I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

This is part courtroom drama, part reflection on emigrating from Korea to the US, and partly a description of what it is like to be constantly trying to improve your autistic child's quality of life. It is told from different viewpoints in the present as the trial is occurring, but with each character also reflecting back on the day of a terrible tragedy.

This was a good read (I particularly enjoyed the scene towards the beginning where Matt is forced to agree to HBOT treatment at a a dinner party at his in-laws' house), although in general I found Matt's voice the least convincing. I found the story starting to drag a little for the last third - I just wanted to get to the bottom of things. Very thought-provoking on the subjects of blame, responsibility, and consequences.

I was really blown away by this book. Initially I was drawn in the hyperbaric oxygen therapy angle of the story and then became completely wrapped up in Angie Kim's beautiful, heartbreaking writing. This is a story about the love of parents for their children and also a legal thriller with some great courtroom tension. I highly recommend it and I hope to read more of this author's work in the future.

I don’t really read courtroom dramas (with the exception of The Bonfire of the Vanities being one of my all time favorite books), but I really enjoyed Miracle Creek by Angie Kim. This engaging slow-burn of a novel about a Korean immigrant family and those in their orbit twists around to point the finger at a different character with every chapter, convincingly making the case that just about everyone involved with the hyperbaric chamber in Miracle Creek, VA - and its deadly explosion - at best has something to hide, and at worst, could be responsible. Along with questioning the implications of withholding information to protect oneself or someone else, Miracle Creek really made me wonder about the American trial system, and how often the omission of details casts blame (or doubt) in the wrong direction.

Thanks Netgalley and Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux for the galley. All opinions mine!

Posted 3/6/19 on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2720285995

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I really loved this book. Very different and I enjoyed the back and forth between the court case, the characters, and back story. The writing was excellent and lead you to feeling the emotions of the characters and circumstances.

Wow- what an incredible debut novel from Angie Kim. A heart-wrenching, beautiful, tragic story told from the perspectives of multiple characters, I loved this book from the very first chapter. Kim does a perfect job of setting the story up through a courtroom drama, leaving the reader to try to piece together how and why an oxygen chamber was set on fire, killing and injuring several people, but she also expertly develops each major character in incredibly poignant and insightful ways. I highly recommend Miracle Creek - the rare book that keeps a mystery going while also offering the reader a deep insight into the humanity and flaws of everyday people.

A unique combination of gripping court-room drama and literary fiction. Plenty of twists and turns and family drama, and at the heart of it is a family immigration story.

I was very intrigued by the original title of this novel and I couldn’t wait to dive in (pun 100% intended). This courtroom drama type novel is not my typical read but I could not put it down.

I work for a court so I was thrilled to read a book about a court case. Miracle Creek is a fast paced, mysterious, multi-perspective read. I was also thrilled to know that autism was a big topic in this book - something society could stand to learn more about. I loved the tidbits of information that the story would share one piece at a time. I was surprised by the outcome and do not want to say too much more. This is a must read!!

Fans of a good courtroom drama will not be disappointed by Miracle Creek. It also includes a great mystery and leaves you questioning both sides of the trial the entire time. A page turner that you will read in 1-2 sittings, Miracle Creek is not one to be missed.

Courtroom dramas are a bit of a weakness of mine whether it be on television or in books. This was a court drama but it was more than that: it's the story of multiple people dealing with tragedy, guilt, fear, and lies. Who is lying and who is really responsible for the death of two patients? You'll just have to try and figure that question out for yourself.

I loved that we were immediately pulled into the story. The first couple of pages I was a little confused but it all quickly made sense. The reader is thrown into The Night of a horrible accident (or calculated murder) before the story jumps ahead a year later to the trial.

I could not seem to put this book down. I needed to figure it out and put the evidence together to decide whether or not the woman on trial for murder was innocent or guilty (and if she wasn't the culprit who was) but with each POV change (which was excellently done I might add) I found my suspect list growing. On the note, with POV change, I get a little nervous when authors do this. I've had too many books where the "voices" of the characters blur together and I can't remember who I'm even reading. Angie Kim does a fantastic job of giving each character their own "voice" - I never once had to flip back to the beginning of the chapter to figure out who I was supposed to be reading.

There are no perfect characters in this story. It's not black and white by any means. These characters, their thoughts, and feelings, are not all good nor are they horrible monsters. They all have split-second thoughts they instantly regret; they feel envy and give in to moments of cruelty just for the sake of making themselves feel better for just a single moment. It's ugly but it's real and I felt it made the characters seem really fleshed out.

The ending is not simple. It's painful even while being uplifting. All in all, I really enjoyed this story from start to finish.

“...we all have our moments. But they’re just moments, and they pass.”

Miracle Creek is a story about those moments...the myriad forms they take, the time they take until they pass—if they ever pass—and mostly, it’s about the people who live in those moments. Miracle Creek is a human story. Each character lovingly written to be complex and flawed...to be human. Miracle Creek is about prejudice and rivalry and lust and love and pride (blinding pride that has the power to warp moments into something that lasts so much longer). Miracle Creek is about lies—some big, others small—that shape moments into barbed things. Miracle Creek is about consequence and grief and here, that’s the most human moment of them all.

Told as an unfolding courtroom drama (one of the better I’ve read) through multiple points of view, Miracle Creek doesn’t give up its secrets easily. Readers will work for them and enjoy doing so.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for this fantastic ARC provided in exchange for honest review.

Miracle Creek was an amazing read from beginning to end. It is a courtroom drama that takes place a year after a tragic accident has changed the course of life for several characters. I love novels that give us a chance to glimpse the perspectives of different characters. The different narratives allow you to see the same story from different angles and it makes you realize that not everything is as black and white as it appears. Angie Kim was amazing in providing solidity to each of her characters, we got to see into their minds and uncover their most twisted thoughts. It made them so human. As a reader you get to take a journey unlike any other. You get a behind the scenes look at a tragic event and the consequences and after effect of one single action. Reading this story led me to a chain of thoughts similar to stepping on a butterfly. So many actions from different players can lead to a single action and it leads to the question, who is truly to blame? Is it really that simple to assign blame? It’s so hard to see what someone is doing in the moment but then you take a look back at the chain of events that lead to one single action and it is insane how many players contributed to that one event. Trust me, this book is one that you won’t want to put down. There will be twists and turns that will lead you to unexpected places, you will find your heart strings pulled and a part of yourself may also be uncovered. I think this book will have you uncovering a different layer of empathy than what we are used to. If you are looking for a courtroom drama, if you are “literary voyeur”, and if you are a fan of following a chain of event from its inception then this is the book for you.
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Thank you to Netgalley and FSG books for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to read it. Thank you to Angie Kim for your excellent Vogue article. It gave me the extra insight to understand this book and to realize what experience she was bringing to it. It made it deeply personal and I am so grateful that she shared this with us. The insights into immigrants coming into this country, the feelings that I could have never thought to realize they go through, it allowed me to look at my parent’s journey in a different way. I was deeply touched by it. I also appreciated her honesty in showcasing the disadvantage of being a different race, of having an accent can have on the witness stand. How this could affect the way the testimony was seen from the jury. This book was just so jam-packed with so many different themes that I know so many of you will come out with something from this reading experience.

A multi layered, fast paced court room drama with multiple POVs. I was totally absorbed in this debut novel from the first chapter until the very last page.
Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for the ARC.

I first heard about this book on the Read More Women Podcast with their most anticipated books of 2019, and I was intrigued: a courtroom drama, whodunit, with themes centring around immigration struggles, motherhood, special needs children, alternative medical therapies, and how far we will go to protect those we love.

This is such a well-written novel! Kim's attention to detail and slow reveal of each of the central characters' secrets, lies, and motivations keep the mystery twisting and pages turning until the very end. It's a complicated puzzle of a story, there are many threads to the web of lies that makes up Miracle Creek. As a lover of mysteries, it's not often that a book can keep me guessing almost the whole way through--but Miracle Creek, with its tight plot and shifting perspectives unspinning the web and tangling it back up again certainly did.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

More Than Five Stars!!!
Thank you to the publisher, author, and Netgalley for the review copy.

Every once in a while, a really special book comes along, a book that is just perfect for you in so many ways, and for me this is one of those books. Miracle Creek is a delectable combination of medical fiction, mystery, courtroom drama, and immigrant story all tightly woven into a fast paced and wonderfully readable novel.

The story centers on the Yoo family who have recently immigrated from Korea. In an effort to support themselves and their teenage daughter, Mary, Pak and Young open a business offering hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) in a submarine shaped chamber they call “the miracle submarine.” Patients drive long distance to undergo this experimental treatment with the hopes this will be the one that finally makes a difference. Elizabeth brings her autistic son, Henry, who has been improving more slowly than she would like. No stranger to alternative treatments, Elizabeth hopes this will be the one that changes Henry into a normal childl. Kitt bring her youngest child, TJ, who is severely autistic, constantly banging his head, and only calming when Barney the purple dinosaur is on screen. Teresa comes with Rosa, her teenage daughter who developed cerebral palsy after a viral illness, and Matt, whose Korean wife is family friends with the Yoos, hopes to improve his sperm function to cure their infertility. Within the close confines of the submarine, these strangers develop a forced intimacy over the long hours of the “dives,”, a sort of makeshift dysfunctional family. When a horrific tragedy occurs—someone sets fire to the chamber with patients inside, leading to the death of Henry and Kitt and the serious injury of Matt, Pak and Mary—the riveting story is set in motion. I couldn’t stop turning the pages to figure out who set the fire and why.

Kim utilizes an interesting structure to tell the story. The first chapter, entitled, “The Incident,” is told from Young’s first person point of view on the day of the fire and all of the following chapters are in third person close point of view one year later when Elizabeth has been put on trial for arson, rotating among all of the characters who survived the tragedy. Every character has a plausible motive to commit the crime and a compelling storyline. Sometimes with so many narrators, I find some more interesting than others, but in this case Kim does a commendable job creating story arcs for every character that are all believable and interesting.

Kim’s writing is lyrical, seamless, and articulate. I often found myself stopping to highlight a beautiful turn of phrase or unique description. Within the gorgeous prose, Kim also addresses many important topics and themes, including the difficulty of raising a child with special needs, the challenges of immigrating to a country where you don’t speak the language or know the customs, and the problems that arise in an interracial marriage.

So many elements of Miracle Creek come from the author’s own experience. She immigrated to America from Korea as a preteen, she experienced HBOT first hand with her son who suffered from hearing loss and gastrointestinal disorders, and she is a former trial attorney. Kim makes use of all of her life experiences to make every scene believable, realistic, and heart wrenching. For more about Kim’s experiences and her inspiration for writing the novel, check out this wonderful piece she wrote for Vogue magazine:

https://www.vogue.com/article/angie-k...

I finished Miracle Creek on January 18th, and yet I know without a doubt it will be on of my favorites novels of the year, and likely of all time.

4.5 stars for me!

I love a good courtroom drama and I loved Miracle Creek.

The book opens with a shocking incident that forms the foundation for the legal (and other) storylines in the book. It grabbed my attention and kept me reading until late into the night. It's a mystery and a legal thriller, but it's also a book about immigration, special needs kids and families, infertility, relationships, and more. Especially interesting for me was learning about the Yoo family's move to the US from South Korea, how they needed to adjust, and how they were treated along the way.

Key revelations come about in the last quarter of the book and besides learning who the real culprits are (and not only the ones who were criminally charged), we also learn about who really were the truly strong and noble characters.

The courtroom and legal aspects were very realistic and I'm sure the author's own legal training contributed to this. It's an impressive debut novel and I hope that she's busy working on her second book. Thanks to Netgalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the opportunity to read this wonderful book.

Miracle Creek earns its comparisons. In the lead up to its release, you'll probably see Angie Kim's name alongside Lianne Moriarty's, and Miracle Creek's title next to Big Little Lies, and that's fair. This book shares a lot with Moriarty's 2014 novel. At its core, this is a book about people coping with a crime that's forced them to question everything. It is, truly, a book about a big little lie. But comparisons can often cheapen the experience, and Miracle Creek stands steadily on its own.

Kim's debut novel is a breakneck courtroom thriller, the author's own experiences in law clearly informing the book's ability to lock the reader into a scene. That she is herself a Korean-American immigrant also carries the narrative, which centres largely around the Yoo family, a working-class Korean-American family trying to find their place in a country that wasn't exactly what they were promised.

The book isn't perfect. With more twists than a pack of Twizzlers, there's at times a feeling of "how many is too many," but as the story shifts, perspectives from each character changing the narrative and context, its many seemingly unfathomable twists are less about the whodunnit and more about the whydoit. Because even if you think you've figured out the ending, you'll be eagerly flipping the pages through the end to understand why.

I enjoyed this book, and I wouldn't have if NetGalley didn't let me read an advance copy. I went in looking for a pulp-y pager turner, a modern mystery I could fly through. I got that. But the human elements stand out to me. Motherhood. Illness. Sacrifice. Lies. Abuse. And most importantly, context.

This doesn't check every box I look for in fiction, but it damn sure tries.

I received an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review

Oh this was excruciating. Well written and I’m glad I read it, but excruciating. We’re talking dead autustic kids excruciating, an adult taking sexual advantage of a teenager excruciating, infertility excrutiating. Good for those days when you have to make yourself cry.

It took five years for Pak Yoo to save enough money for a family visa. He finally could emigrate from Korea to the United States following wife, Young and daughter, Mary who were living with a very demanding host family. Moving to Miracle Creek, Virginia, Pak now owned and operated The Miracle Submarine, a 100% pressurized oxygen chamber designed to heal damaged cells through deep penetration of oxygen during sixty minute "dives". As a controversial, experimental treatment, protesters felt that Pak's clients were "guinea pigs". To the parents of children with autism, cerebral palsy and other health issues as well as adults with fertility issues, the Miracle Submarine offered hope, especially to the "double dive" clients who signed up for twice daily treatments for forty days.

This hyperbaric therapy (HBOT) clientele included Matt, a doctor. Matt's in-laws viewed him as having a "defect". Wife Janine insisted on HBOT treatments for his infertility. Elizabeth Ward's devotion to eight year old autistic son Henry could be considered to be "Puppeteer Parenting". Henry was enrolled in numerous therapies throughout the day. Kitt was the mother of TJ, eight years old, autistic and non-verbal. Rosa was a sixteen year old teenager with cerebral palsy. Teresa, Rosa's mother was thrilled that Rosa could now say "mama". Contrast that with Elizabeth's expectations for Henry!

The night dive on August 26, 2008 was fraught with difficulties. Protesters caused a delay in the start time of the dive, the AC and lights were not working and the DVD stopped mid-song. The back oxygen tank then exploded. Elizabeth's son, Henry and TJ's mother, Kitt were killed. Four others were seriously injured. Why is it that Elizabeth chose not to dive with Henry that evening asking Kitt to keep an eye on him? According to the accident reconstruction expert, the fire started outside the chamber, under the oxygen tubing. Whose cigarette and matches started the blaze?

Elizabeth Ward was on trial for the murder of son, Henry. She had mentioned that life would be easier if she wasn't a round-the -clock caregiver. Was this a recipe for murder? The ensuing court trial was very engrossing. Defense lawyer Shannon Haug was determined to deflect the blame. Who might stand to gain from Elizabeth's conviction? Pak and Young want to collect the insurance money from the fire and jump start their lives. "The story Pak has invented to protect them had, with time and repetition, become the truth...". Pak and Young were not the only ones speaking half truths. A perfect storm of lies and deception was created that could affect the outcome of the case.

"Miracle Creek" by Angie Kim is an absolutely riveting read. Each primary/secondary character was thoroughly fleshed out. This reader was able to sympathize with Mary Yoo's feelings of isolation and loneliness as a teenage immigrant. The exclusion felt by the parents of special needs children and the need of support from an insular community of parents with similar experiences cannot be understated. The courtroom trial was fascinating, the twists and turns made this reader continue to question Elizabeth's culpability. "Miracle Creek" by Angie Kim is a debut novel of the finest caliber. A must read!

Thank you Sarah Crichton Books, Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "Miracle Creek".

Miracle Creek is dramatic and thrilling and sad. It's a story about a courtroom drama to find out who is responsible for a fire that killed 3 people. The fire happened in a hyperbaric oxygen facility owned by a Korean immigrant family. They have a child with special needs who uses the hyperbaric oxygen chamber. They will do anything for their child. Several perspectives in the story. A little confusing at times. Well written about caring for children. I came to understand that everyone is lying or so it seems. It's a very twisting round and round kind of story. It's so intriguing and tragic that you just have to keep reading. What is going to happen? It's a good engrossing story that pulls you in for a while. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.