★ 2022-02-04
A moving but disturbing novel tells the story of a young woman’s descent into addiction and sexual violence.
This impressive debut novel opens with a gruesome murder, then moves back in time to recount how the lives of a “throwaway” young woman and a serial killer intersected. Chadburn builds her story around a real case, that of Vancouver pig farmer Willie Pickton, who confessed to having killed 49 women, many of them Indigenous and/or sex workers, over two decades before his arrest in 2002. The novel’s fictional main character is Marina Salles, who, at age 18 becomes both Pickton's last victim and his avenger thanks to an aswang, a supernatural creature from the folklore of the Philippines (who’s also an occasional narrator). Marina’s grandmother is Filipina, and she provides a warm household in central California during the girl’s childhood in the 1980s. But when Mutya, Marina’s restless, self-centered mother, moves to Los Angeles with a boyfriend, Marina in tow, their lives begin to unravel. The boyfriend bails, and Mutya’s addictions lead her to sex work; one night when Marina is 13, she brings the girl with her to a party, with disastrous results. Marina finds herself in foster care, cut off from both mother and grandmother and trying to figure out the harsh rules of her new environment. The foster facility she’s in turns out to be a training ground for drug use and sex work. While there, she falls in love with Alex, another girl, but their relationship is a short moment of sweetness in Marina’s journey to her fate. Chadburn’s prose is sometimes lovely, always compelling, and she handles multiple storylines skillfully. Marina is engaging and heartbreaking, and other characters are vividly portrayed as well—including Pickton. The novel is a relentless revelation of the everyday exploitation of girls and women, but readers should be aware that it describes rape and other forms of violence in horrific detail, over and over.
A dark, powerful novel traces the trajectory of a murder victim’s life.
A Best Book of the Year: NPR, New York (Honorable Mention)
A Best Book of the Month: Buzzfeed, Nylon
A Most Anticipated Book of the Year: The Millions, Ms. Magazine
A Most Anticipated Book of the Month: Electric Literature, The Los Angeles Times, Alta, Bustle, The National Book Review, Apartment Therapy
“Brilliant and terrifyingly honest . . . A stunning debut novel about the hardest things, drawing on style, study and tough experience to make it impossible for us to look away.”
—Bethanne Patrick, The Los Angeles Times
“Wild and ambitious . . . [A Tiny Upward Shove] succeeds because of the exuberance of the aswang’s voice and the richness of the details . . . [There is] a joy evident in the writing, something ablaze at its core. It burns.”
—Erin Somers, The New York Times Book Review
“Startlingly unconventional . . . A harrowing and utterly unforgettable story.”
—Tope Folarin, New York
“Literary alchemist Melissa Chadburn . . . [rips] open the underbelly of American capitalism. The result is gripping, provocative and unforgettable.”
—Martha Anne Toll, NPR
“Outrageously ambitious, complex and deeply sorrowful . . . . The prose plunges fearlessly, restlessly, often violent, sometimes playful . . . Ferocious.”
—Jackie Thomas-Kennedy, Star Tribune
“Powerful . . . [for] its dagger-sharp voice and Chadburn’s startling talent . . . It’s extraordinary, propulsive: unputdownable.”
—Anita Felicelli, Alta
“Wrenching . . . A genuine, powerful work of fiction that speaks to life for those on society’s margins.”
—The National Book Review
“[Captures] the mixture of hopelessness, longing, liability, and a base need for love that makes us human . . . A Tiny Upward Shove is as sensational as it is heartbreaking.”
—Caitlin Stout, The Chicago Review of Books
“Chadburn inhabits her novel with ease, pulling off blistering fiction while hewing to ugly realities dredged up through her journalism.”
—Martha Anne Toll, Los Angeles Review of Books
“Chadburn’s debut novel is a magical realism-infused literary feast . . . Her novel deftly captures poverty and victimization of youth in vivid and heartbreaking scenarios . . . Indelible and devastating . . . A haunting tale of grit and fate.”
—Adrienne Cruz, Booklist (starred review)
“Unforgettable . . . Bold . . . To categorize the novel is to rob it of its complexity and power. A Tiny Upward Shove is best appreciated by letting its language sing.”
—Mara Sandroff, Newcity
“Original, heartbreaking.”
—Tomi Obaro, Buzzfeed
“[An] astonishing debut . . . [Chadburn’s] poetic language enthralls . . . Electrifying.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Electrifying . . . Writing with remarkable grace, even surprising moments of transporting joy, Chadburn creates a miraculous literary platform to claim these [missing and murdered women’s] stories . . . [A] sensational, terrifying debut.”
—Terry Hong, Shelf Awareness
“Engaging and heartbreaking . . . A dark, powerful novel.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“A Tiny Upward Shove is gloriously voiced, the kind of addictive and headlong novel that makes reading into a wild bronco ride. Melissa Chadburn has it, the spark; her first novel is strange and tender and not to be missed.”
—Lauren Groff, author of Matrix
“Every line carries music, emotional weight, philosophical insight, and punk rock glory.”
—Amber Dermont, author of Damage Control
“A beautiful and brave novel about powerlessness, longing, and that universal, unavoidable desire to be loved. Let this book happen to you.”
—Edan Lepucki, author of If You’re Not Yet Like Me
“A novel that grabs your attention and won’t let it go—fueled by a wild, jagged energy and an exuberant mixing of cultures and a narrator whose frank, poignant voice will keep echoing in your head.”
—Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, author of Likes
“In its verve, vibrancy, and sheer reckless energy, Chadburn’s writing recalls a number of wonders: Ondaatje’s Running in the Family, say, or Kincaid’s At the Bottom of the River. Chadburn’s vision, however, her intelligence and empathy, are entirely her own.”
—Matthew Specktor, author of American Dream Machine
