Ray's Reviews > Skagboys

The prequel to the epic Trainspotting saga, which is now... at least five books now by my count?

That's a lot of stories about these guys, from the groundbreaking 90s novel which at the time felt like a perfect one-off. Author Irvine Welsh has been drawing from that well for a long long while, and he does it extremely well, but it's hard to say if this book feels necessary or not.

It is more explicitly political than the original, directly blaming Thatcher for the economic conditions which led to rampant drug addiction in Scotland in the 80s. It starts off with Renton in college, and ends with many scenes taking place in rehab. The novel still mostly structured like a series of interconnected short stories, some of them as grotesque yet hilarious as only Welsh could write.

Psycho Franco, manipulative pimp Sick Boy, and poor well-meaning loser Spud; they're all there with deeper dives into what makes the characters tick. If you want more of these characters, you will very much get it.

Welsh's novels tend to reference each other, and it's a must-read in that sense, but doesn't quite have the power and timelessness of Trainspotting. I'd still only recommend that one to fans of the film. Skagboys is also better than the first sequel Porno, a lot better than Franco's solo excursion Blade Artist, but perhaps not as good a read as the finale Dead Men's Trousers.

If this was its own book, its own thing that came out without any others and without expectations, it could be a masterpiece of junkie drama. Yet, comparisons can't be avoided, so this is mainly for the devoted fans at this point.