Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim

31 reviews

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

cigarettelouie's review against another edition

dark 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

2.0

The author’s cultural connection to the characters was very authentic and compelled me to keep reading. However, this book read very sensationally about autism. As a neurodivergent person, it was pretty triggering and I can’t say I’d recommend it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Adult/minor relationship, Car accident, Death, Ableism, Chronic illness, and Child death

emmaisabelle's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

3.0

While it was definitely engrossing and I enjoyed the mystery-courtroom drama mix, I found the focus on neurotypical characters when so much of the book revolves around autism and people of autism pretty unappealing. The constant onslaught of ableist language and ideas was a LOT. It really just left me thinking “What is the point of hearing all these people talk about how much they hate people with autism and how autism is a disease that needs to be fixed?” Not once did the characters with autism have a voice in this book. 

That said I think the way Kim explores the truth of what happened, the way people invent stories to fit their own narratives and emotions, and how witnesses’ memories are formed by the complex context leading to the events of the book was fascinating. While it was sometimes jarring to switch POV so many times, I do think Kim is really good at managing all those different opinions, memories, thoughts, personalities, etc. She really raises interesting questions about truth/memory, guilt/innocence, and parenthood. I just could not handle the rampent ableism nor did I really see the point of going that hard on it. I’m just not sure the book needed that much hatred of autistic people in it lol, even if it’s pretty clear Kim is not her characters and doesn’t share their thoughts. 

Overall an engrossing courtroom thriller-mystery but just too put off by the incessant ableism of the characters. If you read, just be prepared for two hundred pages of characters discussing how autistic children are problems that need to be fixed.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Death of parent

megan_martha_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

3.0

Warning: child abuse, death, suicide, sexual assault

This book read fast because it is a courtroom / family drama. But it’s really heavy. I felt sad and disturbed after finishing it, like you feel after watching law and order SUV or multiple episodes of criminal minds. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Death of parent, Chronic illness, Death, Child death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

omgmkg's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

I’m not sure how to give this book a star rating. I found it insufferable at first because it was just so obvious that each perspective was obfuscating a lot. The inclusions of little details thrown in like “…before cigarettes and Matt” that were largely irrelevant to the current topic and I guess designed to build suspense just really didn’t work for me. It was super weird to have them especially since they were not in first person. The court room procedural was boring and unnecessarily detailed for me, hard to get through… until it wasn’t. At some point, I switched to the audiobook, which made things easier right away. And then the story itself got me. By the end of this book, I really liked it. I liked the dilemmas each character faces, I liked the deep complexity and conflict. 
It was also a compelling exploration of motherhood (but almost all of it is super dark, at least at first…)

the book really started to work for me when Young began to investigate and put the pieces of the puzzle together herself. Then, any obfuscation was by others for a REASON (they didn’t want her to find out the truth) rather than casually just not mentioning things or making them purposefully mysterious just for the reader. Her third person but limited perspective also worked for me here. And the book fully gelled into something pretty fantastic once the whole family knew the truth and disagreed about what to do next. That was really great writing and a super compelling challenge. It is where the heart of the book truly lies. I’m not sure how the author could have gotten there without at least some of the parts that didn’t work for me, but I wish there had been less purposeful misdirection and more focus on Young and her family.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, Child abuse, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Suicide

Moderate: Xenophobia, Gaslighting, Excrement, Medical trauma, Sexism, Medical content, and Alcohol

moniipeters's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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: Chronic illness, Xenophobia, Blood, Body horror, Car accident, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Abandonment, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Sexism, Violence, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Terminal illness

moriahleigh's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Bullying, Infertility, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, and Toxic friendship

weird_but_fucking_beautiful's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense 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

4.5

This isn’t an easy book to try and review. In fact, it is a downright ugly book to try and review. There are no happy go lucky characters here. No happy endings. This story is about the unforgiving daily hardships a parent faces as the single care giver of a child with special needs. This story is about the lies we tell ourselves and others to fit a narrative that leads to the most suitable outcome. How far would you go to protect someone you loved? How much of something beneficial is too much?  These are some of the tough questions author Angie Kim poses as she skillfully balances the memories of the moralistically grey characters, barring one, regarding the event in question with scenes from the ongoing trial. The book relies heavily on the theory of The Butterfly Effect in which “the smallest of changes in one surrounding could leave drastic ripple effects at some point in the future”. It is a heavy, thought provoking story that does not cut corners in any of its topic debates including what is exactly the fine line between nurturing a child vs abusing a child. 

A potential 5 star read, I knocked a 1/2 star off due to a slight drag in the middle. 

 

 

 

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, and Suicide

Moderate: Car accident, Death of parent, Infertility, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders and Stalking

mairyhammoth's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Ableism, Racism, Death, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Car accident

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