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laurarevelesg's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-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
2.5
"You're luckier than me, Jessie said, as if she were reading her mind.
Why? I miss my dad too.
Yes, but there's just too many ways to miss your mother. There's like a hundred thousand ways"
Me tomó 4 meses leer esta novela porque cada cierto tiempo tenía que dejarla debido a la dureza de sus temas. Ahora que la terminé, solo puedo decir que tengo sentimientos encontrados.
La protagonista, Marina, sufre de todo tipo de violencia. Leer sobre esto, tragedia tras tragedia, fue exhaustivo. Sin embargo, esto no quiere decir que la historia de Marina, así como la de otras mujeres (ficticias y reales) no sea importante o no deba ser contada.
Las notas de autor finales dan nuevos ojos para apreciar la novela, por eso, a pesar de que el "trayecto" fue duro, y pocas veces disfrutable, regresar a la novela da una sensación agridulce, pues es tan cruel como bella.
Algo que no disfruté fue la intercalación entre los capítulos y la narración del aswang. Me ppareció que me distraía más de lo que verdaderamente guiaba la historia. Además, como había capítulos muy largos, al llegar a la parte del aswang ya no recordaba muy bien todo lo que había sucedido anteriormente.
Why? I miss my dad too.
Yes, but there's just too many ways to miss your mother. There's like a hundred thousand ways"
Me tomó 4 meses leer esta novela porque cada cierto tiempo tenía que dejarla debido a la dureza de sus temas. Ahora que la terminé, solo puedo decir que tengo sentimientos encontrados.
La protagonista, Marina, sufre de todo tipo de violencia. Leer sobre esto, tragedia tras tragedia, fue exhaustivo. Sin embargo, esto no quiere decir que la historia de Marina, así como la de otras mujeres (ficticias y reales) no sea importante o no deba ser contada.
Las notas de autor finales dan nuevos ojos para apreciar la novela, por eso, a pesar de que el "trayecto" fue duro, y pocas veces disfrutable, regresar a la novela da una sensación agridulce, pues es tan cruel como bella.
Algo que no disfruté fue la intercalación entre los capítulos y la narración del aswang. Me ppareció que me distraía más de lo que verdaderamente guiaba la historia. Además, como había capítulos muy largos, al llegar a la parte del aswang ya no recordaba muy bien todo lo que había sucedido anteriormente.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Car accident, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism
reading_and_roaming20's review
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I honestly don’t even know where to begin. Perhaps with a note to @fsgbooks to express how wildly grateful I am that they sent me this beautiful finished copy.
When I first read the synopsis, I was intrigued by the Filipino folklore and magical realism. I went in unsure of what to expect.
What I found was an unflinching, raw, difficult story of a girl who is faced with ugly, brutal circumstances. The story became more than the aswang’s mission to avenge Marina’s untimely death at the hands of a serial killer, and dove into an eye-opening social commentary on the child welfare system and missing women, particularly those of color.
I loved the alternating chapters of Marina’s journey to the time, place and person that ended her life and the aswang’s narrative. It felt as though MELISSA CHADBURN was holding my face in her hands, forcing me to keep looking at the scenes that unfolded in such a horrific way. It is natural to want to look away from such violence and heartbreak, but the trauma is not for shock value and has purpose. Brutal stories of so many women are represented in these pages and CHADBURN will not allow us to be willfully ignorant to them.
This is not to say that this book is nightmare through and through. CHADBURN’s unique writing drew me in and had its way of creating moments of tenderness and warmth. I look back on this book thinking about Marina’s sweetness and childhood innocence that were never entirely lost, even as her life eventually progressed to prostitution as a means of survival.
There was something special about the descriptions and storytelling that I can’t quite put into words. I simply adore CHADBURN’s writing style. I am blown away that this is a debut and will be thinking about it for a very, very long time.
TW / CW :: This book comes with a serious need to consider trigger and content warnings prior to consuming. Marina’s story is graphic and will not be for everyone. There are play-by-play accounts of r*pe, child abuse and drug use, among other potentially triggering topics. Please look into these further.
When I first read the synopsis, I was intrigued by the Filipino folklore and magical realism. I went in unsure of what to expect.
What I found was an unflinching, raw, difficult story of a girl who is faced with ugly, brutal circumstances. The story became more than the aswang’s mission to avenge Marina’s untimely death at the hands of a serial killer, and dove into an eye-opening social commentary on the child welfare system and missing women, particularly those of color.
I loved the alternating chapters of Marina’s journey to the time, place and person that ended her life and the aswang’s narrative. It felt as though MELISSA CHADBURN was holding my face in her hands, forcing me to keep looking at the scenes that unfolded in such a horrific way. It is natural to want to look away from such violence and heartbreak, but the trauma is not for shock value and has purpose. Brutal stories of so many women are represented in these pages and CHADBURN will not allow us to be willfully ignorant to them.
This is not to say that this book is nightmare through and through. CHADBURN’s unique writing drew me in and had its way of creating moments of tenderness and warmth. I look back on this book thinking about Marina’s sweetness and childhood innocence that were never entirely lost, even as her life eventually progressed to prostitution as a means of survival.
There was something special about the descriptions and storytelling that I can’t quite put into words. I simply adore CHADBURN’s writing style. I am blown away that this is a debut and will be thinking about it for a very, very long time.
TW / CW :: This book comes with a serious need to consider trigger and content warnings prior to consuming. Marina’s story is graphic and will not be for everyone. There are play-by-play accounts of r*pe, child abuse and drug use, among other potentially triggering topics. Please look into these further.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Addiction, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, and Abandonment
nini23's review against another edition
challenging
dark
3.0
A Tiny Upward Shove is a fictionalized account of a real life serial murder case that occurred in British Columbia, Canada. Canadians will instantly recognize the name Robert Pickton and 'pig farm, Port Coquitlam,' in association with a very grisly crime scene, the victims missing and murdered women from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/robert-pickton-case A wider government inquiry was launched from the lengthy serial killer investigation, into the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) in Canada, with an extensive report and recommendations released on this critical human rights issue and systemic failures. Progress on the recommendations https://globalnews.ca/news/8891593/mmiwg-action-plan-progress/
Accordingly, this novel has disturbing content which includes rape, sexual violence toward women and minors, drug use, separation of mothers from children by the state, sex trafficking, child neglect and abuse, racism, confinement, murder.
Onto this real life case, Melissa Chadburn has grafted a fictional backstory for Willie Pickton's forty-ninth victim - biracial American Marina Salles with a Filipino mother and Black absent father in the military. The text is liberally peppered with Tagalog. An omniscient narrator of Filipino folklore, a ferocious aswang, tells of how she has been in the maternal family for seven generations since the Spanish colonization of Phillipines. Young Marina grows up amid the teachings and admonishments of her lola (grandmother); how to behave as a female, how to get ahead in life.
I appreciate that the author is trying to highlight the socioeconomic disenfranchisement that led Marina to her ending. The issues confronting Vancouver Downtown Eastside then and now of prostitution, homelessness, poverty, trafficking, drugs, mental illness are complex. The women who went missing were met with official apathy and indifference, falling through society's cracks.
I do have a few concerns:
1) This is a real life case with family and friends of the missing and murdered still suffering the pain and trauma. Some of the proposed memorializations of the victims in different forms have been shelved on request by the victims' families or community groups https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/healing-garden-pickon-memorial-port-coquitlam-1.3580342 Note in particular that a painting exhibition and artist illustrations were both deemed distressing to the families. Did the families give permission for this literary rendering of their personal tragedy?
2) The main character Marina spends the majority of her teen years in Los Angeles, United States. She is in placement in her later teen years and after emancipation, lives on her own in LA before heading to Vancouver for a nebulous plot reason. A significant number of Pickton's victims were from First Nations communities
https://toronto.citynews.ca/2007/01/22/who-were-picktons-alleged-victims/ and small Canadian towns.
a) I noticed in the text that Canada was written as if it was an amorphous blob country eg 'Early the next morning, Sabine and Alex left the house and drove home to Canada. Their house sat high on a hill where trees whistle,...' and 'First she knew she needed money for rent, then money for a train ticket to Canada.' Where in Canada?! Ten provinces, three northern territories. Very different distances.
b) For MMIWG, the discussion would have to be about the Indian Act of 1876, broken land treaties, reserves, residential schools, sixties scoop, intergenerational trauma. Because of the Filipino American backstory that the main character is given, we get instead Spaniard colonialist history and the Rodney King LA riots.
c) If we're going to delve into socioeconomic inequalities that ultimately led to the tragedy, then it should be about these Vancouver Eastside dwellers. The vast difference in worlds between East Vancouver and West Vancouver. The harm reduction tactics in use there like safe injection sites. Availability of mental health and addiction recovery services. First Nations child welfare system. Housing unaffordability. The attitude and policing by the RCMP in the area, their ignoring of the initial reports of the crime because the witnesses were deemed 'unreliable.' Instead we get a detailed examination of the child welfare system in LA, child placements by the state and even exactly how much an emancipated teen gets for a stipend there. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/british-columbia/article-jury-says-bc-should-stop-use-of-group-homes-for-indigenous-foster/
There are significant differences in the Canadian social security system, Canadian health-care delivery, Canadian political systems, Canada's laws governing prostitution, Canada's labour standard regulations. Even if the author is more well-versed in American inequalities and the LA child welfare system, it is disingenuous to shoehorn and graft that onto a Canadian national tragedy.
3) A thirteen-year-old Marina is raped and deliberately lies to the police about the identity of her rapist, naming instead her mother's boyfriend I don't think I have to explain why this storyline is disturbing especially when police are already disinclined to believe rape victims.
Thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux for providing an eARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Accordingly, this novel has disturbing content which includes rape, sexual violence toward women and minors, drug use, separation of mothers from children by the state, sex trafficking, child neglect and abuse, racism, confinement, murder.
Onto this real life case, Melissa Chadburn has grafted a fictional backstory for Willie Pickton's forty-ninth victim - biracial American Marina Salles with a Filipino mother and Black absent father in the military. The text is liberally peppered with Tagalog. An omniscient narrator of Filipino folklore, a ferocious aswang, tells of how she has been in the maternal family for seven generations since the Spanish colonization of Phillipines. Young Marina grows up amid the teachings and admonishments of her lola (grandmother); how to behave as a female, how to get ahead in life.
I appreciate that the author is trying to highlight the socioeconomic disenfranchisement that led Marina to her ending. The issues confronting Vancouver Downtown Eastside then and now of prostitution, homelessness, poverty, trafficking, drugs, mental illness are complex. The women who went missing were met with official apathy and indifference, falling through society's cracks.
I do have a few concerns:
1) This is a real life case with family and friends of the missing and murdered still suffering the pain and trauma. Some of the proposed memorializations of the victims in different forms have been shelved on request by the victims' families or community groups https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/healing-garden-pickon-memorial-port-coquitlam-1.3580342 Note in particular that a painting exhibition and artist illustrations were both deemed distressing to the families. Did the families give permission for this literary rendering of their personal tragedy?
2) The main character Marina spends the majority of her teen years in Los Angeles, United States. She is in placement in her later teen years and after emancipation, lives on her own in LA before heading to Vancouver for a nebulous plot reason. A significant number of Pickton's victims were from First Nations communities
https://toronto.citynews.ca/2007/01/22/who-were-picktons-alleged-victims/ and small Canadian towns.
a) I noticed in the text that Canada was written as if it was an amorphous blob country eg 'Early the next morning, Sabine and Alex left the house and drove home to Canada. Their house sat high on a hill where trees whistle,...' and 'First she knew she needed money for rent, then money for a train ticket to Canada.' Where in Canada?! Ten provinces, three northern territories. Very different distances.
b) For MMIWG, the discussion would have to be about the Indian Act of 1876, broken land treaties, reserves, residential schools, sixties scoop, intergenerational trauma. Because of the Filipino American backstory that the main character is given, we get instead Spaniard colonialist history and the Rodney King LA riots.
c) If we're going to delve into socioeconomic inequalities that ultimately led to the tragedy, then it should be about these Vancouver Eastside dwellers. The vast difference in worlds between East Vancouver and West Vancouver. The harm reduction tactics in use there like safe injection sites. Availability of mental health and addiction recovery services. First Nations child welfare system. Housing unaffordability. The attitude and policing by the RCMP in the area, their ignoring of the initial reports of the crime because the witnesses were deemed 'unreliable.' Instead we get a detailed examination of the child welfare system in LA, child placements by the state and even exactly how much an emancipated teen gets for a stipend there. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/british-columbia/article-jury-says-bc-should-stop-use-of-group-homes-for-indigenous-foster/
There are significant differences in the Canadian social security system, Canadian health-care delivery, Canadian political systems, Canada's laws governing prostitution, Canada's labour standard regulations. Even if the author is more well-versed in American inequalities and the LA child welfare system, it is disingenuous to shoehorn and graft that onto a Canadian national tragedy.
3) A thirteen-year-old Marina
Thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux for providing an eARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, and Blood