Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim

13 reviews

skbat's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

3.75

The mystery was intriguing and kept me hooked. Horribly graphic though. The treatment of autism and disability was acidic, portraying flawed mothers pushing their children towards "normalcy" at any cost.

The worst offender realizes this is a mistake far too late.

No perspective from any of the actually autistic people - Happiness Falls is much better in that regard. The reveal was satisfying enough, but I'm sad for all the characters and a little scarred.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Child death, Medical trauma, Rape, Ableism, Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Fire/Fire injury, and Suicide

Moderate: Grief, Car accident, Chronic illness, and Racism

Minor: Alcohol and Vomit

ehost's review against another edition

emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Infertility, Chronic illness, Child death, Car accident, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Grief, Gore, Death of parent, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Ableism, and Mental illness

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

lpdx's review against another edition

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

bookishhl8275's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-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

4.0

I loved the writing style, the character growth and the storyline was so interesting to me.
I’ve never read a legal thriller and this book opened me up into a world of books I thought I’d never read!
Highly recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Murder, Death, Violence, Gore, Sexual assault, Child death, and Death of parent

jesscoast's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I’ma little floored after wrapping up this devastating, complex, horrific book. Yet I’m incredibly impressed by the feat accomplished by Kim in telling this detailed, structured, gripping story.

With elements of horror and family drama woven through the intricate threads of Miracle Creek, it goes further than any courtroom thriller could be expected to do. The character’s back stories, family dynamics, motives and claims all come into question and all play out over an emotional four day trial. The book is not for the faint of heart and I did have trouble coming back to it in the beginning, but I felt a commitment to the characters to see it through to the end. Each new peice of information is a clue and the mystery begins to reveal itself along the many intentions, misguided deeds, web of lies, cover ups, and guilty consciousnesses. Each new discovery makes the reader reposition their theories and redirects the jury, making everyone a suspect and truly playing into the spirit of mystery. The execution of this story, though heartbreaking and gory, is brilliantly designed. The focus on pain and suffering, the tragedy and fall out, deaths and injuries caused by the explosion were all focused on the impact on victims and survivors, parents losing children or children losing patents. The seemingly random decisions and actions that compounded down a path to a deadly accident and the chaos and devastation that followed. This book curable certainly left an impact on me, I’ll be thinking about it for a long time to come. Its heaviness will sit with me, as will the strength of Theresa, Young, and many of the women in difficulty situations, the sacrifice of immigrant parents, and the struggles of mothers of disabled children in this story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Death of parent, Gore, Death, Medical trauma, Body horror, Child abuse, Grief, and Medical content

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

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

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

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, 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 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, 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.