Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

A Tiny Upward Shove by Melissa Chadburn

28 reviews

writtenontheflyleaves's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

A Tiny Upward Shove by Melissa Chadburn ❤️‍🔥
🌟🌟🌟🌟✨

❤️‍🔥 The plot: When Marina Salles is murdered by a serial killer, she transforms into an aswang: a vengeful spirit from her grandmother's Filipino folk tales. In the spirit's quest to avenge Marina's death, she flits through the minds and memories of the people in her life, including her killer, developing a deeper understanding of the forces that propelled her to this tragic end.

I found this book in @anovelideaphilly back in May and the blurb instantly drew me in. I love a ghost story, and I'm really interested in reading more Filipino storytelling (America Is Not The Heart by Elaine Castillo was a highlight of my 2022 reading!) The writing here didn't disappoint: it was lively and vivid and totally compulsive.

It was also brutal. The novel starts with a visceral description of a murder and runs the gamut from childhood sexual assault and abuse to institutionalisation and addiction.

I never know where I land on the idea of "gratuitous" suffering in novels. There is no shortage of suffering in the world, where and why do we draw the line in fiction, especially when it draws from real stories and injustices? What does it mean for us to say there is "too much" pain in a novel?

This book made me even less sure. The reader has no out, no happy ending to look forward to. Some of the scenes here are among the most distressing I've ever read. I wondered what I was supposed to do with all of it, what the purpose was.

Reflecting now, I think maybe that sense of being at a loss was the point, stretching your heart to hold the beauty and the horror together. The moments of tenderness in this book were as keen as the moments of pain, and neither cancelled out the other. It showed that a life is never one thing - not a waste, not ever purely tragic. There was hope here, but it did not allow you to cast off the pain, and I'll be thinking about it for a long time.

❤️‍🔥 Read it if you're not deterred by what I've said above, and liked 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World by Elif Shafak.

🚫 Pleeeease check trigger warnings before reading and avoid if you can't take heavy reading right now.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

juniperbranches's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

frogggirl2's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book is a beautifully written depiction of some of the most horrendous things that happen in the world.  It's nauseating in it's depiction of the abuse, rape and murder of women and children.  Somehow, it still manages to find some optimism, which is miraculous.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

megwaslike's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, and Murder

katieb1034's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

An absolutely heartwrenching and horrific look at the realities of economic and sexual violence against girls. This is a perfect book in that it will tear your heart out and absolutely destroy it. A beautiful and horrific gift to the girls, especially Native girls and girls of color, who will never know justice, who will remain nameless, who have been the victims of a sickening, overwhelming, and all-consuming lovelessness. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Car accident

berls's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Man, oh man. This book was good. Really truly good. But I would definitely NOT say I enjoyed it. It was sobering and tragic, especially because there's no denying - except for the slight fantasy addition - that the horrible things that occur are based in reality. So, yes I highly recommend it, but I also say proceed with caution for the following triggers: 

• child abuse
• rape
• sexual violence
• drug abuse
• trafficking 

Here's the thing - this book is essentially about generational poverty, racism, and immigrant life -  and the very real consequences on the children. We follow the life of one girl in particular - knowing from the start that it has a tragic end. And as you read her story and the story of her ancestors, you see how if she had just had this one opportunity, or if her mother had just had that one better decision, or if her ancestors had just had that one better chance, how things could have turned out some differently. And as her path crosses others, you see similar stories of poverty and resulting abuse that just breaks your heart for how tragically real you know it is. 

I don't think I would have ever picked up or finished this book if I weren't buddy reading it with my brother. But I'm honestly glad I read it, because it was impactful. And while I can't say it ended happily - how could it? - it does have a happy twist that I brought a happy tear to my eyes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Trafficking

ka_cam's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This is a heavy, dark, deeply sad read. The primary voice of the Aswang (/marina) was compelling and added a poignancy and semi-remove maybe ubique to the semi-first-semi-third person (if there’s a word for that I don’t know it). The love and attempts and love and care throughout really come through. I also personally liked how the title came through. I think the info abt the murderer was much less complex for the amount of time spent on it, though I realize she was working off a real person model there. There is some really tough explicit content here, so please mind the content warnings.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Trafficking, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Medical content, Kidnapping, Alcohol, and Colonisation

Minor: Animal cruelty, Eating disorder, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Car accident, and Dysphoria

Additional content warnings: child welfare systems, group homes, explicit descriptions of rape of a child and other child sexual and physical abuse, explicit descriptions of sex in the context of sex work

ba1l3y's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual violence, Trafficking, and Murder

jenabest's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

3.0

 Damn. This is dark and heavy.
The first while, I was really wondering if I wanted to continue. Then the writing became very engaging.... Until the subject turned into everything dark and horrid about humans. Rape, murder, child abuse, addiction. All-in-all, very heavy. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Murder

bella_cavicchi's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

An absolute gut punch of a novel. It takes fifty or so pages to find its footing, but once it does, it hits hard and hits deeply -- and to that point, I think it deserves a far wider readership than it's currently earned. Let Chadburn's writing serve as a sobering reminder (and call to rage/action) that we continue to neglect women and children with intention. Will be thinking of this one for days. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Excrement, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cursing, Violence, and Alcohol