A little more than half way through, I hit a stump. I got a little bored of the same old same old in the section and had to force myself to push through in hopes for the ending to be amazing.
The ending? Amazing.

Pros: Great writing, pacing, and overall a great story
Cons: A little difficult to read at some parts because of the way the accent is spelt out, the amount of time centered around Shuggie as a boy was much much longer than I thought (I thought the book would be about him as an adult learning to cope with life after trauma from his childhood)

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Alcohol