Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim

85 reviews

katrinarose's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

This book was beautiful and heartbreaking. I definitely understand the comparisons to Little Fires Everywhere with the writing style, mystery stemming from a fire, intensely explored parent-child relationships, and overall themes. I loved both books (and they do have plenty of differences from each other). 

The author does an incredible job making fully developed characters. Reading her writing makes me feel justified for every complaint I’ve made for other books not having good character development, because THIS is what good character development looks like (and I’m not just picky, although maybe I am that too.) Kim definitely puts you on an emotional rollercoaster - you begin hating a character from another character’s viewpoint but then you get humbled once you get the other character’s perspective, backstory, emotions, and motivations. It truly is a study of “there’s two sides to every story”, and I think it gives the reader a lot to think about, not just in the book, but how we interact with the stories told every day by people we know and especially online.

The storyline itself was very engaging; it was very hard to put the book down. I really enjoyed all the POVs, for the reasons listed above but also for how it propelled the story along. I’m in awe of how she kept the mystery going even when we did get the the perspectives of the one(s) who committed the crime. I like a court procedural style. The back and forth was very satisfying to me, and reminded me a little of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. I think it was believable but I think that’s because I found the characters so believable, and I understand a few criticisms of the crime plot’s unbelievability. However I don’t think it was enough to ruin or even affect my reading experience. 

I’m in love with Kim’s writing style too. She gives her characters such grace while not shying away from the dark things they do too. In my opinion she is a master of similes, never before have I seen them used so often with such strong effect. 

I feel like I could talk about this book forever but I’ll leave it at that. I can’t think of anyone I wouldn’t recommend this book to, except maybe minors due to some tough subjects. It’s a new favorite.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual assault, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual content, Suicide, and Xenophobia

apiora215's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

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

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

brookey8888's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-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

This was fine. I really enjoyed this when it was the court scenes, but other then that I found it incredibly slow and it was more telling then showing. I did find the topic interesting and the different stories weaving together. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

nykolereads's review against another edition

challenging mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Suicide and Grief

mollywill's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Suicide and Grief

pollyflorence's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Sexual assault, Suicide, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

ashleysbookthoughts's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

4.0

I’m trying very hard to write a review of this book and not a rant about ableism and misinformation about autism. If you’re interested in that, please DM me, because this book brought up THOUGHTS. This book will be a very difficult read if you have or love someone who has autism. Angie Kim makes it clear that the opinions presented belong to her characters and aren’t her own, but she doesn’t pull punches. So, even though it’s a huge part of this book, I’m not going to talk about autism here. 

Instead, I’ll talk about the excellent pacing, clever plotting, twists and turns, and remarkably complex characters who I simultaneously loved and hated. Miracle Creek is a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, an immigrant story, and an attack on the idea of the “Good Mother.” But most of all, it’s a story of consequences. Of how decisions and actions that seem small and inconsequential can cause irreparable damage. 

This book made me angry, tense, scared, sympathetic, and devastated. I don’t know that I loved it, but it kept me up at night and when I wasn’t actively reading it, I thought about it constantly. Thats pretty high praise. 

CW: ableism, murder, fire, fire death, suicide, chronic illness, sexual assault, assault of a minor, child abuse, racism, child death

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Racism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Xenophobia, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Infertility, Misogyny, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Stalking, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cancer

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

Moderate: Infertility and Medical content

Misinformation about Autism/ASD PTSD

orireading's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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: Ableism, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt