I think this is a clear case of "it's not you, it's me". I am not good at grasping what kind of book I'm going in to, and I somehow didn't realize this would be a "generational story" kind of thing, which I'm normally not into. I thought the writing was okay, but I got bored reading about this and that persons grandma, and I very much just wanted to hear more about the Aswang and the "now" rather than the "then". Again this is all about my personal preference, and is not a direct critique of the book.

What a wonderfully written novel. Magical, mythical, bad ass nightmare come to life. A unique take on vengeance and secrets. I've found a new favorite author. Hard to believe this is a debut. I'll be thinking about this one for awhilem

A moving tragic story which combines Chadburn’s knowledge of the failed child welfare system in this country with the basic true account of a serial killer in Canada. Marina, of mixed Filipino and Black heritage wants a regular life, family and love. We sense the love from her Lola and Mutya ( grandmother and mother) and the sharing of folklore and spirits but no one can break through their own wants. Marina ends up in a group home (aka grope home) and from my work with group homes in my career the characters portrayed are so realistic. Marina tries to conform but tries to maintain her sanity and dreams of reunification. “Want is for the living “ and Marina isn’t getting any of her wants met so she turns to touch as a way to feel wanted.

The pain of seeing what all of these characters endure just pulled at my heartstrings. Chadburn kept her grip on me until the end even though I knew she was pulling me down a deep dark hole. So well done and a must read. This book is, in the words of Lola, “ a killa, thrilla and a chilla.”

Thank you to #NetGalley and @fsgbooks for the advanced copy of a #ATinyUpwardShove.

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

Damn, this is a painful, tremendous read.

I had to look up so many references I didn't want to miss.

* pakshet (Google it!)

I had the pleasure of working with Melissa Chadburn many years ago and we knew then that she is brilliant and could do everything she wants to do! I can't wait to stand in line to buy a signed copy of this book when it comes out on April 12.

Thanks, NetGalley folks, for a chance to read and review this gift.

This is my favorite book so far this year. It's very emotional and devastating. I spent a lot of it crying because there is just an overwhelming sense of sadness hanging over the story. You know from the beginning that Marina is dead ad you spend the rest of the book getting to know and fall in love with her. This story is unfortunately not surprising or uncommon in the real world. The killer in this is based off of a real man that was actually killing women, mainly WOC and sex workers. He picked off women that the world would not miss. They were lost and no one seemed to notice and those who did were ignored. We're not even mentioning the fucked up child welfare system we have in the USA. I loved the ending and the bittersweet to it. I also loved that a Filipino monster was involved and you got to see from her POV. This was a very well done book and I will be following this author for the rest of her career. She managed to shoot me straight through the heart. Please buy it.

Willie kills Marina in a filthy room on a pig farm. They have both led lonely lives with few moments of light and joy. They have both been reared by “careless” mothers. These similarities culminate when Willie kills Marina, making her his forty-ninth victim. The Aswang who has spent seven generations with Marina’s family passes into her body to complete her unfinished business. Assuming it is to follow the advice of the other dead victims calling for revenge, we set out with the Aswang to find Willie. Melissa Chadburn’s novel is set in a world of unrelenting misery, making it sometimes hard to read. The people Marina meets along the way lead desolate lives. Marina’s two role models, her mother and grandmother offer advice. Her mother, while killing a trapped bird, refers to the necessity of providing a tiny upward shove to end a creature’s misery. Her lola advises that losing everything is good because the only thing left is winning. Following the paths that bring these two alienated characters together, we witness the cruelty and carelessness of people and hope for some light at the end.

Where do I start with this book except to say that IT IS PHENOMENAL!!! This book follows Marina and interweaves the stories of her matriarchal line through an Aswang, a Filipino mythological creature. The Aswang is plucked from her sphere to avenge the wrongs of Marina (aka Reena) and the other Salles women.

This book is powerful. There is almost this unbearable sadness that runs through the whole book that weighs on the Aswang and the women throughout the world of the book. (I mean that in a good way, it pulled me through the story with my whole heart.) This book also shines a light on the real life horrors that happened to children that get lost in the system. That becomes the crux of the book even though the inciting event is focused on Reena and the serial killer, Willie Pickton.

The ending comes complete with a moment of respite, of a certain kind of joy, and still with a lot of sadness and grief for many of the characters. It was a really good way to wrap up the story.

I highly, highly recommend picking up A Tiny Upward Shove.

Fasten your seatbelts for a ride that travels through despair, loneliness, love, humanity, rape, addiction, complicated family relations and so much more. The prose was powerful, poignant and almost dizzying. In addition, the characters were so well fleshed out and achingly alive. Fraught with Filipino magic realism in the first third of the book, I wasn't sure if it was going to be for me but then the pages flew by by in a deeply transporting story. I could write specifics about the book but then you can read this in the short description of the novel. This is one that needs to be experienced to feel, see and read.

My only small misgiving is that I wish there were an appendix with the Filipino translations.Due to my own curiosity, I found myself at the computer to help understand some of the Tagalog language.

A Tiny Upward Shove is full of light and shadow. It is specific yet universal, full of daily struggles and overarching societal dysfunction. Full disclosure - I know the author from grad school. She’s always been a talented writer, but she has outdone herself with this novel. It’s clear from page one that we are in good hands and what a journey it is. She’s taken her reporting skills and her own time in the foster system to inform a richly sensory narrative spanning seven generations of women. There are no easy answers and the author skillfully engages with difficult and disturbing material, weaving in Filipino folklore, all while reminding us that we look away at our own (societal) peril. It is not an easy or simple world we enter, but it is a deeply affecting one.

I made a mistake when I first picked up this book, and that was deciding I could read it while absolutely exhausted and waiting for the women’s Australian Open final to finally start (go, Ash Barty!). I decided I was being unfair to the story — this sounded exactly like the kind of book I’d love and deserved more than a half-awake reader — so I decided to give the book another go the next day with a fresh start. And I’m so, so glad I did, because this was a tremendous read. It’s a slow book that needs to be savored, not a book you can power through while your eyelids are demanding to close and your brain feels a bit fuzzy.

The storyline in this book is brilliant; threads are woven together elegantly. And all the (heartbreaking) happenings are talked about unflinchingly. It’s not an easy book to read, but it’s not meant to be. The topics covered here are hard, but they’re real. And the whisper of mythology in the background adds to a haunting sense — both by the aswang, a creature from Filipino folklore, and what’s happening to the characters inside these pages. Everything is rough and vulgar and falling apart, but it’s written about in such beautiful fashion, which almost makes what’s happening worse. It creates intricacies to the mundane.

As much as I was able to really get into the book, it still took me a little time to do so on my second start. Once I was about 15 percent of the way through, I found a rhythm, and some of the issues I was having with the writing no longer bothered me. In general, I think I had a love-hate relationship with some of the writing. (Well, maybe more like love-dislike.) There were times I was left stunned by Melissa Chadburn’s writing — its musicality, its boldness, its almost onomatopoeia-like energy — but there were other times I felt like I could skip two pages of prose and not really miss much of the story. Some brilliant writing felt bogged down by six other very good lines, which lessened some of the impact for me. It feels weird to say a book was overwrought with beautiful language and imagery, but this occasionally felt like the case.

This book is jam-packed with heart and longing, and the languid and descriptive writing does well to create an atmosphere that matches the plot. There’s an interesting sense of timelessness, which makes it clear that this book could really be written at any point in our history. These struggles are human and are happening all around us — and they’ll continue to do so with the broken societal structures in place. This is a heart-rending tale of life and all its ugliness, but it’s also a beautiful story of family and humanity.

Special thanks to NetGalley; Farrar, Straus and Giroux; and Melissa Chadburn for proving me with an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

4.5/5

Eighteen-year-old Marina Salles is murdered by Willie Pickton, a 45 year old pig farmer, in Port Coquitlam, Canada. In the final throes of death, she transforms into an aswang – a mythical creature of Filipino folklore .This aswang has been connected to the women in Marina’s family for seven generations. It is believed that the aswang associated to a person’s lineage is activated when the person dies with a personal quest close to one’s heart that remains incomplete . The aswang needs to complete the host’s unfinished mission to detach itself from the family and move on and has access to the mind, body and memories of the host body, in this case Marina.
As the aswang delves into Marina’s memories we get to know more about the circumstances that lead to her brutal murder . Some of her memories include that of Marina as a child being raised by her Lola Virgie and her mother Mutya after her mother leaves her father, her mother’s stream of unstable romantic relationships and how Marina’s life falls apart when Mutya takes Marina and moves to Los Angeles ultimately leading to Marina being separated from her mother after an episode of sexual violence at the hands of a family member of her mother’s latest boyfriend. Marina, who had ambition and dreams of education inspite of her insecure and unstable family life , becomes a ward of the State and is packed off to a foster care facility called The Pines.
At The Pines she meets youngsters like herself - abandoned, abused and forgotten .She is befriended by Alex , a survivor of child abuse ,who shows her the ropes and teaches her how to fend for herself and navigate her way through the system that is designed to provide the bare minimum . Their bond of love and friendship is the only stable relationship that Marina can rely upon after her Lola’s death and her mother’s lack of initiative for reunification pushes her further towards a dark path. Upon emancipation she promises Alex that she will help in Alex’s attempts at finding her adoptive mother, Sabina ,a quest that takes her to Canada. Unfortunately in Vancouver she falls prey to a sex trafficking racket and is ultimately picked up by Willie Pickton only to become his next victim. The aswang also explores Willie’s history and finds a pattern of abusive parenting, societal negligence and a history of violence that shapes his character and predatory behavior .The aswang has to choose between avenging Marina’s death and finishing her quest for finding Sabina to help Alex have a better future.
With compelling narrative and strong character development interwoven with Filipino folkore and magical realism, A Tiny Upward Shove by Melissa Chadburn is a hard-hitting and moving debut novel. I truly enjoyed reading the parts describing Filipino traditions, rituals and folklore .The segments describing child abuse, sexual violence and substance abuse are disturbing. The author’s note mentions that she has drawn from some real events and that the character of Willie Pickton in this novel is based on Robert ”Willy” Pickton ,the Canadian serial killer who confessed to killing 49 women.
The author shines in depicting the relationship dynamics between the female characters in the novel. Marina and Lola Virgie’s interactions are heartwarming and lend a touch of humor to what is otherwise a dark and heartbreaking story. Marina’s complicated relationship with her mother whom she loves and whose attention she craves is beautifully penned. Though initially motivated to secure a better life for herself and her daughter , Mutya’s negligent and self-serving actions wreak havoc in Marina’s life and the gradual disintegration of their relationship is heartbreaking . Mutya alternates between being a loving mother on one hand and a selfish and negligent one on the other ,who, after losing custody of her daughter exhibits misguided optimism and indifference in respect to Marina’s fate. The friendship between Alex and Marina is characterized by moments of deep connection and codependence with bouts of self-destructive behavior – leaning on each other while pushing themselves and each other to the limits of endurance. The author also touches upon socio-economic issues pertaining to shortcomings in child welfare services and the foster care system and how so many innocent lives fall through the cracks due to neglect and abuse. It is impossible to not be affected by this story . Please be sure to read the author's notes at the end of the book which provide further insight into some of the events and issues that inspired this work of fiction. I look forward to reading more of this author’s work in the future.
Thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus, & Giroux for a digital review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I've never read anything like this before, and at some points felt a bit lost in the prose, but at other times I was so enraptured that I couldn't put it down. I really enjoyed this for what it was, but will be extra interested in picking it up again once it hits audiobook!

As a Filipina-Canadian, I am both biased but a harsh critic for Filipinx literature. I’ve always waited too long for representation, which means it has to do justice.

This novel did pretty damn good. So nuanced and gripping, as opposed to the model-minority narratives that often take up space. Left me not only reflecting on my lived experiences and understandings, but grappling for answers to new questions.

Amazing. Thank you.

Melissa Chadburn has created a world so spellbinding, so whole, so unique, so specific... that I found myself entirely floored by this book. The language is gorgeous. The characters ache with their desires and downfalls, their passions and addictions and dreams. This book was so innocent in some places, and so hard and dark in others. I rooted for Marina, though I knew what was coming for her from the very first pages. I loved Lola and all of her superstition and advice and voice. I loved loved loved the 7 generations of women traversed by the aswang, how all of that history and violence, revenge, hope, and passion has passed right to the feet and bones and heart of Marina. Ultimately I was left thinking about the societal systems responsible for creating monsters like Willie, and also victims, like Marina and Josie and all of the other dead and dying and addicted and abducted and lost girls represented in these pages. How does the same society create both? And what do we do about it? I appreciated Chadburn's overarching question regarding the role of mercy, and how her expertise—stemming from her own experience in foster care and as a journalist reporting on child fatalities in the foster care system—unrolled onto these pages, in a way that we can smell and hear and see, demanding that we confront some very hard truths.