Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim

12 reviews

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

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

fkshg8465's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad slow-paced

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

5.0

This was an amazing debut for the author. Took some very heavy subjects and unfolded then one at a time. Loved the court scenes. The defense attorney’s questioning and questions were so entertaining. Lots of triggers: immigration impact on children and parents (affects them differently), autism, parents of autism, sexual assault, suicide, coma, infertility, infidelity, arson, Asian fetish, and so much more. So beware before you read, but also know it’s great storytelling.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infertility, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Confinement, Infidelity, Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Car accident, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Medical content, Racism, Suicide, Toxic friendship, and Xenophobia

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

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

Moderate: Suicide, Sexual content, and Xenophobia

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

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, 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

toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

3.5

It's been years since I've read a courtroom drama, so I was excited to finally pick this up. Miracle Creek is about Miracle Submarine, a treatment center that the owners claim can treat an array of conditions including infertility and autism using hyperbaric oxygenation therapy or HBOT for short. When the HBOT chamber explodes and kills two people, this book turns into a who dunnit very quickly. Told in multiple points of view, this unique courtroom drama shows you the story from all angles while also covering the trial over the course of a few days. It was fun figuring out who did it, but a little bit easy. I'm not sure if it was just easy for me or not, but I had an inkling during the first section of the book of who did it and I was correct. Even with that, though - every chapter was interesting and engaging. There wasn't any filler or nonsense to sift through. I liked the family dynamics that were explored throughout, the good, bad, and absolutely horrifyingly ugly. Every character was interesting even if I found them disgusting - and for the most part, I absolutely did. I do wish that it had been harder for me to figure out and I wish that it had been maybe one section longer, which I know sounds crazy coming from me because I'm always saying in my reviews that I thought a book could've been edited down. I see the irony, believe me!! Overall, this was a solid book and if you like courtroom dramas and complicated family dynamics, you should pick it up.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Murder, Sexual violence, Body horror, Suicide, Child death, Death of parent, Death, and Ableism

Moderate: Infertility, Infidelity, Body horror, Stalking, and Xenophobia

Minor: Excrement

ktkncd's review against another edition

challenging 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Infertility, Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, and Xenophobia

Minor: Car accident