Shuggie Bain

Edit- Later

It was driving me nuts where I knew the picture of the cover of this book from: The Leftovers! It's in the opening from Season 2+



I spent most of 2020 avoiding this book. It was everywhere and I could tell by looking at it that it was going to be sad and depressing and it just wasn't what I needed. Then, it made the TOB shortlist and I was forced to tromp my way through it.
Completely living up to expectations, Shuggie Bain is sad and depressing AF. Scene after devastating scene we witness sadness, addiction and (let's call it what it is) child abuse. Add in a few rapes. Add in the lack of being accepted by the only community available. Add in abandonment and malnutrition. I'm not even going to touch the difficult emotions that Shuggie is dealing with....

Here's the thing, this should have been called Agnes Bain, because we barely meet Shuggie. We see him for a hot minute in the beginning of the book and at the very end. Agnes's story ends when he's what, 12? It was never his story.
I kept thinking, I can do this (and this book is LONG), if Stuart would just let off the gas a little bit. If one hopeful or funny thing would happen. Just throw me a bone...but no. It would just get worse. I was sad, mad, depressed and exhausted reading this. Is the writing beautiful? Sure. Is this new territory for me as a reader? No. In fact, it hit a little too close to home and I found I identified with Leek waaaaaay more than I did Shuggie. And I read a bunch of reviews that promised(!) that the abuse would be balanced out by the amount of love in this novel. There is no love in this novel.
This is not love. This is codependency. Agnes did not even love Agnes.
In the end, I got exactly what I expected to get out of this.