Douglas Stuart breaks my heart for the second time this week. I think I might even have loved this one a touch more than Shuggie Bain, there was just something different about it that caught me in a new way. It might have been the slightly more hopeful nature of it, and how easy it was to connect with Mungo as a protagonist. I loved this one.

Once again, the writing will really strike you here. It’s so tender and honest, Stuart really has a way of building up emotion gently and it will hit you pretty hard. Everything about this is just so open and vulnerable it’s difficult not to be moved by it, I was in a constant state of heartbreak going through this. There were several moments where I had to close the book, close my eyes, and really just take a minute to sit and process what was happening. It was really difficult material.

In some ways, at the beginning I was regretting reading this straight off the back of Shuggie Bain because I was noticing massive similarities. It felt repetitive initially to read them back to back, but getting into the swing of the narrative Young Mungo really became its own story. While a lot of the themes and the overall feel of both books are pretty similar, they do veer off and end up being quite distinct stories in their own right despite the overlap. This being said, to reiterate if you don’t like deeply dark, uncomfortable stories revolving around the pain, exploitation and suffering of young queer men, these books won’t be for you. They tell a very dark history and reality, and they are difficult to stomach but Stuart handles it with such care and grace, and doesn’t shy away from the uncomfortable and disturbing.

The characters here were beautiful, and I loved the exploration of different sibling relationships. Mungo and James really had the most tender and honest way with each other, their scenes together were so intimate and completely human. Being in that tiny bubble with them really felt so safe. They were lovely, and they deserve more than the world gave them.