This was my first Douglas Stuart book and I’m soooo glad that I finally decided to pick one up, because it went above and beyond all my expectations! It tells the story of Mungo, a young protestant lad living in a tenement in Glasgow in the early 90’s with his mum and his older sister, Jodie. His brother, Hamish, is the leader of a gang and is constantly trying to pull Mungo into trouble.

Mungo is just the sweetest kid ever, despite the horrible hand that he’s been dealt. He loves his mum regardless of all the things that she does, and he loves his sister, Jodie (who I also loved!! A really interesting study of ‘eldest daughter syndrome’), and he loves his brother. And then, there’s James. JAMES!! As soon as I met James, I knew that both Mungo and I were going to love him. James is Catholic and, despite the tension between the Protestants and the Catholics, the two of them fall in love in a way that only teenagers who don’t really understand the world could. Their relationship was sweet and heart-breaking all at once, and you can’ help but root for them for the entire book. Overall, Young Mungo is just incredible. The writing is raw and lyrical and really delves into what life was like in a post-Thatcherite world. It’s also absolutely heart-breaking and the last 100 pages or so had me sobbing.

Young Mungo is a novel that I could not relate to. The first half is not very interesting, and the second half is sad. The downside of life seems to reign supreme. The talent of the author is not in dispute, He does a great job creating a world that many of us find troubling. If that was his goal, he did succeed!
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC.

You really have to be in the mood for this book. I cannot often read sad and tragic stories like this one but every once in a while i crave it. You really gotta have the stomach for abuse and overall drama. If you aren't bothered by this you'll find a beautifully written story about love and the tragics of life

Thank you for the advanced copy of this book! I will be posting my review on social media, to include Instagram, Amazon, Goodreads, and Instagram!

Young Mungo is bruise-black, powerful, and unyielding. It features the underlying tenderness of Shuggie Bain but if possible it feels less hopeful (reflecting the worldview of the characters). Trigger warnings abound (including abuse and sexual assault), which makes Young Mungo difficult to stomach at times. If you can make it through, the story will resonate with you long after you turn the final page. I do think there's a slight structural problem, though, There are two storylines in the book and I think one of them (the one with the most violence) could have easily been cut out completely. I think it would have gotten the same themes across and with a few minor tweaks the ending would have worked just as well. True, it would leave the book with a lot less shock value--but Young Mungo is at its best when it showcases Stuart's true skill as a writer: his heart. The small, tender moments between characters are the ones that stand out the most to me--and they're the moments I wish Stuart had focused on.

Thank you to Grove Atlantic and Net Galley for the eARC of Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart. I was so excited to read this book and to experience my first read by the author.

I realize that this book wasn't written for me but none the less, I liked it and think it's one that everyone would benefit from reading! The story takes place in Glasgow. Mungo, the youngest of 3 siblings lives with his alcoholic mother and his older siblings. He falls in love with James and by society's standards and his families is forbidden to act on his feelings due to religion and stigma. His mother sends him on a weekend with some gentlemen she knows from her self help group. Mungo is subjected to sexual abuse but strikes back in order to safe his dignity and himself.

When he returns, he sees James and the aftermath of a horrific event that involved Mungo's older brother before Mungo was sent away.

This story was heart wrenching and heart breaking all at the same time. The story touches upon so many different issues and makes you wonder....... how many other Young Mungo's are there out? The obstacles that Mungo encounters just trying to survive and be happy in his own skin are obstacles that nobody should have to endure but unfortunately so many do.

Overall, a very powerful read!

This book brutally reached into my chest, ripped out my heart, drizzled some sauce on it and fed it back to me like a Sunday BBQ.
I'm not sure what I went into this book thinking, but I entirely underestimated it.

The author was able to create such an awful, yet relatable troubled family that you won't be able not to feel sorry for. Our main character has so many simple wants and needs and yet feels that he should feel guilty or even ashamed for ever thinking they were attainable. Perhaps it sounds familiar to some.

We jump back and forth between two timelines; not totally too far from each other. We're eased into the character's world, full of pity and hope. We're teased with sweet moments (I feel I'm putting that way too softly) while at other times we suffer to see things go from bad to worse. I was itching, craving and rooting for this character up to the end.

I'll admit as a gay guy, this tug at more of my heartstrings then it may for some --- but holy hell did I enjoy the journey, the pain and the delightful moments in this novel.

A huge thank you to the wonderful people at Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for early access to this book. What a way to bring in the New Year!

As other reviewers have already pointed out, some of the subject matter will probably be familiar if you read his previous novel: alcoholism, a semi-absent/abusive mother, growing up as a gay boy in Scotland, etc. The biggest difference is probably the types of relationships the book showcases. This makes sense, as Mungo is slightly older than Shuggie—he’s fifteen years-old—which naturally involves deeper connections to the different people in his life. SHUGGIE BAIN was focused on Shuggie’s relationship with his mother as a single child, whereas YOUNG MUNGO presents a larger circle of characters, including Mungo’s sister and brother.

Unfortunately, there’s something that’s not clicking for me when it comes to Stuart’s writing. I can appreciate that he’s an incredibly talented writer. Maybe it’s a language barrier thing (English isn’t my first language), but I have found both of his books to be extremely hard to read. There are a lot of descriptions, and the book often failed to keep my attention. I would finish a paragraph and realize that I got absolutely nothing from it, and had to read it again. Maybe I just had to put in a little more work to better understand what was going on or to stay focused. But, as I got further into the story, this wasn’t as big an issue. There were also more and more dialogues.

Reading about Mungo and his mother definitely reminded me of SHUGGIE BAIN. Here too, their relationship was intense, difficult; it had its ups and downs. However, I do believe that the most interesting relationships in this book were underexplored and underdeveloped. For instance, the friendship between Mungo and James was, to me, central to the plot. But it took a long time for the two characters to become actual friends, and even then, they didn’t see each other very often, or at least, we didn’t witness many of their interactions. I think if the book had started at page 200, I wouldn’t have had that impression. Honestly, if you asked me to tell you what happened in the first half of the book, I’m not sure I’d be able to.

Now, the second half the book. It was the exact opposite. Many things happened. Like, probably too many things. Hateful things. If I were to tell you everything that happened, I don’t think you’d believe me. It was absolutely horrible, and sad. I can handle sad. But it was just one thing after the other, absolutely relentless. It did keep me on the edge of my seat, and I tore through those last pages—but I’m wondering, now, if I was just hoping to get to the end faster.

It seems like this book is getting a lot of praise, so I kind of feel like the odd one out here. If you liked SHUGGIE BAIN, and if you enjoy Stuart’s writing style, I think you could enjoy this one too. I’d say, be careful, because if you thought SHUGGIE was a hard read, you might not be ready for what’s to come in this one.

When I read Shuggie Bain I at least thought that there was an attempt at something in the storytelling...

Here... here, I have absolutely no fucking clue what Stuart was attempting to do. The alternating timeline was foolishness, and while at least this time the stories meet up in a place that feels a little worth the time spent reading... it's still not at all something I would recommend to most readers.

Pedophiles, alcoholism, homophobic hate crimes, back alley abortions, domestic violence, statutory rape, and general child neglect are all things that play into the story at one time or another, often at multiple points in the narrative. Once again Stuart presents the reader with two-dimmensional characters, most of which feel ripped from the pages of his first novel with the same motivations and bland characterization...

I don't think that all books need to have a point of view, a stance on a topic, but much like how I felt with the first book when you start stacking trauma on a character like a Jenga tower I do expect there to be some kind of examination of that which can be supported by the text in some way, and I don't feel like that's the case.

Instead it's just a series of bad things happening to a character that I don't care about occasionally interrupted by interludes of characters the reader is even less invested in and in one instance the actual child rapist.

Once again Stuart has penned a book that simply exists, and the litfic girlies are gonna eat it up, but I find this is a meal that lacks real substance.
6 likes

This novel sucks you in, rips your heart out, and leaves you sobbing on the floor. Seriously. I haven’t been this emotionally impacted by a novel since A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara…and it took me a summer of reading fluffy books to heal my heart.

Young Mungo is about Mungo, the youngest child of three raised (if you can call it that) by a single mother whose presence is sporadic and, more often than not, fueled by alcohol.
Mungo’s life consists of: spending time with his older sister Jodie who serves as a surrogate mother when she is not working, alone, or reluctantly vandalizing, stealing, and fighting in his brother Hamish’s gang.


Mungo is a gentle soul who seeks out friendship and affection from whomever he can. Sadly he is often abused and taken advantage of because of this. Besides the love of his sister and the mother-like attention he gets from his next-door neighbour, Mungo finds friendship and love in his neighbour James. The fact that James is both male and Catholic makes their affection for each other dangerous.


With this second book, Douglas Stuart has become one of my favourite authors. His gift at storytelling is vivid and visceral. The reader quickly becomes immersed in the life of Mungo Hamilton, and at times we are left breathless with emotion.

Growing up in a housing estate in Glasgow, Mungo and James are born under different stars—Mungo a Protestant and James a Catholic—and they should be sworn enemies if they’re to be seen as men at all.

Douglas Stuart is a brilliant author and proves it once again in Young Mungo. A book with very well-built characters and an overwhelming story.

Young Mungo changed my life forever. Reading this story brought me a mix of feelings, love, pain, sadness and in a way, gratitude.

I hope everyone has the chance to read this amazing book, for sure one of the best reads of my life.

My thanks to Pan MacMillan for an ARC via NetGalley

Since the resounding success of Stuart's Booker Prize winning debut, Shuggie Bain, I think many readers, myself among them, have waited with baited breath to find out if the follow up would be just as beloved. Well, Stuart has done it again -- more than that, he's gone one better this time around. Yes, I actually preferred Mungo to Shuggie, and that really is saying something.

This is a book that revisits the themes of it's predecessor and expands on them as succinctly and eloquently as you would expect from the author of such a beautifully written work as Shuggie Bain.

It explores how narrow definitions of masculinity can harm and shape men in various different ways; the precariousness of mother/son relationships that was so prevalent of Shuggie; the politics of gang loyalties in religiously divisive communities and their violent repercussions; the physical, mental, and at times moral degradation that are the consequence of economic deprivation. But most uniquely, this is a queer love story between two boys who are navigating the joy, the shame, and the beauty of their desire for one another in a community who they know will not accept them.

This book is best enjoyed without knowing much about the plot beforehand, but be aware that some of the content is difficult to read. Stuart's candid narrative does not gloss over the harsh realities of Mungo's circumstances. It is a gritty, sobering, but ultimately hopeful novel that is, at it's heart, a story of resilience. 

Thank you to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for the ARC.

This review also appears on Instagram- @victoriasliterarythings

I feel so lucky to have received an advanced reader’s e-copy of “Young Mungo” by Douglas Stuart. Stuart’s debut novel, “Shuggie Bain”, was one of my absolute favourite reads of 2020, so I’ve been eagerly awaiting the release of his second work for awhile. “Young Mungo” did not disappoint. The novel alternates between two time periods - a nightmarish fishing trip on which Mungo is taken by two men his mother meets at an AA meeting and the central plot a few months earlier, where Mungo meets James and their beautiful, forbidden love story unfolds. Stuart’s writing is beautiful, heartbreaking and filled with impactful juxtapositions - raw, visceral descriptions of 1990s Glasgow’s gritty housing estates and its Catholic v Protestant gang violence; the tender, pure, star-crossed love between Mungo and James; the vivid, well-developed characters that make up Mungo’s dysfunctional family - his absent, alcoholic mother; violent, brutal brother Hamish; kind, wise sister Jodie; and of course the character of Mungo himself, for whom I rooted for a happy ending and for whom my my heart
broke many times throughout the novel. I can’t wait until “Young Mungo”s publication day (April 5, 2022 in Canada and the US) to buy a hard copy for my personal collection. Thank you to NetGalley, Grove Atlantic and Douglas Stuart for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As a followup to the Man Booker-winning Shuggie Bain, I think it’s fair to acknowledge that Douglas Stuart’s Young Mungo treads very similar territory — a sensitive young Glaswegian lad is coming of age in a time and place of casual violence and toxic masculinity, raised by an alcoholic single mother whom he can’t help but love and care for — but while Shuggie’s story was mostly one of a childhood lost, Mungo’s is a tale of exploring one’s sexuality and discovering self. With a plot unspooled in alternating timelines — what events led to Mungo being sent off on a camping trip with a pair of questionable male role models and what happens on that trip — there is a fair amount of tension, if no real shockers (and perhaps some strained credibility), but Young Mungo shines more in the specifics than in the overall picture; and shine it does. Stuart has, once again, created some really fine and believable characters, and in this world of hurt, I rooted for them. Rounding up to four stars.

Douglas Stuart has brought us back to Glasgow where we follow young Mungo, a sensitive isolated teenager. Like in Shuggie Bains, there isn’t any good news here. The characters live amongst the tenements, encased by poverty, substance abuse, prejudice, unemployment and religion. The post-Thatcher setting feels believable and what a depressing, oppressive world it was. The focus doesn’t stray too far from Mungo’s narrative, but we still get enough from the surrounding characters to create depth and understanding. The author flips back and forth to an event in young Mungo’s life and how he came to be there and it’s harrowing. As a reader, even though you feel the suspense, like the main character you still have a sense of innocence and hope throughout. This book felt cinematic and I was engaged from beginning to end. The story takes you along for a ride, a sad one, but one worth taking.

3.5 stars

A beautifully written coming of age story saturated in violence and tragedy.

[What I liked:]

•The prose is lovely. The writing & dialogue catalogue the observations of small daily life things, the beauty of being outside in the summer, the pain of being trapped with no way out, & the confusion of dealing with an emotionally unstable parent.

•Mungo is a pretty realistic portrayal of a 15-year-old kid: the limited perspective on life, the vulnerability, the feeling of being too grown up too fast yet still just a powerless kid, & falling in love for the first time—all are subtly & skillfully captured here.

•The ending is a bit open-ended, & leaves the possibility for something good in Mungo’s future. It could have ended in a much sadder place, & I’m glad it didn’t, because oh my word is this story already tragic and dark.


[What I didn’t like as much:]

•There is so much violence, sexual violence, and abuse packed into this one book. I get that it’s realistic, that some people’s existences are just this tragic & bleak, but it is just relentless.

CW: sexism, homophobia, murder, child sexual abuse, sexual assault/r*pe, substance abuse, infidelity, physical & verbal child abuse/neglect, teacher/student sexual relationship, sectarian violence, domestic violence

[I received an ARC ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you for the book!]

sYoung Mungo was both beautifully earthshattering and exquisitely hopeful. There were many times when this book made me feel on edge and when it made me cry. There were many times that just completely horrible things happened to Mungo and TWs for assault should be minded when reading the book. But despite all of those horribly sad events, the ending was still open for hope, and I think that that's the most important thing. That despite what happened to Mungo and how hopelessly stuck his life situation seemed, there is hope for acceptance and for putting yourself first. This was my first book of Douglas Stuart and the writing was both captivating and enthralling. From cover to cover, the words kept me hooked. I cannot wait to read Shuggie Bain as such.

Thank you Netgalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

really lovely and atmospheric and heartbreaking. I actually haven't even read Shuggie Bain so there's no comparisons to be had from me, but this one was such beautiful a mix of tenderness and harsh realities. Stuart really creates strong connection with our setting, with intimate details historical, political, social -- and i just can't get over the the adolescent love, so well done.

thanks so much to Grove Atlantic and Netgalley for an advanced copy.

I am super privileged and thankful to receive an e-galley from Netgalley!

The way Stuart constructs the novel's environment is remarkable to read, particularly with the balance of nuance and empathy he creates in regards to the questionably ethical behavior that is necessary to survive this unforgiving world. Her places great care into the provenance of socio-economic and political suffering, and the justification of sectarian violence that is in Scotland's history. From gang violence, alcoholism, to teen pregnancy, it is a world that in many ways, reflects our everyday sufferings of capitalism. From his prose, it seems impossible for Stuart to write a dry and callous novel.

However, I have a difficult time digesting why Mungo is molested by the two men. The plot is inevitable, as many LGBTQ+ people know the consistent threat of intimacy and violence that is present in private spaces. Isolated spaces have historically been a beacon for our community, like the reader witnesses with James and Mungo in the doocot, or abusive, like Mungo's experiences on the fishing trip. While it is most likely realistic for his mother to place Mungo carelessly out of her way, I still question the motives on Stuart's device with this plot. Does the reader need to see that this abusive form of heterosexual masculinity is more socially acceptable than the intimate, gay love between Mungo and James, or Chickie's bachelor life? Perhaps, for some readers, but there are plenty of readers who probably enter the novel with this mindset.

Let Glasgow Flourish. That’s the city motto of the setting, once again, of Douglas Stuart’s YOUNG MUNGO, his remarkably dark and resilient follow-up to his award-winning debut, SHUGGIE BAIN. And like the city that nurtured Stuart and all his characters, YOUNG MUNGO becomes the tale of a child trying to flourish, and the people, the things, the events, the economics, the politics, all those family ties, that trip and pull and beat one into submission. A tale of the first breath of love, and the forces that seek to drown it. A story about what it takes to keep your head above water - gasping, grasping, surviving one beat at a time - and daring to believe you deserve love despite all the odds against it and in spite of every indication from others that you are not worthy of it.

The title character is named after the Patron Saint of Glasgow. Saints come in varieties, but they are usually of two kinds: they spent their lives spreading so much love and goodwill towards men that they must have been sent from Heaven Itself, or, they were tested by the fires of Hell Itself and found to be indestructible. Sometimes both. Stuart’s Mungo is on a pilgrim’s path towards a queer identity. To complete his journey, he must battle the devil and lose his innocence. Whether he loses his soul in the process, as so many do, will ultimately determine his fate.

In SHUGGIE BAIN, Stuart gave us a portrait of a mother and son and the journey they would take together. It was a story as much about Agnes Bain’s life, and what brought her so low, as it was about Shuggie’s nascent sexuality and devotion to his flawed, but very sympathetic, mother. It was a novel about addiction and how it sabotages the happiness (and future prospects) of everyone around the person struggling with it. Although that novel was bookended with a slightly older Shuggie, it was essentially the story of a young gay boy’s childhood with an alcoholic parent. That it clicked with so many readers is due in no small part to the relationship between mother and son and what unconditional love means – and what it doesn’t mean, as well. It was about emerging from childhood scarred, but alive. It was the story of a child's determination to make it to the next step, beyond childhood, into the unknown. We don’t know what comes next for Shuggie. But Stuart, rather than writing a sequel, provides us with the next part of the conversation. A part two on the theme, as adolescence fades into adult identity. While many may recognize themselves in a young Shuggie Bain, and while many Shuggies may exist in this harsh world, the path into young adulthood can fork in many directions. Mungo is the story of one of them.

With YOUNG MUNGO, Douglas Stuart focuses his lens squarely on the boy. Yes, on the surface, there are similarities with this novel and his last. It is almost entirely superficial however, and any deeper reading of the two books will find a divergent path taken by Mungo into the wilderness of Scotland, and his future. In terms of both plot and character, MUNGO drives harder into the violence, the poverty, the pain, and the love of a young gay person for another, in a world that won’t love them back. This is a story very much about Mungo. Rather than a co-lead, his mother is one actor in the operatic highs and lows of Mungo's life. Mungo’s mother will not elicit much sympathy here. His older sister is the only person looking out for him, and even her concern has its natural limitations. She is, after all, not his mother.

By making Mungo a teenager on the verge of manhood, but not sure what manhood is supposed to mean or be, Stuart is free to explore Mungo's sexuality in all its beautiful awkwardness, uncertain shyness, longing hunger, and shame. Stuart goes all-in and deftly portrays the love of two young men in juxtaposition with the horror of abuse. I see a confidence in Stuart's writing that he can absolutely reach for whatever peaks or valleys he wants now. Nothing is off limits, nor should it be. With no reticence, the truly ugly side of poverty and violence and bigotry sits, uncomfortably, but necessarily, with the blooming affection of two young people discovering that their dismal world can enjoy flashes of light sometimes too.

What I appreciate the most about Stuart’s writing is how specific, yet totally universal, his observations are of the young gay man’s mind. How one’s identity is so often tarred with slurs. Mungo rehashes them in his head. “Idiot. Weakling. Liar. Poofter. Coward.” It takes a strong will to not believe them and, therefore, not become them. Isolated and afraid, the softhearted and loving individuals are easy prey for almost anything on God’s earth that wishes to pounce on them. Mungo wonders how they know - what does he do, what do they see - that seems to signal to everyone that he can be picked picked off from the crowd. It is only in making that one special connection with one special like-minded boy, with the same good heart, that Mungo is given a shot at being something different and better than his environment would have him be.

Both SHUGGIE and MUNGO have given me a vivid impression of the East End of Glasgow. I've been to Edinburgh, but haven't been to Glasgow yet. (Although it is unlikely as a tourist I'd see what is portrayed so candidly in these novels.) Still, I can see it. Hear it. Feel it. I understand Stuart's Glasgow and I know it, such is the power of his words. But, perhaps more importantly for me as a reader, I am left trembling with my own emotional recognition of home. The poverty. The city streets. The alcoholic parent. The big-hearted devotion to those people incapable of returning it in kind. I grew up in roughly the same period, 3,500 miles away, and yet… my mind reaches across the Atlantic and knows, down to my core, what Stuart is conveying in these pages. Some feelings, particularly those involved in the young gay experience of the 20th Century, are inherently and undeniably true, regards of the language or accent of the speaker.

It is that spark of recognition which make for truly great reading experiences. It's why we read novels in the first place. It's those moments in fiction when you feel like kindred spirits walk the Earth and that maybe, if you are lucky, you encounter each other long enough to tell each other that yes, you are worthy, and yes, we can flourish together.