This fascinating debut novel covers all the bases - family drama, mystery, courtroom drama. A Korean couple opens an alternative health clinic that provides HBOT - hyperbaric oxygenation, which is supposed to help with autism, infertility, CP and other health problems. On a day that protesters have gathered outside the facility, it explodes. The same day one of the mothers chooses not to accompany her autistic son into the chamber. The same day the couple are both away from the controls of the chamber. So, who exactly is to blame when all the participants are either killed or injured? Who could be that much of a monster?

Told from multiple points of view, we get to see both the day of the “accident”, their lives prior to it and the ensuing court case when the mother is charged with murder. The multiple points of view are extremely effective. “Teresa hadn’t expected an exact match between his memories and hers - she watched Law and Order; she wasn’t that naive- but still the difference was unnerving.”

We are taken into the world of parenting autistic children; the anguish and the hardships but also the bliss of a small achievement.

Some of the scenes described are gruesome. They’re also so incredibly well described you feel like you’re there. The image of a child’s adult teeth exposed above the baby teeth will stay with me for ages.

OMG, I loved these characters. They all seem to have something to hide, they all are so achingly imperfect. So often thinking that their one little omission doesn’t matter. Kim uses these omissions to keep the reader guessing. Every time I thought I had figured out who the murderer was, Kim would throw a wrench into the mix and it would all be up for grabs again.

And the writing is spot on perfect. Not necessarily lush, but so descriptive. I found myself repeatedly nodding my head in agreement. There are some fascinating philosophical issues raised here. This would make a great book club selection. Highly recommend!

My thanks to netgalley and Farrah, Stroud and Giroux for an advance copy of this book.

A fire burns down a medical facility at Miracle Creek, leaving two dead and some injured. The book guides the reader through the courtcase that follows. With each new witness the story takes another turn. Was it really an accident?

It took me a while to absorb this book. Its many twists and turns, white lies and indepth background stories on all characters involved making it slow-going.
Miracle Creek is a beautifully written, intense, well crafted courtroom drama that kept me guessing till the end.

Thank you Netgalley and Farrer Straus Giroux for the ARC

Heart breaking and suspenseful! Reminded me of Jodi Picoult or Celeste Ng! Court room drama about a woman accused of killling her autistic son by enrolling him in an scientific experiment. Fascinating and thought provoking.

If Big Little Lies were a courtroom drama, this would be it. Angie Kim weaves together multiple characters and flashbacks with engaging courtroom scenes to create a truly unique story. The honest, emotional response of the parents whose children suffering from autism (and cerebral palsy) was heartbreaking and realistic. I tired of the characters as the book dragged on, and thought some of it could've been a bit more concise. I also didn't understand the constant lying by literally every character; it made me want to yell at the book sometimes. Still, I thought the writing was fantastic, and I think this would be a great book for discussion.

A thrilling debut novel for Angie Kim about how far we’ll go to protect what is dear to us and the consequences.

This book was a most exciting, touching, heartbreaking and very well written experience. This is the kind of fiction book I love most: A real story, a "drama" - not as in "genre" and not as in "soap opera", but as in: a story of everyday, real people, with real problems, people with faults and flaws, people who keep secrets, have shameful thoughts, make mistakes - and try to do their best. Sometimes, they suceed, other times, they don't. Sometimes, the actions lead to heartbreaking conequences.

The story: The titular Miracle Creek is a little village/town, home of the Yoo family, who immigrated from South Korea in the hope for a better future for their daughter. They run a treatment facility, known as "Miracle Submarine", a chamber for an treatment with pressurized oxygen which is supposedly the answer to many issues, infertility and autism among them. But the unthinkable happens: The chamber catches fire, two people die, more are injured. Who is to blame? A courtroom drama unfolds.

The writing: The characters are all well developed and growing throughout (one character I inititally disliked, then they broke my heart) - yes, it is quite a cast, but Kim introduces her readers gently and shapes her creations with great care. The POV is switching with every chapter- It's always 3rd person, with focus on the POV, sometimes switching back and forth in time, when the narrating character is remembering things. And there's a lot to remember. The courtroom scenes were super exciting and filled with tension throughout, I loved the back and fourth between the prosecutor and the laywer, giving the backstory a thrilling spin.

The themes: The incident with the blown up chamber happened a year before the central courtroom drama, and the people who'd undergone the treatment had become a close knit group (they did the one hour treatment twice a day, for more than a month). Most of them were mothers with their children who suffered from autism or disabilities. The question of being a caregiver to an "forever" child is one of the huge moral issues raised in this book. How much do you have to do? What is too little, what it too much? At what point does "caring for my child" switches to overbearing, maybe even abuse? And what happens if there's a day you feel like you can't go on anymore? All these moral and ethical questions as well as the sensitive topics were handled with great care by the author. Yet she didn't shy away from making points that hurt: hearing them, reading them, imagening the described situation.

Another strong theme is family/family loyalty/loyalty in general: what secrets do you keep in order to protect the ones you love (or yourself)? When becomes a secret a lie and if a lie has no consequences, why not tell the truth? Next theme: immigration and cultural identity. Not only reprensented in the Yoo family and their personal story, but also within the mixed couple Matt and Janine, who also struggle with their cultural identities, their ideas of marriage and family and their own families' expectations.

It's hard to believe this is a debut novel, the way Angie Kim brings her characters alive as real persons with all their faults and flaws feels like she's been doing it for years. From what I gather, she could get back to lots of personal experience for this one: she practiced as a trial lawyer and underwent the oxygen treatment that's such a central part of this book with one of her sons. It'll be interesting to see where her next novel will lead her and how she'll handle a topic maybe "newish" to her - I'll be there to read it sure enough ;)

This book has been compared to Celeste Ng's "Little Fires Everywhere", which I also loved, and I could also see the similarities. Both books feature awesome characters and characterisations. Both books deal, to some extent, with similar themes and styles (immigration, settling into a new culture, big cast, multiple POVs, secrets and lies, often in order to protect the ones you love). Both book also had a certain moral issue concerning parenting (adoption in "Fires", children with a disability in "Creek") and both, in a way, featured and "unusual extra character" (the town of Shaker Heights in "Fires", the Miracle Submarine in "Creek"). I loved both books and am pretty sure that if you enjoyed either, you'll also like the other one.

Tl;dr: This is so well executed throughout. Spot on characters, really moving (heartbreaking) story with many issues to think about. A perfect book club read and strong contender for one of my favourite novels this year.

This story was easy to read, interesting but overall none of the characters really interested me. I didn't have anyone I was rooting for, I wasn't invested. But it sure was a fast one!

What an incredible, moving story that I was unable to put down! The characters were the most realistic I've read in years. From the honesty shown by the moms of special needs children, to the teenage girl rebelling against her parents, to the infertility of a young couple...

And I was completely flabbergasted by the ending. Although all the characters had parts to play in the horrible tragedy, the story unfolded in a way I would never have guessed. The "court drama" is only a small piece woven into the overall struggle of these families.

I strongly recommend this book! Thanks to NetGalley and publishers for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Miracle Creek is not only a murder mystery. It is a study of morality, who is right, and who can judge. Every person involved with the Miracle Submarine had a reason to feel guilty and a reason not to trust the others. Every character had good qualities and dirty secrets. Nothing was black and white. The discussions about treatments for autism were especially hard. How far is too far? Would be a great bookclub read!

I was just thinking the other day that I haven't read a book in awhile that made me want to stop everything and just read. Miracle Creek did that. It was incredible. I couldn't put it down because every page helped to further unwrap the mystery of this crime.

Where should I begin? How can I even start talking about this perfect, PERFECT NOVEL. Miracle Creek is an intricate and soulful tale that will challenge the way we see humanity: its relationships, its sense of justice, and the consequences of our actions no matter how big or small.

First impressions: the book has given me strong Celest Ng + Jhumpa Lahiri + John Grisham vibes from the beginning. But the author Angie Kim’s writing skills is also a brand all her own. The author understands and succesfully portrays the intricacies of human emotions and motivations. She knows how to spin a good mystery and drama with not a single word wasted. Only a highly skilled author can make something as complex and nuanced like this novel.

On the surface we have an immigrant story, a courtroom drama, a story about special needs children, interracial relationships, alternative medical treatments and a whodunnit. We meet a bunch of flawed characters that may not be all that lovable, but certainly understandable and relatable in their humanity. Indeed this novel shows humanity in its best and worst forms. The story also explored the complexities of the justice system and the concept of guilt vs. innocence. It teaches us that redemption always lies in the truth.

One of the reasons why I read is so that I can live various lives and learn from it, and I learned so much from Miracle Creek—how to love, to be happy, to be contented, to appreciate all the little things— the normalcy and the mundanity of our daily lives. Through this story, the author made me see my “hardships” as a “normal” mom seem so trivial and at the same time so special in its normality. She reminded me how really blessed I am, and how grateful I should be everyday.

In the end, this book made me cry. It has honestly been too long since I experienced this kind of intense emotion. I thought everything was so hopeless at the ending, but the author surprised me again. I am left with the comforting thought that there’s always a bright light at the end of even the darkest of tunnels.

This is the kind of book I would push everyone to read. Thank you, Angie Kim. You are a MIRACLE.

Miracle Creek – Come for the tricky mystery and courtroom drama, stay for the characters

I’m not sure that any review from me will do this book justice because it absolutely blew me away! I can’t believe this is a debut novel because it’s just so well constructed and written. This is a complicated, detailed story and there is not a thread dropped or an improbable potential suspect in the bunch. The author has done such a great job with the mystery that I was suspicious of everyone at some point and was still surprised by the final reveal. I was sure I knew who set the fire but then changed my mind over and over. The story is revealed piece by piece in courtroom scenes and flashbacks. I don’t know about you but when I see “courtroom scenes” I automatically think “boring.” That is definitely not the case here as the testimony triggers memories and confessions and it is exciting to see the real story through the lies. As the truth comes out we see just how many secrets are held in this small group of seemingly perfectly normal and rather good people.

While the story is amazing this book really shines through its characters. They felt like they were real and my heart broke for them so many times. This is not a particularly happy story and a lot of awful stuff happens. These characters and their relationships are the heart of the book and it is an emotional and touching story. The basic premise of treating autistic children in a hyperbaric chamber was something I wasn’t aware of, although I know it is used for many different conditions. I think my exposure to other media has given me the impression that people with autism are often geniuses and can live fairly normal lives, as authors, doctors, detectives. My eyes have been opened to the reality of the condition in children. It is much more difficult than I ever imagined. It is all portrayed so authentically and I see in her bio that the author has a child that undergoes “submarine” treatment. She knows what she is talking about and it shows. There is never any preaching but I sure learned a lot through this story. The caretakers of children with disabilities or autism deserve a medal for their selflessness and seemingly endless patience.

This emotional roller-coaster will haunt me for a long time and I think it has ruined oxygen therapy for me forever.

Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux for providing an Electronic Advance Reader Copy via NetGalley for providing an Electronic Advance Reader Copy via NetGalley for review.

I had to take some time away to really process this book. It wasn't easy. Miracle Creek absolutely ripped my heart out. It's a fantastic, utterly thrilling courtroom drama; it's a mystery, perhaps a murder mystery; and alongside these things, it's also a powerful character study that examines immigration, parenthood, grief, disability and caregiving.

The trial and the mystery are the compelling backdrop here, but this book explores so many things that it's hard to know where to begin describing it.

It's now a year since the night that took two lives and injured several others. Elizabeth, the single mother of one of the victims, is on trial for murder. On the night in question, she dropped her son off for his HBOT treatment and purportedly left to drink wine and smoke cigarettes nearby-- the same cigarettes responsible for the blast that killed her son while she was absent.

HBOT was new to me. It's a kind of oxygen treatment said to improve everything from male infertility to autism, and the author has personal experience with it. Elizabeth's son was on the autism spectrum and, as we soon see, the pressure of looking after him was pushing her to the edge. Whether it was enough for her to murder her son, though, is the real question. The more we learn, the less implausible it sounds.

But there are many other characters in this book and they all play an important role. The third person narration moves through each of their perspectives, filling in the night in question, piece by piece. Each person is fleshed-out and flawed. Kim explores them all in depth, creating so many intimate portraits that all come together to form a bigger picture.

The HBOT facility was started by Pak and Young Yoo. As Korean immigrants, they have had to struggle with the dismissal of their business as silly "Eastern medicine", and with being forced apart when Young and their daughter first came to the United States without Pak. I was especially moved by the discussions about language barriers. Pak is a smart and eloquent man in his native language, but he suffers the indignity of appearing unintelligent in his broken, accented English:

"Pak Yoo was a different person in English than in Korean. In a way, he supposed, it was inevitable for immigrants to become child versions of themselves, stripped of their verbal fluency and, with it, a layer of their competence and maturity."


Another interesting discussion was that about the "fetishization" of Asian women. Janine really struggles with her feelings about it. On the one hand, she thinks it is a potential problem, but she also wonders why men who have a preference for blondes do not get accused of having a “fetish”. Why, she wonders, are Asian women portrayed as something perverse?

I think I could write my own book about all the avenues this fascinating book goes down. I haven't even said anything about the in-depth look at parenting and parental sacrifice. But I should stop before this review becomes ridiculously long.

The final way I will summarize Miracle Creek is that it's a book about so many interesting characters who all want the best for their family, but grind themselves into the ground in the process - Elizabeth driven to the edge by parenting an autistic child, Pak the lonely “goose father” who wants the best for his family, Young who worked such long hours that she alienated her daughter, and there are others too.

I found it such a beautiful and sad literary mystery.

This book touches on a lot of hot topic issues, immigrants, the cause and treatment for autism, and the justice system. Ms Kim looks at these topics by introdusing us to a cast of characters that you come to care about. None of them are perfect yet are complex and full of human foibles.

Young and Pak Soo along with their 17 year old daughter came to America from South Korea. They begin a business that provides hyperbaric treatments to persons with various medical complaints. These i dividuals enter a metal container that looks like a submarine and put on helmets into which pure oxygen is introduced. Most of their patients are children with autism or other neurological issues. We learn in the first chaper that there is an explosion and 2 people die.

Kim lets us meet the parents of these children, Matt, the only adult patient and the Soos by telling the story that led up to that explosion through the alternating voices of these people while the trial of the accused is taking place. It is a high wire balancing act and she does a great job of keeping the reader at the edge of their seat.

When all is said and done, we know the who, what and when but it's the human cost that stays with the reader.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this ARC. This in no way impacted the contents of this review

Great Balls of FIRE....
...literally and figuratively...
From the first sentence, the reader is hooked...
I am completely jubilant about this book....
with a fascinating medical exploration of Hyerbaric oxygen therapy - a treatment used for decompression sickness of scuba diving hazards - but is also used to treat a variety of medical conditions, such is the case in this story.
Medical evidence is sufficient in treating autism, Bell’s palsy, infertility, and a long list of other diseases.
Parents brought their children with special needs to the oxygen tank.
Each session (the dives)were an hour long.

Pak Yoo, Korean immigrant,
sent his wife, Young, and their daughter, Mary to live with a host family in Baltimore. Pak wanted his daughter to get an American education.
Young had to work at a run-down supermarket with bulletproof doors ( gangs at night in the area), 7 days a week. Young worked like a slave in exchange for the host family ( the Kangs), paying for Mary’s American education.
In the meantime, it took another 4 years until Pak joined his wife and daughter in the Baltimore.

Pak opened his Hyperbaric oxygen therapy here in the states. His wife, Young and their daughter, Mary were clearly not happy - about their life in America.
I couldn’t blame them.
Their daily lives were compromised severely. Pak made all the final decisions in that family.
I personally wanted to kick him in the balls!

Pak said HBOT was popular with Asian acupuncture clients. The Asian community in Japan and Korea had wellness centers with infrared saunas and HBOT
He had years of experience in Seoul
Pak had been in Acupuncturist for 30 years..
But gave it up in the states for his oxygen wellness therapy.

Pak and Young’s daughter, Mary was frustrated -lonely and - angry for numerous reasons. Her life as a teenager in the states was completely jeopardized due to their parents choices.
Mary questioned why she needed to get an American education when the math classes in Korea were far superior. In fact all of the education was more advance than in the states. So.. I wondered about their argument as to why they came to America myself.

After the explosion -
Mary’s personality flipped from a hot tempered talkative girl to a detached mute facsimile of her daughter”.
Doctors diagnosed Mary with posttraumatic stress disorder PTSD.
She missed taking her SAT classes that day.... and everything about her life went from worse to worse.

“Miracle Submarine”, ( the oxygen chamber is shaped like a submarine), exploded at 8:25pm on August 26th, 2008, starting an uncontrollable fire. Pak, the owner lied big time that night. His wife was victim to her husband’s lie.

6 people were inside the Submarine chamber.
3 people were in the immediate area.
2 died.
4 were severely injured— hospitalized for months, paralyzed limbs amputated.

Outside the treatment center, on the night of the tragic event, protesters gathered: angry - wanting to close down the Submarine oxygen business. Maybe- but doubtful - that one of the prosecutors were the cause of the explosion.
But possible...

I started to think ‘many’ people were to blame - not just one person.
THIS STORY IS GRIPPING ... and got inside my head.
Even though I felt I knew the number 1 culprit-
I kept thinking about the pros and cons of oxygen medical treatments. The medical fiction was equally as interesting to me as the page turning courtroom drama.
A treatment center opened just 2 miles from my house over a year ago.
Expensive as hell!!!
I’ve been curious about the BIG TANK in our neighborhood- but it was this book that ‘really’ piqued my interest.

Something went VERY WONG the night of the explosion in Miracle Creek.
Accident or intentional?
And what’s the miracle?

A year after the explosion
....a terrific courtroom case began.
Elizabeth Ward was charged with arson, battery, attempted murder. Her own son died.

Elizabeth’s defense attorney, Shannon Haug....was stellar during the courtroom trial. She didn’t believe Elizabeth was guilty. Neither did I...
but Elizabeth and everyone had reason to want to explode the treatment center. Everyone was hiding something.
The town “Miracle Creek” could have been “Liars Creek”. A community of liars.

Abraham Patterley the prosecutor...wasn’t a fan of Shannon Haug -and vice versa. (Making the courtroom drama fun for our reading).

Steve Pierson, an arson specialists and witness verified that the fire started outside the chamber....and Elizabeth ‘was’ outside the chamber the night of the explosion.

Elizabeth’s son, Henry, who had autism was one of the victims killed while in the
“Miracle Submarine” chamber. Doesn’t seem quite like a miracle when people are killed and injured.
But did this mother really cause the fire explosion...
that killed her own child?

We got a clear look
at Elizabeth’s daily demands for her son.
Elizabeth was “Henry-centric”. No time left over for friends and socializing.
“During the day, Elizabeth drove Henry to seven types of therapy—speech, occupational, physical, auditory processing (Tomatis), social skills (RDI), vision processing, neurofeedback—and, between those, roamed holistic/organic stores for
peanut/gluten/casein/dairy/fish/egg-free foods. At night she prepared Henry’s foods and supplements and went on autism treatment boards such as HBOTkids and AutismDoctorMoms”.

Sounds like a committed mother - yet Elizabeth was THE ACCUSED.
Or?? who else was to blame?

The two dead victims were Kim Kozlowski ( the defendant’s long time friend), and Henry Ward, the defendant’s own 8 year old son.

I was totally intrigued with this book! I liked everything about it...
...the medical issues
...the top notch courtroom drama,
and...
...the immigration story - (from Korea to the United States).

4 trial days..
We hear from a full cast of witnesses:
....Matt Thompson was the first witness. A medical doctor - Caucasian - married to Janine Cho - Asian -( also a medical doctor/ internist).
Matt has fingers amputated from being in the chamber during the fire that night in August 2008.
Others witnesses:
PakYoo, owner of HBOT
Young Yoo ( wife of Pak)
Elizabeth Ward, ( the accused) ... and once married to Victor
Janine Cho, ( Matt’s wife)
Teresa ... mother of Rosa, a teen daughter with cerebral palsy, due to an illness.

Author Angie Kim did an outstanding job with this novel. As a preteen she moved from Seoul, Korea to the suburbs of Baltimore.
She attended University and Harvard Law school.

This was a phenomenal enjoyable debut novel.
The cast is large - but was very easy for me to keep track of everyone.

This was the BEST courtroom drama I’ve read since “Defending Jacob”...by William Landry.
Plus this novel had added enrichment topic: medical fiction and immigration.

Smokin-hot-storytelling!!!

One of my FAVORITES!!!

Thank you Farrar, Straus, Giroux, Netgalley, and Angie Kim

I received an electronic ARC through NetGalley.

Unfortunately, this book was not my cup of tea. I appreciate the fact that the author covered a very controversial topic, and researched it well. However, it just did not sit right with me. It was also difficult for me to keep trac of the characters; especially the moms and their children.

When I thought "I'll be able to put this book down," I was lying to myself. It had me hooked. And who I was sure had done it, had not done it! And as interested as I was in the mystery, I was in it for the lives of the families, how thoughtfully and heartbreakingly they'd been portrayed.

I received this from Netgalley.com in exchange for a review.

When the Miracle Submarine mysteriously explodes, killing two people, a dramatic murder trial upends the Yoos’ small community.

Good courtroom drama, the back and forth questions/answers were intriguing and interesting. And we are given some insight into the problems an immigrant can face. But, I did get tired of each character prattering on as the back story was told. Everyone lied and I never really understood why.

3☆

What an interesting concept, I just didn't care for the characterization. The passion of people on both sides of the HBOC issue is deeply rooted because it's essentially life or death. While having more than one narrator is fine for most, it's just not my cup of tea.

Court room drama with multiple points of views on the case, the relationships among these people and the tragic deaths.
Lies, miscommunication and vagueness from each individual led to strange causal consequences that led to the death of two people.

It was a steady build of tension, human error and arrogance and the at the centre was the problem of silence.

Those little things we hide about ourselves and lie about and how that can build, roll into a mass of hurt, pain and regret.

A solid first novel from Angie Kim.