Know in advance that this is graphic. Graphic in terms of abuse and graphic in terms of violence. It is however, also a thoughtful look at how a young woman's life turned bad, It's based on the real case of Willie Pickton, who killed at least 49 women, although Marina is a fictional creation. Her story is told by an Aswang spirit, a folkloric Philippine avenger. Marina's life started well enough but she began to spin as a teen on the streets of LA. She does find love with Alex but unfortunately it is this that leads her to Vancouver where she meets Pickton. Drug abuse and despair seem to dominate her life. While I admired the writing this is, gotta say, pretty much a downer. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC.

I really wanted to love this, as it was so exciting to see a book rooted in Filipino folklore. It was nice to see so many Filipino words and names, more than I, personally, have ever seen in a US-published book. Unfortunately, I struggled to get into the book and the writing style, and I too particularly struggled with the content and graphic writing. I can usually handle quite serious content, but for some reason, it was more difficult to get through in this case. I think this is an issue of me, the reader, and the time I was reading, not the book - perhaps I will try it again at a later time and it will be a better fit for me. Some of the writing still stood out to me as quite strong and the story is heart-wrenching and powerful, so I would like to give it another chance.

I’m sure this book will be a great fit for many people out there but the very graphic and gory writing did not work for me at all. Just not a good fit for what I’m dealing with in life.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read this in exchange for an honest review.

I will not be posting this on any social media sites.

Delighted to include this title in the April edition of Novel Encounters, my regular column highlighting the month’s most anticipated fiction for Zoomer magazine. (at link)

I so wanted to love this book, but I just can't. I really struggled with the violence, and that's not the books fault, it's mine. I just wasn't expecting it to be so graphic, and I found that to be really hard to get over.

The graphic content aside, I also struggled with the Filipino words added to the story. One thing that really drew me to this book was the Filipino folklore, but there are words thrown in all over the place, and I don't know what they mean. I feel like I was on the outside of a conversation, and I couldn't quite understand what was being said. Every time I came across a word, I would just wonder if this was a slur, an insult, praise? I didn't know. I would have appreciated a bit of explanation in the book. I can obviously go google each of these words, but that really pulls a reader out of a book.

I found the book to be incredibly slow paced, which may have been influenced by my constant stop and start to google, which I finally just stopped doing. I just skipped the word and moved on. I feel like there were so many characters, and I was struggling to see how they all came together. I think that the intention wasn't for them to, but rather to just provide a lot of characters and experiences? But that just didn't work well for me.

Finally, the graphic content really needs to be called out in a Readers Beware at the beginning of the book. There's no reason to surprise a reader with the graphic rape of a young teen or a toddler's sexual abuse.

Content Warning: Rape of young children, murder, rape, sexual assault, violence, animal harm, and drugs.

So, so heavy and dark but intriguing nonetheless. The folklore aspect was really fun. I found myself wanting to know more about the grandmother's myth of the aswang. Marina's murder by the pig farmer is tragic, as well as the events of her life leading up to her end. Marina's happiest times with Lola Virgie and sometimes with her mother made the story even more heart-wrenching. Surprisingly, there are a few moments of humor thrown in. This will not be a book for every audience, as there are many passages describing abuse and violence in the most horrific sense. Thank you, NetGalley, for a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Stunning debut. This book is both raw and beautiful at the same time. Depressing, yet ends on a note of hope. The details are graphic and awful to read, and would keep me up at night. In the end, however, this book is worth the read.

"'My grandmother, sitting at her doily-covered table, marmalade on her cheek, explained that the aswang is all the evil bad things that a town or a society would want to deny--eventually it has to come out, has to be personified into something or the truth will reveal itself.'

Marina Salles's life does not end the day she wakes up dead.

Instead, in the course of a moment, she is transformed into the stuff of myth, the stuff of her grandmother's old Filipino stories--an aswang. She spent her life on the margins, knowing very little about her own life, let alone the lives of others; she was shot like a pinball through a childhood of loss, a veteran of Child Protective Services and a survivor, but always reacting, watching from a distance. Death brings her into the hearts and minds of those she has known--even her killer--as she is able to access their memories and to see anew the meaning of her own. In the course of these pages she traces back through her life, finally able to see what led these lost souls to this crushingly inevitable conclusion.

In A Tiny Upward Shove, the debut novelist Melissa Chadburn charts the heartbreaking journeys of two of society's cast-offs as they find their way to each other and their roles as criminal and victim. What does it mean to be on the brink? When are those moments that change not only our lives but our very selves? And how, in this impossible world, can we rouse ourselves toward mercy?"

Thanks to NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I genuinely loved the story. The plot was heart-wrenchingly beautiful, and the mythology of the aswang was well-researched. But I can't rate it any higher than a three because how I wish the author had hired - at least for the portions of the book set in the Philippines, or certain words or phrases that are Filipino - a sensitivity reader who grew up here and/or speaks the language. There were so many moments that felt off or awkward to me (such as the liberal sprinkling of "pakshet" throughout the whole thing in places that gramatically make no sense), and it really impacted my enjoyment of the book.

Wow, wow, wow. What a debut this was! If you're looking for gut wrenching, heart breaking - this book is IT. Based loosely on the women murdered from Vancouver's downtown East side by Robert "Willie "Pickton, it's been more than a week and I'm still thinking about this one. Sharing my review below but if you like dark & sad (I know so many of you who do), please give this a read!

A Tiny Upward Shove flips between present day and childhood for multiple characters - our protagonist Marina Salles, the serial killer Willie Pickton, a young woman named Alex, Marina's grandmother and Filipina relatives (more on that in a moment) and a foster mother, Sabine. As Marina and Willie make their way towards each other, we learn about the heartbreaking experiences of both of their childhoods - parents with no interest in parenting, extreme poverty, loneliness, desperation, the innate human need to belong and be loved - this book broke me apart.

Admittedly, I struggled through the first bit of the book - it opens with tragedy, then slowly unravels back towards the characters early lives. The narrative voice was at times inconsistent, although I believe Chadburn did this intentionally to help legitimize the differences between each character. That said, I was completely hooked by the second half - it was equal parts saddening, maddening, emotional and dark.

I'll say it now - I think this will be one of my favourites of the year.

A haunting exploration of the tragic consequences of racism, rape culture and poverty on the lives of innocent women told through the aswang-possessed eyes of Marina Salles, a young woman trapped between life and death as she reflects back on her life and the lives of the people around her with a new, all-seeing perspective. What gripped me from the beginning of this whirlwind of a novel was its outstanding writing, something so magical and Akwaeke Emezi-esque for a story so raw and real for so many. While it took some getting used to the constant POV switches and the countless names and faces thrown at the reader (hence why it took me so fucking long to get through this), I ate this up from start to finish.

A Tiny Upward Shove is a stunning debut novel by Melissa Chadburn, a rich tapestry that weaves together the stories of innocent lives and dreams torn apart, the disjointed threads of the child welfare system, and real life crime, along with some colorful Filipino folklore and tradition.

The story is told by an aswang, a shape-shifter being well-known in Filipino folklore, who is presently inhabiting the body of Marina Salles, an eighteen-year old young woman who has just been murdered by a pig farmer named Robert "Willy" Pickton. (He is a real person). The aswang gives us a flashback story into the life Marina started with, and how her life took such a devastating turn.

During her early childhood, Marina Salles lived with her mother, Mutya, and her loving Lola, or grandmother. Marina is very close to her Lola, and the two have a strong bond, but when Mutya decides to follow a man to another county in California, she takes Marina with her. It is obvious, quickly, that Mutya would rather go out and behave like a young, free woman than stay home and spend time with her daughter. And so, Marina is first neglected and soon, behind her mother's always turned back, brutally raped.

When Marina is taken away from her mother, she is the one who is subjected to punishing hardship. Of course, Marina wants to go back to her Lola, but she is in a different county and there are procedures and bureaucracy standing in the way, seemingly more important than any child's happiness. Marina is then sent to a group home, which turns out to be a mostly unsupervised warehousing system devoid of stimulation or meaningful education. And the children there are provided with the bare minimum of necessities only.

While there, Marina does make a friend in Alex, a slightly younger girl with a shocking and heartbreaking backstory of her own. When Marina achieves emancipation early, she promises Alex to help her find the woman who had tried to adopt her. However, Marina has not been well prepared to be out on her own, and with scant assistance, she winds up on the streets. Ironically, her mother has found religion, but not the urge to keep any contact with her daughter, and her Lola is no longer able. She is very much alone.

The friendship and love between Marina and Alex is intense, memorable, and certainly very important to the story. In the end, the presence of the aswang serves to give meaning and dignity to the life of Marina Salles. This story is written beautifully with a fascinating, distinct style that I very much admire, while it also made valuable statements about violence, both physical and economic. I would recommend this book to anyone.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Farrar, Straus, and Giroux for this wonderful opportunity.

Most every species has a hierarchy where some possess that certain something that makes them dominant, and they then lord over the have nots. In most of the animal world, this is managed by a Darwinian survival of the fittest.

Humans have attempted to develop systems that are designed to overcome this pure law of the jungle order. These systems are generally a combination of political and economic rules and regulations that attempt to create at least a semblance of equal opportunity. These systems generally don’t work very well. (The disparities of these approaches have been ever more fully exposed during the Age of Covid).

Some cultures have long had other mechanisms to manage or at least comfort victims of inequality. Often these mechanisms have a spiritual component - religious, often mystical. One such set of rituals, based on Filipino folklore, forms the heart of Melissa Chadburn’s striking debut novel, “A Tiny Upward Shove”.

Chadburn has a deep understanding (and has written eloquently about) the limitations of public, private, non-profit, and faith-based entities’ inability to come anywhere near to meeting the true needs of the destitute. She knows that victims of the forces of evil - rape, abuse, poverty, neglect - can’t expect to get much help from societal agencies. Instead they are condemned to do the best they can to make it through the day. Maybe one in a hundred survives to live a better life. Maybe one in a million is lucky enough to escape, disguising the trauma as best possible.

As we understand from the jump, Marina, Willie, and likely many others that we are to meet, never had a chance in this material world. But maybe they can be of assistance in the next.

“A Tiny Upward Shove” is a riveting novel. Word of caution: the depictions in several pivotal scenes are hardcore and potentially triggering.

Thanks to Farrar, Strauss and Giroux and NetGalley for the eARC.

CONTENT WARNING: murder, rape, child abuse, violence, drugs, harm to an animal

I have to be honest, here. I really struggled with this book, and I just don’t think it was the best fit for me. Let me tell you a little bit about why.

First off, I was curious to learn more about Filipino folklore and culture, since it’s an area I don’t know much about at all. There were a lot of words in Tagalog, and the vast majority weren’t defined. I had a hard time understanding a lot of them, and definitely feel like it would have been helpful to have a glossary of the terms, many of which I wasn’t able to figure out on context, and couldn’t find any definition for without constantly stopping and having to Google literally everything. Which made it difficult to stay focused on the book, since I had to start and stop reading so often. Eventually I gave up on figuring out what the words meant and just glossed over the fact that I had no idea what they referred to.

The book was a slow read until the last 25% or so. While major events occur throughout the book, it would shift to various times in the past and explore the backstory of so many characters in the book. It wasn’t hard to follow, but it was somewhat jarring. And I didn’t quite see how everything was coming together, but it wound up being more of a collection of vignettes touching on all the characters.

I think my biggest issue during the reading of this book was the graphic and brutal nature of what was discussed. While I’m not usually too bothered by much in books, this one included graphic discussions of sexual abuse of children (one of which was only 3), and a very graphic rape scene of a 13 year old. There’s also a lot of violence and drug use, and harm to an animal, which were all incredibly disturbing. I really struggled to continue reading because of all of this.

However, the characters are all well-created and easy to empathize with. Each of the major characters is subject to devastating issues beyond their control, and I wanted to cry for all of them. The plot itself was intriguing, and I wanted to see how exactly the aswang factored into the story.

This was not an easy read, by any means, and while I loved how the story ended, I can’t exactly say that I enjoyed the journey. This felt like very much a case of “it’s not you, it’s me.”

"Our people are lightbulb crunchers, bed-of-nails walkers, fire eaters. Every day is a circus in our jungles, alive with naked intent." Wow this book is intense and wild and unique and so so good.

Not an easy book to read; but very glad that I finished. I was really struggling when I was about 50% and decided to read the Author's Note and discovered that A Tiny Upward Shove is based on the 50 or more women who disappeared at the hands of Willie Pickton.

Poverty, drugs and sexual violence are prevalent.

My heart really goes out to the teenagers in this book, particularly Marina.

I don't think that I'll ever forget reading this book. I don't write that often.

Thank you to NetGalley, Melissa Chadburn the author and Fararr, Straus and Giroux the publisher for the opportunity to review A Tiny Upward Shove in exchange for an honest review. Publication date is 12 April 2022.

From the very first page, I was captivated by this phenomenal novel, Melissa Chadburn's first and a stunning feat of art that expertly weaves Filipino myth and generational trauma and love with the gutting realities that girls, especially Black and brown girls, endure both before and in the foster care system and at the hands of sadistically violent men (and, in some ways even more devastating, the women who are supposed to protect them.)

Heartbreaking and yet infused with warmth and abiding love that churns within these characters, one of whose fate is known from the start and yet the reader is swept up in her story, praying for a better ending for her. Chadburn's literary talents do just that in this wonder of a book.

I would give this brilliant debut all the stars available--and will be cheering it on to every accolade it deserves to win.

This book is told beginning at the end and then moving backward to show how the outcome was reached. I liked the inclusion of the aswang, which helped contribute to the historical, familial feel of the narrative. The writing style was lush and immersive. It dips in and out of various characters' perspectives which helps readers draw their own conclusions with the full picture. The events depicted are heartbreaking and sometimes hard to read, but it all culminates in a story that needs to be told.

First, thanks to NetGalley and publisher Farrar, Straus, and Giroux for the chance to read this book.

This is definitely a story that needs to be told, BUT, it should come with some strong trigger warnings. Rape, abuse, drug use, child neglect, are all present and some in pretty vivid detail. This book is grim. Sad and just grim. BUT, the little sparkles of light here and there keep it from being too terrible.

This is the story of Marina, a girl being raised by an unprepared single mother; of Alex, an unwanted baby who was severely abused as a toddler/child, and Willie, a boy who is abused and teased and has some diminished capacity. All these situations collide with huge force and tragic results. I could hardly stand to read about one more abuse. However, the friendship between Alex and Marina was such a bright spot, such an important event for both of them and I liked the way that was treated.

I did appreciate the tool of using the Filipino folklore of an avenging aswang who has been attached to Marina's family for generations, sort of an avenging angel. That technique allowed the aswang to view Marina's life as looking into her memory, so it put a step of removal between her and the reader (but it still was a harsh life).

While I am aware that this kind of harsh life is suffered by many, this gritty story really brought all the heartache and sadness and depression to the top. I can't say it was an enjoyable read, but it was illuminating.

Wow, wow, wow. This book is unlike any I’ve read. The first words that come to mind: raw, gritty.

There is an energy and urgency to this book that is palpable, partly due to the literary techniques employed – often the deliberate use of run-on sentences, no quotation marks, sometimes missing punctuation and a stream-of-consciousness style.

But do not let that deter you (There are just as many 'traditionally constructed' sentences). I’m usually insanely bothered by some of these more experimental constructs, but, here, they worked, and they worked well – giving this book so much momentum, pain, and such a singular voice. I was so emotionally “in” this book from the start, and my connection never waned.

Some of the lovely language:

She had this kind of effect, a flash of pink among the moody trees at sunset.

Our people are lightbulb crunchers, bed-of-nails walkers, fire eaters. Every day is a circus in our jungles, alive with naked intent.

She was slick with the smell of jackfruit and Oil of Olay, still trying to slide back to all her womanly needs that were flushed away by the needs of her too-soft children and her greedy husband.

The room had the smell of wet cats and cooking meat. All the candles let off the conflicting scents of those perfume samples in magazines that Ma would rub all over her wrists before a date or job interview.

And, oh the heartbreak and yearning and disappointments foisted upon the young protagonists, and even the soul-crushing childhood of the ‘bad guy,’ who happens to be based on a real-life criminal. The story of Alex, the unraveling of Marina’s loss, the revelation of Willie’s upbringing … it is rendered in pitch-perfect detail and parceled out in just the right doses.

This is a story about individuals often seen as ‘disposable,’ the heartaches they suffer and the vicious cycles that often keep them chained to lives half-lived – suffering all too often in silence. At times, this book can be difficult to read with heavy topics including all forms of abuse, addiction, neglect, racism. But there are glimpses of light and tenderness, too – and a satisfying ending.

It is no easy feat to humanize a villain, and yet Chadburn does it with expertise.

If you love stories that explore myth and the fine line between myth and reality, this one is for you. A tremendous literary debut!

I will definitely read future work by Melissa Chadburn.

4.5 Stars

This begins with the death of Marina Salles, a death that transforms her, that follows the myth, the stories, that come from her grandmother’s Filipino heritage. As she realizes her death is imminent, she says a prayer. A prayer she'd heard over and over. A prayer for light and love in the minds and hearts of men, for love and light to keep evil from prevailing. A death that transforms her into an aswang, a shape-shifting creature associated with myths, legends and stories.

We know this from the first words on the first page, as the story continues to share her story of her leap from one form of life into another, tracing her life back to her early years, before her life began to unravel. Her early childhood was spent with her grandmother and mother, and then their move away, leaving their home and her grandmother in Monterey, and the years that followed. The unraveling of her life. One event leads to another, the night spent left alone while her mother pursues other interests. Soon she ends up under the care of Child Protective Services, although that is just another wound for her to bear. While there, though, she meets the one person who will give her a reason to hold on to hope.

This is a beautifully written, if disturbing and dark story. It shares moments that sound minor as they begin to unfold, a parent’s refusal to see the truth, a desire to have a moment that is their own. A moment that ends up leaving lasting, life changing scars. The scars that create the myth that we are not worthy of love, of a better life or a chance at a better life. We are not worthy of love. We are not worthy.

There’s an element of this story that, for me, was reminiscent of Rene Denfeld’s writing, the beauty of her prose balancing the darkness, the injustice and abuse heaped on those who are unable to defend themselves, balanced by the breathtaking beauty in the way the story is shared.

The world can be a dark, disturbing and dangerous place. It is important to recognize and rail against the darkness hurled by the world. To seek the light, to extend grace, compassion, mercy and offer charity is essential to shine a light on the darkness.


Pub Date: 12 Apr 2022

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Farrar, Straus and Giroux