I read and loved Shuggie Bain, also by Douglas Stuart. And Young Mungo has a lot in common — poverty, a mother who manages to be absent and cloyingly oppressive, a child whose difference brings on violence. Young Mungo has a kind of hope and beauty that Shuggie Bain lacks.

The violence in Young Mungo has a kind of intention that lets you see the characters as real people. Though the women in the book feel like caricatures of people, even when they are loving. The only woman that breaks out is a minor player, a neighbor who sees what is happening.