A warm thank you to Netgalley, the author and Grove Atlantic for an e-copy. This was released April 2022 and I am providing my honest review. In a Nutshell: Depending on what you like as a reader, you are either going to love this book or hate it. Very few will fall in the in-between range. Unfortunately for me, I hated it. The audiobook made matters worse. In spite of everything, Mungo adores Mo-Maw (as Shuggie Bain did his mother), and when drink changes her, he’s the one who cleans her up and gets her to bed. The kids then refer to her as Tattie-bogle, which is the Scottish word for scarecrow.

But she disappears for weeks at a time, leaving them with no food and bills piling up. She was in her mid-teens when she had her babies, and she wants to party and be young and single.Of course, that makes him a perfect target for Hamish and the other louts of Glasgow’s East End. When the book opens, Mungo is getting on a bus with two questionable-looking men, heading off on a fishing trip up north somewhere. He’s sixteen but looks much younger. His mother is waving good-bye from the window. Both books feature domestic abuse, rape, sexual abuse of minors by those in a position of authority over them - although here (and I think largely reflecting the older age of the point of view character) these are more explicit/graphic.

Thomas-Corr, Johanna (27 March 2022). "Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart review — the Shuggie Bain author's new novel". The Sunday Times . Retrieved 25 March 2022. But the largest similarity of all is that this is another superbly and clearly patiently crafted piece of writing, with deeply rounded characters, a vivid use of language and many striking and original similes (as well as some subtle use of metaphor). And as a result one which is both engrossing ( I found myself thorough immersed in Mungo’s story just like Shuggie’s, and actually missed the book each time I was away from it) and hugely affecting (with its mix of light and dark).Graphic: Pedophilia, Rape, Abuse (Sexual, Physical, Emotional, Child, Domestic), Grooming, Murder, Violence (including anti-religious and homophobic hate crimes), Homophobia, Addiction, Death, Alcohol, Abortion, Blood/Injury The boys become friends, and when Mungo later realises James is Catholic, he keeps it secret. Both boys are lonely, neither has had any real friends, and as they gradually grow closer, they begin to feel a romantic attachment which takes them both by surprise. I never read Shuggie Bain but saw it got lots of accolades. So, I was excited to listen to Stuart’s second book, Young Mungo. But I really struggled with it. It’s not a bad book. In fact, it’s incredibly well written. But it’s such a sad, deep, dark, ugly, depressing story, I had to force myself to keep with it at times. The novel opens with Mungo Hamilton, a 15-year-old Scottish teenager, preparing for a trip with two men who his mother met at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, St. Christopher and Gallowgate, who plan to take him fishing to learn how to be a man. Months earlier, Mungo was living at home being cared for by his sister Jodie, with the constant threat of being taken away by social services in the absence of his mother, Maureen. One day, he sees James, a Catholic boy who lives across the street from him and who built a dovecote to raise poultry, through his window. The two become friends and soon develop a romance, which becomes their first relationship that does not involve constant acts of violence. a b Weir, Keziah (15 December 2022). "39 Best Books of 2022". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on 4 January 2023 . Retrieved 24 February 2023.

I do not know how this little review will turn out and I do not wish to censor myself. After finishing this book and crying terribly I grabbed my beloved and asked him to take me out for a long night drive and I listened to slow Arabic love songs and held his hand. I appreciate the fact that more queer love stories are making their way into the world, EVEN THOUGH this is NOT the kind of queer content I want to read. I'm also happy to say that despite the bleakness that permeates the novel, it's not without hope! I really loved the ending, and the moments that Mungo shares with his downstairs neighbor, a closeted gay man who is ridiculed by the community but whom Mungo comes to understand more deeply as the novel goes on.

Fifteen-year-old Mungo shows the kind of vulnerability that makes people want to cradle him — or crush him. He’s the tender Scottish hero of Douglas Stuart’s moving new novel, “Young Mungo.” It’s a tale of romantic and sexual awakening punctuated by horrific violence. Amid all its suffering, Mungo’s story makes two things strikingly clear: 1) Being named after the patron saint of Glasgow offers no protection, and 2) Stuart writes like an angel.