Shuggie Bain
by Douglas Stuart
Young adult · age 18+ · grade 12+ · 1020L · 8
Why we'd hand it over
A brutal, tender portrait of a child loving an alcoholic mother in 1980s poverty—Booker Prize winner that reads like literary realism, not YA. Not a feel-good book, but a necessary one for mature teens ready to witness how love and survival intersect.