Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - Shuggie Bain

I loved Shuggie Bain, an unrelenting story of the horrors of addiction framed within the perspective of poor little Shuggie, a boy who looks out for his alcoholic mother more than anybody looks out for him.

Early on I felt a bit like we were torn away from Shuggie’s story, which begins in the first couple of chapters before we’re taken back to his childhood with, really the main character of this novel, his mother Agnes. But soon enough I was actually more infatuated by her story, and despite being completely infuriated by her behaviour and decisions I couldn’t help but root for her and hope she did get better.

Agnes’ characterisation is masterful, with Stuart rounding her out so well that we start to love her like Shuggie does. Ultimately she is a victim of her addiction (and men!!) and this makes the story so heartbreaking.

I read Stuart’s second novel Young Mungo earlier this year (another 5 star from me) and it is strikingly similar to his debut. This isn’t a criticism, as he sets his stories within Glasgow poverty so well, but I’d love to see something a bit different from him next time. I’ll certainly read anything else he writes!

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annainslee's review against another edition

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emotional

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

4.5

Spoiler

I was expecting this to be devastating and it was but not in the rotten way that says it meant to be but just in a realistic portrayal of life. Yes it was upsetting but it didn’t feel forced and it didn’t leave a bitter taste in my mouth. I was relieved and sad all at once. I couldn’t hate any of the main characters completely, Agnes specifically was tended to with a lot of love throughout. I wanted to hate her but couldn’t. All the characters were so real and imperfect that at times I felt like I was intruding.

Content Warnings

mikom10's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad 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

4.5

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sjclay122's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad medium-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

5.0

Content Warnings

leastsquares's review against another edition

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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

3.25

Content Warnings

mashedpotatoandsaladcream's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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

5.0

if you hate a bleak and depressing read then you’ll hate this, however if you do like those kind of books you’ll probably love this.

it mainly follows shuggies relationship with his mother as he grows from 5-15 watching and caring for his mother as his siblings draw away, forced or willing, as she falls into alcoholism and poverty in 1980s scotland -not only does he struggle with this but he also has to struggle with being an effeminate and seemingly clearly gay kid during a time rampant with homophobia and strict acceptance on what a man should act like. it does have a major list of trigger warning so look at them first if needed but although i said the book is depressing -it almost doesn’t feel that way when you read it. like yes it’s sad and it’s hard reading it at parts and yes it starts sad and ends slightly less sad and i think there’s only like a year period of his life when things are actually happy? but the way he’s written the scenes feels different to me. certain scenes will strick for me (the dancing scene, eugene and the fancy meal with agnes, etc) but the characters just had character and they felt like people to me.

one of these being agnes herself someone who annoyed me so much with how she’d seemed to never try to get better for the kids she seemed to genuinely care for but alcohol seemed to just matter more in its control over her and yet even as she lived in pitshead and all of what happened she still had a pride that was almost inspiring if it didn’t mean it would only lead to her drinking more and pushing her kids away.

and yet when he’s young she relies on him so much that as he grows up we barely ever know anything about him as a person, there were few scenes where shuggie was just shuggie and his identity revolved around his mother -that you wouldn’t know something happened to him until it was referenced once in his narration when with his mother and yet at the end he’s changed and he finally has a friend -something he never had during the rest of the book, in fact most would be shown once and no longer appear and yet by the end he actually calls them a friend.

anyway it’s a good choice if you like a bleak read and i’d recommend for that but not really if you hate them because you’ll just hate this even more.

Content Warnings

stephh's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad 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

I really wasn't sure I'd enjoy this - everyone said it was an incredibly depressing read, and the list of trigger warnings is one of the longest ones I've ever seen. HOWEVER, I found that, although the book is bleak it isn't a miserable read by any means, and some of the content the trigger warnings were there for wasn't graphic at all.

Shuggie's a young boy in the early 80s living in Glasgow just after Thatcher has closed the mines. His mother Agnes is an alcoholic and, despite Shuggie's best efforts, they live a tumultuous life together with his grandparents, father and older brother and sister. We watch Shuggie grow up across the book and learn to navigate a world that's stacked against him throughout his childhood.

I feel like I can't do justice to just how good this book was. It's given me one of the biggest book hangovers I've ever had, and has been all I can think about for a good week now. I found that, although the book was dark and gloomy, there was always a thread of hope running through it keeping you going. I'm not usually a fan of a book where a lot of the main characters are flawed, but this one was so incredibly well written that I loved following the entire Bain family. I can't wait to read Young Mungo now, and see if that lives up to the lofty heights of this.

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