Shuggie Bain: We meet him in the first chapter of the book. He is 15 and lives in a flat with three (?) other grown men. He currently works at a grocery store and often imagines his life differently such as a university student. He is comfortable around his older female co-workers, but they have noted that something is “wrong” with him due to Shuggie’s lack of sexual interest in them. We leave 15 year old Shuggie in a very foreboding situation that insinuates one of his older roommates taking advantage of him.

When we flash back, Shuggie is a young boy being looked after mostly by his sister, Catherine, or his grandmother, Lizzie. He is described as a smart young man who loves his mother dearly as he hasn’t had the opportunity to be disappointed by her yet. Shuggie is constantly being told that he is “not right” as he loves to play with his doll, Daphne and he speaks effeminately. Shuggie gets the most attention from Agnes albeit good or bad. We see her lovingly dancing with him, but also trying to condemn him to a house fire she starts when she is angry with Shug. It seems Shuggie will always be in precarious situations as it is heavily implied that a neighbourhood boy, Johnny, molested him after spinning him around a washing machine and calling him derogatory names. As the youngest, Shuggie is ultimately left fending for himself as Leek and Catherine have taken it upon themselves to survive.

Agnes Bain: Agnes is described as a woman who wants to appear better than she truly is. She has false teeth that she asked for to emulate Elizabeth Taylor and she makes an effort to keep her hair and makeup done. Agnes struggles immensely with alcohol to the point where she hides it in places to make sure it will always be within reach (which angers Shug). She is also described by her parents and Shug as selfish. She left her first husband in the middle of the night to be with Shug because she was simply enamored, but it is revealed that Shug is not a great husband to her. She suffers constantly at his hands, which causes her to drink even more, which makes him more mad and creates an infinite feedback loop. Her father thinks she is spoiled. She is often described as having very nice clothes and a very uppity attitude which contradicts massively with her poor behavior (i.e.: accusing the women of Pithead of also being alcoholics while they were only drinking tea). To expand on the selfishness, she constantly fails at providing a better life for her children. When they move and are promptly left, she is told she’ll need to get on disability and instead of spending it wisely she spends it still on drink. She even refuses to move them back to Sighthill (her parents’ place) because she knows Shug will never come back to her if she goes back, effectively forcing her children to a poor life.

Shug Bain: Shug is a wildly angry person who I believe creates his own problems. He’s described as a charmer, which he must be in order to have all the mistresses he does, but he is revolting. He uses his job as a taxi driver to have sex with women (how he met Agnes) which has to be some sort of abuse of power. In his pursuit of Agnes, he left behind 4 children whose lives were threatened by their own mom, but he still didn’t turn back. He constantly berates and assaults Agnes for her drinking without realizing that he is the reason she probably feels the need to drink in the first place. The earlier chapters highlight his massive problems with his masculinity- having to have his stool higher than Agnes’, not drinking out of a child’s glass etc. which can only prove a problem for Shuggie later down the line. In the later chapters, Shug moves the entire family into a run down neighborhood and a poorly structured house and leaves them there to move into a house with another woman who has 7 kids. He plainly tells Agnes he moved her to Pithead just to break her, and it’s heartbreaking how well it worked. He continues to see Agnes, too, which only worsens how she feels and worsens her drinking habits.

Catherine Bain: The eldest of Agnes’ children. We don’t know much about her besides that she does have a job that she works at tirelessly and she has a boyfriend, Donald Jr. (Shug’s cousin). Catherine is dead set on marrying Donald Jr. in order to finally be rid of her mother and get out of her town.

Leek Bain: The middle child. He often retreats when Agnes’ drinking gets out of hand. He likes drawing/art and he also years for a better life than what he currently has. Both Catherine and Leek are from Agnes’ first marriage, but after leaving she decided to change their last names causing their father to cut ties with Agnes and the children completely.

Things I Liked:

• Overall, I like the storyline so far. It’s rough knowing the kids are suffering because of their mother, but I want to know if and how they make it out.

Things I Did Not Like:

• It took me a while to get used to the switching perspectives and I’m not sure I like it yet. While I think it gives good insight on what each character is doing, it would take me out of the book sometimes. Maybe I’ll warm to it later.