Reviews tagging 'Pedophilia'

A Tiny Upward Shove by Melissa Chadburn

10 reviews

soffafa's review

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dark slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

theres so many things to say about this. author is from the UK, doesnt seem to have a deep connection with being filipina. that being said, the writing within itself is so elementary especially with the clunky tagalog drops. the synopsis was not at all what i assumed, didnt need to continuously read child rape every few chapters. this was just a dump of trauma and torture. the parental relationships would have been nice to been explored more, but melissa wanted to highlight violence against women as if we dont experience it enough. 

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writtenontheflyleaves's review against another edition

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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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juniperbranches's review against another edition

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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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frogggirl2's review

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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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katieb1034's review

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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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ka_cam's review against another edition

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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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laurarevelesg's review

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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. 

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aubrey's review

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dark reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

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tyunka's review

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dark emotional sad fast-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


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mattbenard's review against another edition

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challenging dark 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

4.0

An incredibly tough read with very graphic violence. Almost couldn't finish it but glad I did.

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