Miracle Creek

This book was unlike any other I've read. I'm a huge mystery/thriller fan but I'd yet to read a courtroom drama and this sets the bar exceptionally high now for the genre. Angie Kim throws a story at you where you're forced to look at the darker side of people, but, not because they're evil but because they are simply human. There are tough decisions to face, and even tougher consequences as ever action echoes a 'what could have been' had the person not made that choice. And that's the best part, each character is held accountable to their thoughts and actions. You also face a harsher reality of what families/people face when they choose to try and better their families lives by moving to America.

There is the story of a Korean family and its choice to move to the USA and how it affects them, there are the choices of a husband and wife pushed to the point of breaking over cultural (in-laws) and lifestyle differences and what they do to ease the tension, for better or extremely worse, and there are the choices of women with children all different in their own way, and the difficulties that come from their parenting choices, their children and their needs, and outside pressure. Honestly, this book was superb in every way. I would recommend this book in a heartbeat to anyone wanting to read a gripping and dramatic contemporary work of fiction.

Content warning: Sexual assault, death, death of children, abuse, suicide

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.

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.

Truly excellent and thought provoking.

A well written courtroom drama that is far more than a mere legal thriller.

It deals with so many threads. Family, immigrants and how they assimilate, autism, new medical advances, women’s issues and so much more.

The prose is clear, spare and elegant.

Read it!

The Kim family run a chamber that can be sealed shut and delivers pure oxygen to users such as children with disabilities and their parents.
But someone sets a fire that burns down the chamber and kills two of its occupants.
This novel - Kim’s first - is about the tangled web of people implicated in the fire and the subsequent trial.
Other reviewers have said they found it difficult to engage with the characters, but I found it easy and found them rounded and likeable.
I enjoyed this and found it well-written and engrossing.
The plot is quite complicated but this doesn’t detract from the story. I really wanted to know exactly what happened.
I’d thoroughly recommend this novel and hope Kim writes more of this calibre.

It's so hard to believe that this is a debut novel! Dark and hard to read, it's good, well written and full of realistic characters with deep motivations. Some parts felt like getting punched in the stomach and, yet, it was hard to stop. None of the characters are likable and I found myself taken over by the narrative and wanting some of them to pay for actions that may not necessarily have anything to do with the explosion that sets off the story. Then again, every single character is hiding something and all of the secrets combine into a deadly mixture that will inexorably take the book to its conclusion. This is not an easy, fast read, but a challenging novel that is worth the effort.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Hodder & Stoughton!

An addictive and compelling courtroom story following a terrible accident; or was there more to it than that. Multiple twists in the search for the truth with multiple possible guilty parties.

Under the guise of a courtroom drama, Miracle Creek is a complex, character-driven novel about life's randomness - luck and bad fortune, unfairness and the human’s complexities.

Angie Kim has devised an incredible story that covers relationships, disability and autism, the many facets of motherhood and female friendships, immigration, some aspects of Korean culture and many other things.

The author did an incredible job showing us the many aspects of caring for someone with a disability and for kids on the spectrum. The guilt, the exhaustion, the driving to this or that doctor and/or therapy, the advocating, researching, implementing strategies, administering treatments, the damned if you do, damned if you don’t and the constant questioning. Of course, you've got those with fewer needs than others. Autism is a spectrum, where some could be put in the "just quirky" category, while at the other end, you have those who will never be able to live independent lives.
Elizabeth's son was in the "just a quirky boy category". Her story broke my heart in a million pieces.

Each character's story, their motivations are gradually revealed to keep us fully engaged to the bitter-sweet end.

A wonderful debut novel, highly recommended.

An amazing story. How one action - not one that is meant to do harm - leads to actions that cause harm. Then another, and another - all of which wouldn't hurt anyone. What we think, and how we share those thoughts with others also cause harm - especially when overheard by a third person. It's like the ripples when a leaf hits water. The leaf is so light that it shouldn't have an effect - but it does.

Parents want the best for their children. Yet at times they resent them and wish they''d never been born - as do the children. Does that mean that they don't love one another?

Miracle Creek is such a beautifully written courtroom drama that really is so much more than just a courtroom drama. It has the whodunnit aspect, while also going deeper and exploring parenthood, disability, cultural identity, immigration, and caregiving. When an experimental medical facility in Virginia explodes, two people die and a murder trial ensues. This is definitely a novel that will make readers think. Highly recommended to readers who enjoyed Little Fires Everywhere and to those who enjoy a strong literary mystery.

Thank you to NetGalley, Angie Kim and Hodder & Stoughton for the free e-book in exchange for an honest review!

In the small town of Miracle Creek, Young and Pak Yoo run an experimental medical treatment known as “Miracle Submarine”. It is a pressurized oxygen chamber that patients enter for therapy “dives” in hopes of curing autism or infertility. But when miracle submarine explodes, killing two people a dramatic murder upends the small community.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect going into this novel with all the hype and I was worried that this wouldn’t be up my alley. But I was pleasantly surprised by how interested in this novel I actually was and how much I enjoyed how the courtroom drama was portrayed. I was shocked by the twists and behaviour of some of the characters in this novel and I enjoyed seeing the ending coming together. I really enjoyed all the little dramas that added up to causes this explosion! This one made me feel so many different emotions and I couldn’t help but keep reading to find out what mess was coming next. I thoroughly enjoyed the ending and am definitely recommending everyone give this one a try!

I admit that I'm drawn to heart-wrenching books and many that make me ugly cry, but I was sobbing at the end of this lovely debut. It got me thinking about the Autism Spectrum as the novel deals with several autistic kids whose parents seek "the miracle submarine" (which is in reality a hyperbaric chamber) in order to promote healing, as breathing in 100% oxygen is thought to repair damaged cells quickly. But in reality, aren't there actually many "spectrums" in life? Isn't there a Love Spectrum and at any given time you may find yourself at any end of it or somewhere in the middle? Or a Guilt Spectrum where you may experience mild guilt or the gut-wrenching kind that eats away at your conscience? Kim speaks to so many issues in this novel which is so beautifully written that you can't tear yourself away. Parenting and relationships are difficult no matter how competent we are and there will be missteps along the way where we misjudge and are misjudged.
So even though this book centers around a murder trial with many perspectives, the deeper issues beneath the surface are what make the novel so poignant and rich in its voice. It is truly a gem; just keep the tissues handy!

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim is primarily a legal thriller but blended well into it is not only a murder mystery and courtroom drama but the various aspects of the lives and relationships of it’s many players. The book begins with the event that will then fast-forward readers a year to the trial all the while looking back to what happened from the various points of view.

The setting of the incident in question in this story takes place in a small town in Virginia where Korean immigrants, Pak and Young Yoo, have set up a very unique business. The Yoo’s are running a hyperbaric chamber that is built to handle many patients inside at one time as it’s been found that the oxygen therapy that takes place in one of these chambers can help with anything from infertility to autism.

One morning the Yoo’s are running one of their group sessions when things do not go as planned. The group inside the chamber are all regulars and familiar with one another but as the session takes place protesters have staked out the area, the Yoo’s are distracted, one mother stays out of the chamber to sneak off for some alone time and while all is happening around them the chamber explodes. Evidence leads to a trial taking place a year from the accident where all the secrets and lies will be revealed.

Ok, I have to admit that starting out reading this book the first response it got out of me was really pure anger. The jump ahead has a mother of an autistic child on trial for the explosion because the child was a burden to her… WHAT?!?!? So after fighting the urge to throw it across the room I continued on to find an emotional roller coaster with plenty of spiraling twists and turns. In the end I thought to myself any book that can elicit a strong emotional reaction that fast and then keep the pages turning deserves high marks. 4 1/2 stars from me for this thought provoking read.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

How did the mother of an autistic boy, whose life was dedicated to seeing him improve, end up on trial for his murder?

Lots of different voices tell this story, the events that led up to the tragedy and the actions that followed proved one thing. Everybody lies.

Little white lies, great big whoppers, lies told to other people, lies told to oneself. Every single person in this story told a lie and then told themselves it didn't matter, it had no consequence.

Except all the lies had consequences.

I thoroughly enjoyed this examination of the life of an immigrant family. The pressure put upon a child to be part of the new world and part of the old at the same time leading to them feeling they are part of neither rings true.

The mothers are all looking for a cure for their child's ailments and conditions. While almost entering into a competition about which child is worse off and who works harder to find a cure they miss out on the joy of simply loving their child for who they are.

Angie Kim examines the lives of these people and in doing so not only tells a great story but makes us think about our own lives and the lies we tell ourselves and others simply to get through the day.