Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim

22 reviews

brookey8888's review

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

ticktock's review

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

pollyflorence's review

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

ashleysbookthoughts's review

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, Gaslighting, Death, Sexual assault, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Murder, Racism, Suicide, and Xenophobia

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

Minor: Cancer

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

alicelalicon's review against another edition

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Car accident, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Ableism, Alcohol, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Toxic friendship, Blood, Child death, Death, Racism, Sexual assault, and Suicide

Minor: Excrement

annoyedhumanoid's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective 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

5.0

i'm impressed
hot take, i'm not that big a fan of Shakespeare because so many of his plots (at least, his tragedies) are like, if any one thing in this series of unfortunate events had gone differently then we wouldn't be in these tragic circumstances, except the series of unfortunate events is ridiculous and arbitrary. best example: in Hamlet (spoilers), when Hamlet stabs and kills Polonius, who was eavesdropping behind a curtain, because Hamlet thought he heard a rat. that's just undeniably stupid for a major plot point. Miracle Creek has the same concept—if anything had gone differently we could have avoided tragedy—but pulls it off expertly. Shakespeare could never??
could this be considered southern gothic? it's set in Virginia, nearly everyone is a grotesque character, and there's some truly disturbing content, plus themes of racism, sexism, and poverty.
this review has been completely shaped by my English class experience
cover design review: ★★★★½. love the colors, the scenery, and the burn holes, but it starts to feel crowded with the addition of glitter and stars. not a big fan of the typeface, makes me think of Papyrus 😬

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Medical content, Medical trauma, Ableism, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Chronic illness, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Child abuse, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, and Rape

Moderate: Abandonment, Cursing, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Confinement, Excrement, Alcohol, Blood, Car accident, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Cancer, Forced institutionalization, Bullying, Stalking, and Vomit

savvyrosereads's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.0

First read in 2019; review based on my April ’22 reread!

Rating: 4/5 stars (boosted 0.5 stars from my original rating)

Told through the frame of a murder trial, Miracle Creek is a literary courtroom mystery centered on the fallout from an explosion and fire at “Miracle Submarine,” a hyperbaric oxygen treatment center owned by a Korean immigrant family and primarily catering to children with special needs. The mother of one of the patients stands accused of murdering her son…but everyone has secrets, and the trial just may reveal them all.

I generally shy away from courtroom thrillers because, frankly, they’re rarely well-done or realistic, and, as a lawyer, they can be downright painful to read. Fortunately, Miracle Creek is written by a former trial attorney, and the courtroom scenes are realistic, riveting, and the absolute best I’ve come across in a book to date. This second read managed to impress me even more, because the many heartbreaking but beautiful moments of the narrative really shone through on a reread, including insights into the immigrant experience, parenthood, and surviving trauma.

I want to flag that this is by no means an easy read, and you should absolutely check content warnings before diving in. But it is memorable and beautifully written, and I’m so glad I read it twice.

Recommended to anyone, but especially if you like: courtroom dramas; first generation immigrant stories; literary thrillers.

CW: Ableism; child abuse; child death; murder; fire/fire injury; sexual assault, suicide.

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Content Warnings

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

emeraldelephant's review

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, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical trauma

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

habertoes's review

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

Ableism against autistic children.