Young Mungo is another wonderful book by Scottish-American writer, Douglas Stuart. I also read and very much enjoyed Shuggie Bain, his debut novel, which was awarded the 2020 Booker Prize (although I'm never sure if "enjoyed" is the right word: Stuart's books contain some pretty difficult content).

Young Mungo, like Shuggie Bain, was hard to put down. I usually read before bed, so I know it's a good book when I'm hankering to go to bed at 7:00 p.m.!!

Stuart is a gifted writer: his stories are engaging and deeply emotional, and his characters (even the minor ones), are very well-developed. Like Shuggie, Mungo (named for the founder and patron saint of the city of Glasgow) is the son of a single, largely absent alcoholic mother, living in poverty in Glasgow, Scotland. His older sister, Jodie, becomes the de facto parent, and his older brother Hamish is a bully and a drug-dealing criminal. The story follows fifteen-year-old Mungo as he tries to navigate his sexual identity, his first queer relationship, and a fishing trip his mother sends him on with two ne'er do wells she meets in AA and barely knows, in order to make a man of him. This trip is central to the story and is a pivotal event in Mungo's life for several reasons. All of this is against the backdrop of the Catholic-Protestant conflict.

While Young Mungo is similar to Shuggie Bain in many ways, I didn't mind, as Stuart's writing is brilliant. I'm sure if he writes a third similar book, I will happily read that, too! As Washington Post reviewer Ron Charles says: "Young Mungo’ seals it: Douglas Stuart is a genius."

I adore Douglas Staurt's debut Shuggie Bain and am really happy with how Young Mungo turned out in the very end. I really enjoyed the exploration of themes of poverty and queerness.

What an incredibly remarkable story. After Shuggie Bain I had no idea what to expect from Stuart but he has felt me in absolute awe again!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very hard read for me. I certainly did not know what I was signing up for when I picked it up. Nevertheless, this is most definitely one of the best books I have read in a really long time.

The imagery in this book features various forms of decomposition - environmental, societal, familial. The only light was the relationship between Mungo and James, but even that felt difficult to read about given the circumstances surrounding their illicit affair.

I found that I couldn't read more than 10 pages without getting up to breathe and take a walk. The story seemed to just get sadder and sadder. Despite the despair, I'm grateful for having gotten to read such a masterfully written book. Stuart seemed very intentional about the details he described and the analogies he incorporated into his work. His characters and the setting were all so richly brought to life. I have not yet read his previous book, Booker prize-winning Shuggie Bain, but look forward to doing so (once I have mentally recovered from this one)!

Yes, this book was a lot to stomach, but there was not a single minute I spent reading it that I wanted to put it down for good. This was the sort of book that reminds me why I love reading so much.

I loved Shuggie Bain, so I was naturally very excited for Stuart's next book. Overall, I really enjoyed it, but it was a tough read. If you enjoyed Shuggie Bain, you will no doubt enjoy Young Mungo. Stuart's writing is so effective at making you feel completely immersed in the setting; the vocabulary, vivid descriptions, and overall tone of his writing were phenomenal.

Unfortunately, I think I read it a little too soon after A Little Life so some parts weighed heavier on me than they otherwise might have. And with the dual timelines I think I struggled with knowing what was going to happen long before actually reading it. Just make sure you read the content warnings before you pick it up.

Thanks to NetGalley, Simon and Schuster Canada and Douglas Stuart. This was a heavy hitter for me. The book involved heavy topics that caused me to read this book so slow. I was going into a slump as I was reading the book at a level of real life. I could not explain how it just pulled my body down. I do not know how to describe it really but if you like Shuggie Bain, you will like this.

I read Stuart’s debut novel Shuggie Bain, which won the 2020 Booker Prize, and was left in awe so I was excited to receive an advance reading copy of Stuart’s second novel. Young Mungo is no less stunning and impactful.

The novel has two interwoven plot lines but both focus on Mungo Hamilton, a fifteen-year-old living in East End Glasgow in the 1990s. In one plot line, Mungo is on a weekend fishing trip to an isolated loch with two men (Gallowgate and St. Christopher) his mother (Mo-Maw) met at an AA meeting. The trip is intended to toughen him up; Mo-Maw says, “’That’s what ah wanted you to do this for. Masculine pursuits. It’ll make a man out of ye.’” From the beginning Mungo is not entirely comfortable; for example, Gallowgate means to give a friendly smile “but it was without warmth, and Mungo thought he saw a flash of menace cross his thin lips.”

The second storyline shows Mungo’s family life and describes the events leading up to the fishing trip. Mungo’s father is absent and his mother is neglectful. Mo-Maw is away from home for long periods of time as she looks for a man to care for her; when she is at home, she drinks. Hamish, Mungo’s older brother, lives with the 15-year-old mother of his daughter; he is the leader of a Protestant gang involved in criminal activities and violence against Catholics. It is Jodie, Mungo’s older sister, who acts as a surrogate mother and looks after Mungo as best she can.

Mungo is a lonely, sensitive soul living in an environment where he does not fit in, surrounded as he is by toxic masculinity and sectarian violence. He meets James, a kindred spirit. They dream of finding somewhere they belong, but they must keep their relationship a secret because homosexuality is totally unacceptable and punishable by ostracism and violence. To complicate matters, James is Catholic, and Mungo is expected to hate Catholics.

Mungo is named after St. Kentigern, the patron saint of Glasgow. He is aptly named. He is a shy, gentle, kind person capable of “big, big love.” He is full of self-loathing; he has been described by various people as “Idiot. Weakling. Liar. Poofter. Coward. Pimp. Bigot” so he has come to think of himself as unworthy. He believes that he is to blame whenever things go wrong around him, going so far as to think of himself as “the ruiner of all good things.” Despite his mother’s selfishness and neglect, he remains steadfast in his love for her: “I don’t blame her. I just try to love her.’”

The relationship between Mungo and Mo-Maw is similar to the mother-son relationship in Shuggie Bain. Mo-Maw, however, is not as sympathetic as Agnes. Jodie describes how important Mungo is to his mother: Mungo “was Mo-Maw’s youngest son, but he was also her confidant, her lady’s maid, and errand boy. He was her one flattering mirror, and her teenage diary, her electric blanket, her doormat. He was her best pal, the dog she hardly walked, and her greatest romance. He was her cheer on a dreich morning, the only laughter in her audience. . . . her mother’s minor moon, her warmest sun, and at the exact same time, a tiny satellite that she had forgotten about. He would orbit her for an eternity, even as she, and then he, broke into bits.” Yet this woman abandons him, leaving home for weeks without letting him know where she is so he imagines she may be dead. And she sends him on a fishing trip with two men she has met once at an AA meeting and doesn’t even know exactly where they’re taking her son.

The novel examines homophobia in an intolerant culture: “There was nothing more shameful than being a poofter; powerless, soft as a woman.” A man who rapes another man objects to being labeled a homosexual: “’Call me that again an’ ah’ll knock ye out.’” James’ father will let his son live at home only if he has a girlfriend. Mo-Maw exhibits the same attitude. Because Mungo has never had a girlfriend, Mo-Maw becomes concerned: “Hamish had gotten a girl-child pregnant and she hadn’t ruffled a feather. But now she stared into his eyes and she looked genuinely worried.” A neighbour is a bachelor, a euphemism for homosexual, and after Mungo has shown him neighbourly friendliness, Mo-Maw lashes out, “’Stay away frae him, Mungo. Dae ye hear? Ah’ll be damned if ah raise a bachelor.’” She sends her youngest son with two virtual strangers, one of whom tells Mungo that their task is to “Make a man out of you yet.’”

Hamish also becomes obsessed with Mungo’s inability to conform to traditional cultural masculine norms. Men are expected to suppress tender emotions (“It was foolish to say something sweet that the scheme could use against you later”) so they become, “knotted-up men” who resort to drinking away their sorrows and beating their wives because anger and pride are the only acceptable masculine emotions that can be expressed. When Hamish’s gang steals and vandalizes a business, he insists Mungo attend, but Mungo’s concern for an injured gang member results in drawing police attention and Hamish’s ire: “’The polis have been going door to door asking after us. They want to know who’s been robbin’ the builders. It’s only a matter of time afore some spiteful auld cunt grasses, and all because you couldnae man up.’” Hamish also wants Mungo to be aggressive, threatening violence and worse if Mungo does not show up for a planned fight against a Catholic gang. The losing gang members may retreat but they continue “bragging of their glories, screaming threats of retaliation . . . [keeping] their chests puffed out until they could be safe in their mammies’ arms again.”

The imagery is amazing: “The man’s voice had a raspy quality, like he had a throatful of dry toast” and “he had ribs like the hull of an upturned boat” and “he was smacking his lips in agitation like a woman who couldn’t believe the price of milk nowadays” and “In their nylon tracksuits [the gang members] looked like so many plastic bags all stuffed together; a flammable noisy jumble of colour-blocking and sponsorship logos.”

The book includes a lot of working-class Scottish slang so readers will encounter words like cagoule, dreich, bothy, gallus, stour, haar, scunner, sleekit, boak, twitcher, ghillie, and uisge beatha.

This novel is not for the faint of heart; it is a raw and gritty, harrowing read. Readers need to be prepared for brutal violence of many types. I experienced almost overwhelming anger and sadness. The only real scenes of tenderness and peace are those between James and Mungo when they find sanctuary from the violence of their daily lives in each other. The sense of foreboding is so overpowering that I found myself having to take short breaks from reading.

This is one of the most beautifully written heart-breaking books I’ve ever read.

Note: I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley. Quotations may not be exactly as they appear in the published version.

Huge thank you to RB Media, Recorded Books, Penguin Random House Canada, and NetGalley for sending me an advance reader copy of both the audiobook and ebook

Set aside the inconsistent pacing in the first half and distracting formatting errors in the eARC, the last 50% of this book really blew me away. I haven't read Shuggie Bain so I went into this with absolutely no expectations. I had a hard time getting into the story, the scots dialect wasn't impossible to navigate, but pairing the text with the audiobook narrated by Chris Reilly turned this into an immerse and emotionally intense experience.

Young Mungo is a heavy and heartbreaking slow/medium paced story about a young queer teen named Mungo as he navigates his first love. The story flits back and forth between Mungo and James's relationship and a fishing trip to a loch in Western Scotland that Mungo's mom forces him to go on with two strange men she meets in AA. The writing is both gritty and lyrical, certain pages absolutely floored me. I beg you to carefully read through the content warnings below because this read isn't enjoyable, it's heartbreaking and emotionally draining but exquisite.


content warnings: homophobia, rape, sexual assault, parental abandonment, pedophila, violence, sexual violence, physical abuse, addiction, child abuse, domestic abuse, emotional abuse, hate crime, bigotry, injury, animal cruelty/death, drug/alcohol abuse, body horror, gun violence, abortion, hate crime, murder police brutality, mental illness, body shaming, panic attacks/disorders, death of a parent

I loved Stuart's first book, Shuggie Bain, so much that it was one of my top three reads of 2021. It was an easy decision for me to request his newest one from NetGalley. Douglas Stuart has done it yet again with Young Mungo. He has written another heartbreakingly beautiful story about a young Glasgow man. Poor Mungo hasn't had an easy life, to say the least...but his good heart stays with him throughout, even though his life is full of tragedy and violence. The book deals with other heavy hitting topics as well such as addiction, motherhood, abuse and sexual identity, to name but a few. I found the entire book engrossing and appreciated that Stuart doesn't pull any punches. This isn't just a story on the hard parts of Mungo's life but also a story about love, acceptance, finding ones self and finding the strength to be true to yourself. So, again I am in awe of Stuart's writing and I loved how absorbed I became in these characters lives and how much I cared about them. All. The. Stars.