Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim

73 reviews

emeraldelephant's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Confinement, Infertility, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Medical content, and Car accident

habertoes's review against another edition

The book did not address satisfactorily the inherent ableism in the plot. The MC owns a hyperbaric chamber company and multiple mothers bring their autistic children to 'treat' their autism. The children are young and not given any voice by the author. There is a group of protestors who see the problem and false promises with this hyperbaric treatment, but they are not given any credence and are treated like the villains. Unfortunately, this was enough to turn me off the story despite the quality writing and own voices depiction of a family of Korean immigrants. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Excrement, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Ableism against autistic children.

suzyh5317's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual assault

peeshpish's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Differing POVs & unreliable narrators help keep the mystery going until the end without completely misleading readers or being too obviously a misdirection.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Toxic friendship

Minor: Addiction and Vomit

kfrickle's review against another edition

I found that it was going to be a tough read for me. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

gabbo's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, Sexual assault, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Child death, Infertility, Racism, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Suicide

patriciadm's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Suicide

kry_yang's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I'm a sucker for mystery books with an element of character-psychoanalysis (basically Celeste Ng's books lol), so when I read the description of this book I knew I had to pick it up.

And ohhhhh my godddd this book was INSANE. There were several points who I couldn't stop reading, and at the same time there were chapters that I had to pause because I couldn't possibly stomach what was going on. (TBH there's a ton of really triggering content in this book and I would def check out the trigger warnings before reading because this shit is HEAVY.)

The story touches upon immigration narratives, disability, and parenting. I kinda expected more analysis on Asian-American-ness (it's one of the main reasons I was drawn to the book in the first place). Knocking off 0.5 stars because I honestly found the Yoo family kind of disappointing. I have really high expectations when it comes to fiction that explores ASAM issues, and I felt that some of the backstories of the Korean-American characters felt a bit one-dimensional and cookie-cutter.

The other characters though--Elizabeth specifically--oh my god they ripped by heart out. Elizabeth's story is an incredible exploration of motherhood, and the incredible sacrifices that come with raising a neurodivergent child. Kim really does not hold back; she really digs into the psyches of her characters, and while some characters felt more compelling than others, the book overall was just an incredible(ly difficult) read.

Overall, I'd say this is book shines for its analysis and exploration of disability and parenting--and while POC/immigration/ASAM issues are definitely one aspect of the story, I didn't find that to be the most compelling part of the book.

Kim's language is also relatively straightforward--she does have some more lyrical sentences towards the ends of each chapter, but I found the language really accessible. I almost wish Kim wrote with a bit more *flowery* prose, just to make me ache even more :')

Miracle Creek is a "whodunnit" courtroom drama, blended with a slow-burn character exploration that really digs into each character's backstory and personality. I flew through this book in like 3-4 days and I look forward to reading more from Angie Kim in the future!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Suicide, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury

cryptogay's review against another edition

challenging reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

This is a hard one. I didn't really know what this book was about when I checked it out, I'd just heard it was good so I thought I'd give it a try. If I had known, I probably wouldn't have read it, as I generally give anything about autism not written by autistic authors a pass.
Miracle Creek covers a lot of complicated territory. Much of this concerns the experimental medical treatments used on disabled children, especially autistic children. I don't think it handles this aspect of its story very well. A group of protesters against the medicalization of autism are portrayed as unpleasant, invasive, and aggressive. The parents of the autistic children directly involved in the story are written about with compassion despite one of them being revealed to be seriously physically and emotionally abusive to her son, even without getting into the various therapies she sends him to in attempts to "cure" his autism. In contrast, the autistic characters are never really given a voice. Yes, the two featured in the book are children, but autistic adults exist, and quite frankly make up the majority of the movements against the abusive "therapies" that are used on autistic people, primarily children. The fact that no autistic adults ever appear, and the two characters who actually openly speak about these treatments as abuse barely appear and are largely discredited, these things tilt the book towards endorsing this abuse, or at least parts of it. I don't know what Kim's intentions or feelings were with regard to this aspect of the story, but it really wasn't handled well. 
Autism isn't a disease or an illness, its a brain structure, and it varies from person to person. It is not something that can be "cured", and it is not caused by vaccines. The therapies that claim to cure or treat autism vary from complete bunk to abuse and manipulation, and acting like they aren't these things is harmful to the children forced to undergo them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

Moderate: Confinement, Infertility, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Excrement, Stalking, and Car accident

sglance9's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Sexual assault, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Infertility, Infidelity, and Suicide