Reviews tagging 'Trafficking'

A Tiny Upward Shove by Melissa Chadburn

9 reviews

ebscaggs's review

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challenging dark sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • 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

Incredibly heavy but well-done read.

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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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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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megwaslike's review

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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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berls's review

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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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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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ba1l3y's review

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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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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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tenten's review

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dnf at 44%, which i know is a large chunk of the book and normally i would keep pushing through but this was too much, even for me. i normally have no issue with triggering content, i throughly enjoyed Roxane Gay's Difficult Women despite the heavy subject matter, but this ...
bad things already happened to Marina and i know there's more to come based on other reviews. the author of this novel has done reporting on the child welfare system and was featured on the Netflix doc, The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez so she's probably encountered some heavy horrible shit that might be the basis for the stuff that happens in this book. i couldn't even sit through five minutes of that documentary. this is too bleak for me, especially after just finding out about the SCOTUS draft opinion on overturning roe v wade. much too bleak. 
i feel bad DNFing this, and i might pick it back up again considering it's not due back to the library for another 10 days and i'm already nearly halfway through it but idk man. it has great reviews and it is well-written and it's a debut by a woc featuring characters from a culture that i don't know much about but ... sheesh it's heavy 

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