Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim

24 reviews

sparklefarm's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

I'm glad I read Happiness Falls before this one because I did not enjoy this read. Some small quibbles, but enough serious concerns that I do not recommend. Thoughts in no particular order below.

• Could have done without the entire
  Matt-Mary
  storyline. It's not like it was portrayed in a good light, I just prefer my books without that kind of yuck.
• Relatedly I never want to hear the word
  penis
  again.
• In general this book felt overwritten. So. Many. Similes.
• The writing on autism felt borderline offensive. So much talk about wanting kids to be ~normal~ and the only characters who had a different outlook were vilified. I did not get this sense from Happiness Falls, which also deals with autism, so I hope there has been some learning in the meantime.
• Incredible audio narration.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Child abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, and Rape

Minor: Grief

ariana3's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I wanted to like this book, but it took me a while to get into it. It didn't capture my attention right away, as I could tell this was sort of a whodunnit mystery but it was a slow-moving pace. Overall I really did like the ending! It's bittersweet and resolves itself entirely.
Plot summary:

The Yoo family moved feom Seoul, South Korea to the US for a better life for their daughter Mary. But Mary hated the US, felt alone and alienated from her peers and her parents. Her parents eventually open a HBOT (hyperbaric oxygen treatment) center to help treat all sorts of patients. In this case, the patients are centered around a doctor, Matt, whose wife is obsessed with having a child and claims he's infertile (he's the only adult being treated), Teresa's daughter with cerebral palsy, Kitt's son with autism, and Elizabeth's son, Henry, also with autism. A fire breaks out at the center, which also happens to be on the Yoo's property, and Kitt and Henry both die. Matt's hand becomes deformed, Mary is scarred, and Pak is paralyzed. A trial begins for who set the fire, and all eyes are on Elizabeth. Prosecutors say she intended to kill Henry because she couldn't deal with life as a mother to a child with autism. It was hard and robbed her of herself. The evidence is seemingly staggering against her. The story of the characters plays out, and turns out she's totally innocent. However, she becomes convinced throughout the trial process that she's a terrible mother and she decides to end it all by committing suicide. She drives her lawyer's car off a cliff. Now the real story comes down to Matt. His marriage wasn't great, and he started spending time with Mary who was 16 at the time. On her 17th birthday, he forces himself on her - a misunderstanding/accident on his part, but definitely assault....his wife thinks Mary is basically stalking Matt, so she confronts her and says she's a whore and to leave Matt alone. In a fit of rage, Mary sets the fire by the barn to hopefully make it so that their family can leave this terrible place and go back to Seoul. Her dad had put cigarettes and matches near the oxygen tank to frame some protestors but he put it out just to make it appear to be a stopped fire. She doesn't know this, doesn't know that people were inside, and it's too late when she finds out. The bittersweet part is that her mother convinces her to confess. To help clear her conscious, deal with the consequences of her actions, rather than let it slide and place blame elsewhere just so she can avoid jail time. In the end, the money from Elizabeth's will goes to fund a daycare/camp for special needs and autism kids. So it's a terribly tragic and sad story, but has a somewhat slightly feel-good ending.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Mental illness, Suicide, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Terminal illness, Child death, Grief, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Sexual content, and Child abuse

Minor: Body horror, Bullying, Infertility, Alcohol, Car accident, and Infidelity

lpdx's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child abuse, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, Sexual assault, Child death, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide, Chronic illness, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, and Rape

Minor: Excrement and Infertility

theoriebubble's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child death, Emotional abuse, Racism, Death, Rape, and Child abuse

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Bullying

espaileen's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

3.5

Great exploration of the immigrant experience, but very shallow representation of parents of autistic children. Not enough prose to counter the ableist thoughts of the flawed characters. The autism representation didn't sit well with me, which is unfortunate because it's one of the best representations of the Asian immigrant experience I've read in recent fiction.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Ableism, Sexual violence, Rape, and Racism

outernetbex's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

3.75

i was a little disappointed by the ending honestly. i think that may be the point of the book though.

it wasn’t the satisfying end that i had hoped for because no one that actually deserved it got punished? it felt a bit like… silly for it to just have been some horrible accident. i know that’s how things go in real life, but i’m still annoyed about matt’s involvement

i think the author did a great job capturing the reality of life and the entertainment of the court cases. i felt like maybe it was too long. i started feeling like impatient for the resolution instead of anticipating the end with all its reveals. i read it in two days though, good book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Child death

Moderate: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, and Vomit

camz's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child death, Chronic illness, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, and Pedophilia

yaoipaddle's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

It was good but kind of exhausting. I couldn’t put it down and would wanna keep reading even when I was tired. But so often it felt like every single chapter had a GOTCHA moment where it upturned everything I was thinking. And after a couple times… the twist is so predictable it’s like I’m waiting for what the next twist would be. Also the romanization for the Korean was some of the worst I’ve seen in a book and this was written in like 2019 so I don’t get it. Overall once the ending is what you expect the rest of it just feels kind of fluffy and unsatisfying in how perfectly everything was “wrapped up” 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Death, Racial slurs, and Ableism

Minor: Racism, Xenophobia, Suicide, Sexism, and Vomit

zamzamzebra's review against another edition

emotional mysterious 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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Suicide

Moderate: Infertility and Medical content

Misinformation about Autism/ASD PTSD

kleaf's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Car accident, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Grief, Infertility, Alcohol, Chronic illness, Death, Medical content, Murder, Sexual assault, Suicide, Death of parent, Pedophilia, Terminal illness, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and Rape