This is not Shuggie Bain. Superficially, yes, there are many parallels, but not the same story.
I enjoyed it a lot, but some parts were so harrowing that even my child asked one morning if I was OK, that my face looked so serious.
And yes, I was contemplating about the last chapter I read and how the most beautiful and innocent of things can be easily destroyed, trampled upon, taken for granted.
I don’t think it is a Romeo and Juliet story; this is not what the book it’s about at all, I think it’s more about what it means to be a man.
The cover it’s a bit grotesque and put me off from picking up the book; but as Mary Poppins says, a cover it’s not the book.
***Spoiler alert***
It was nice seeing Shuggie Bain making a cameo in this book. Just a handful of pages, and it’s implied, but I think the evidence it’s sufficiently convincing.