A review by thecolourblue
Shuggie Bain, by Douglas Stuart

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

4.0

A truly truly heartbreaking story about the relationship between a young boy and his alcoholic mother in working class 1980's Glasgow. The book is pretty relentlessly grim, and often repetitive in its story... but that's kind of the point. It's also an incredibly human book, and one that made me feel a lot of care and compassion for it's central character of Agnes, despite the really shitty things she does to herself and her family throughout. There's also some subtle exploration of Shuggie's queerness as he ages and how his mother both supports his "effeminate" side in a display of real acceptance, and also uses it to cast him as her caregiver despite his youth. 

The sorrowful, somewhat twisted, devotion between Shuggie and his mother is at the heart of the book, and in it we see both the good in Agnes and the cruelness of her and her addiction. The most crushing part of the book is the section where
Spoiler she finally manages to get sober, and life is improving for her and her children, before her boyfriend pressures her to drink again.
From then on out, the story is just one big downward spiral into tragedy. 

I desperately need to give Shuggie a hug.
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