Every Little Thing Published: 2013
The Back Cover
Cohen’s decision to help a dying loved one takes a turn for the worse, and the resulting butterfly effect destroys more lives than his own.
In Every Little Thing, Cohen Davies’ life is shaped by the butterfly effect of a bad decision gone wrong. After a shocking family tragedy, Cohen is wracked with guilt and sorrow, and feeling numb to everything but the allure of his enigmatic new neighbor, Allie Crosbie. But when Allie’s father asks an unfathomable favour, Cohen’s decision to help him sets off a chain reaction of irrevocable events that ends in Cohen’s incarceration. His guilt or innocence is left up to the reader to judge. In the aftermath of his actions, Allie will reveal a secret of her own.
With his award-winning debut, Away From Everywhere, Chad Pelley showed us his verve as a novelist. In Every Little Thing, he once again explores the flipside of love, by cutting no corners in exposing how a secret kept to protect love can just as easily destroy a life.
Guest Blogs in National Post about This Novel
Select Reviews
Relit Award
Shortlist | 2017
The Telegram
Click to read this pre-release feature article
“Cohen Davies is as psychologically rich and prismatic a character as any reader could hope for – here is complicated love, human failing, tenacity and true feeling. Chad Pelley takes on addling jealousy, heartache, loss, and the need to be forgiven. Stylistically fresh, taut with emotional torques and charges, Pelley’s Every Little Thing is cant-put-it-down compelling.” – Booker Prize Finalist, Lisa Moore
“In Every Little Thing Chad Pelley delivers a transfixing chronicle of what happens when devotion and jealousy ride alongside a clumsy desire for a just world. Compulsively readable from start to finish.” – Giller Prize Finalist, Billie Livingston
“Pelley has an enthralling way with words. He captures his reader’s attention within the first chapter, and keeps them engrossed until the very last page” – Samm Joy, Canadian University Press
“[Pelley’s] style remains jet-fueled and kinetic. A lot happens and happens fast … Pelley has constructed a gripping tale, buttressed with honed, crisp writing. A page-turner and rewarding read.” – Atlantic Books Today
“Surprising, unsettling, and very suspenseful, with a love story that catapults the story forward.” – Kerri Cull, The Book Fridge
“Pelley writes a good, page turning plot, and Every Little Thing was compelling enough for me to keep going even though I had lost all patience with the characters.” – Jodi Delong, The Chronicle Herald
“Every Little Thing is immediately engaging … CanLit with Plot that keeps the reader turning the pages long after the lights should be out. Pelley is clearly a writer of no small talent.” – Denise Flint, Downhome Magazine
“I’ve read most of the fiction published in Newfoundland over the last two years, and of all the books I’ve read, Chad Pelley’s Every Little Thing was by far the book that kept me turning the pages most quickly, eager to find out what happened to his characters.” – Trudy Morgan Cole, Compulsive Over Reader
“A riveting, emotional tale, Every Little Thing is the literary equivalent of Neil Young’s “Only Love Can Break Your Heart.” – Whitney Moran, The Coast
“Every Little Thing is a squash player of a book: it pulls your heart up into your throat and out your mouth; it whacks that heart at the wall a bunch of times—up, down, all over the court—before putting it neatly back where it belongs and sending you on your way to think about what has just happened. No wonder the cover’s all red.” – Claire Wilkshire
“A compelling ride that shows that even the unexpected leaves clear footprints. With finely-drawn characters that live and breathe and clearly feel, it’s a marriage of wistful and wonderful, spiced with a sharp dash of the realities that we all face in life. It’s bare honesty, played hard.” – Giller Prize Finalist, Russell Wangersky
“Propulsive, character-driven, and makes for gripping reading. Pelley can use words in a way that is almost shockingly good. A very strong follow up to a solid premiere.” – Joan Sullivan, The Telegram
“A page-turner that’s hard to put down for many reasons, one being a structure that keeps us guessing. Pelley writes about intense subjects with insight, intricacy, and care. His writing reveals the complex nature of grief, relationships, and life … [with] an amazing writing style. Pelley’s ability to provide single images that sum up entire scenes, moods, and experiences really left a lasting impression. He is certainly a writer worth following.” – Word on the Street Toronto’s Blog
“There is a lot to like about the way that Pelley takes noir conventions and makes them his own. What is interesting here is the way that Pelley spends time with an image that does not easily slot into a thematic metaphor. The level of ambition in his effort is laudable and very satisfying when it works.” – The Winnipeg Review
“Pelley has a way of making you care about his vivid characters. He is a talent to watch – perceptive and soulful.” – Susan G. Cole, NOW Magazine
“Sharp, poignant dialogue, and Pelley’s exploration of these terribly flawed characters felt intimately real … I powered through 3 quarters of the novel, stopping only to give myself a break from the sunburn I was subjecting myself to. Pelley has skillfully grasped the crazy complicated nature of love.” – The Book Stylist
“Chad Pelley’s goal is to drag you in. Make you feel. Make you react to his writing as much as you are reading it. The book doesn’t give its readers a rest from beginning to end, scenes full of heartbreak and sorrow and loss, and not a single word wasted.” – Tara Bradbury, The Telegram
“Pelley is a promising literary artist. People will read his writing because he knows how to develop a story. Pelley provides much to impress the reader with his work. Every Little Thing is high entertainment.” – Newfoundland and Labrador Studies