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A review by syllareads
Miracle Creek by Angie Kim
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
I struggled over how to rate this book for a long while and I think I've finally arrived at a conclusion I can somewhat explain.
Warning: This entire review has mild to bigger spoilers for this book so if you do not want to read about that, please just get the book now - or don't. It's up to you~
What I liked:
The entire setting was very intriguing - setting up a mystery case by going from everyone in a courtroom being absolutely sure about who the bad guy is to the entire thing growing more and more convoluted and complicated as each person in the courtroom recalls memories that lead the reader up a false road....I really enjoyed that part! I've never read anything quite like it, and I have to agree with other reviewers in that it's apparent Angie Kim has real-life experience with the courtroom; it really shone through every carefully arranged scene. Some things had a pretty dramatic touch which overall fit the theme of the book quite well.
One of the characters, Mary Yoo, is in a pretty similar situation to the author herself - a Korean girl who moved to America in her preteens and had to completely assimilate to a different culture that was downright hostile to her at times. The entire Yoo family and the background they all carried around, as well as Janine (another Korean woman married to Matt, an American doctor) and her insecurities about herself and her position in this world, were beautifully, if painfully, explored and I'm sure I'm not just talking out of my ass when I say that Angie Kim got at least partially inspired by her own life and wrote it into words. It felt raw and messy and flawed and utterly, painfully human and it struck a chord even in me who will never fully understand what it means to be a stranger in your own country.
Overall, flawed and messy characters seem to be the author's absolute strong suit and I highly enjoyed that asepct even though it made me downright uncomfortable at times.
What I didn't like:
But, Sylla, you might ask: why give this book such a bad rating if you enjoyed the human messiness of it all? Well, sadly: there's a pretty good reason for that, and it's how Autism is handled in the entire novel and is made the center of attention without centering autistic characters at all.
(CW: Child Abuse, Ableism)
The entire novel hinges on the fact that an HBOT facility (which stands for "hyperbaric oxygen therapy") blows up in the middle of a dive and kills two of the people inside, a mother (Kitt) and another mother's autistic child, Henry. Now the first sign of alarm for people somewhat versed in the medical field (and what I had to look up): HBOT is actually not even fully approved for the "treatment" of autistic children because the data is inconclusive. There is just not enough evidence to support claims of these kids being "healed" by spending a while in a pressurized chamber with 100% oxygen delivered to them via a diving helmet. But that is, sadly, not all and definitely not the thing I disliked the most.
I started this book without really knowing what I was getting into and at first, I was simply reading and puzzling along about whether or not Elizabeth, mother to the deceased Henry mentioned above, was actually the person to set the fire or not. I started getting uncomfortable at some point (and couldn't really put my finger on it) because while the book and its characters focus a lot on their respective autistic or otherwise disabled children, none of them ever gain their own voice in the process.
And while I somewhat understand that I guess, the fact that most of these mothers and their pain was centered when it came to their disabled kids was just downright disgusting to me the more I thought about it. Is it hard to be a mother? Well, obviously, but to constantly center the pain of everyone around a child in need of more support for whatever reason is just really not the way to go about it in my opinion.
Also, I was just very uncomfortable with the fact that every one of these characters believes that their autistic kids can be "cured", while the only people to oppose the HBOT thing (a bunch of protesters of which only one gets a name) and the search for a "cure" for autism are only superficially described and serve as antagonists for basically the entire novel.
One of the main characters is also shown having to come to terms with the fact that she did abuse her child since she just told herself, "But I didn't hit him so it's not abuse, right!"
Obviously, this is something people do have to face and I have to say I'm glad she did because the things described were enough to make me feel sick to the stomach and empathy for her poor son. It nonetheless left a bad taste in my stomach, especially compared to everything I said above.
TL;DR: I feel like I have to give this book a 2-star rating because the portrayal of autism while just depicting how much parents of autistic kids suffer is not something I want for autistic people to read; I can only imagine the hurt it would cause. It's a well-written book with a highly interesting premise and set-up but overall, I just couldn't enjoy it for these reasons and I cannot recommend it exactly for those as well.
Warning: This entire review has mild to bigger spoilers for this book so if you do not want to read about that, please just get the book now - or don't. It's up to you~
What I liked:
The entire setting was very intriguing - setting up a mystery case by going from everyone in a courtroom being absolutely sure about who the bad guy is to the entire thing growing more and more convoluted and complicated as each person in the courtroom recalls memories that lead the reader up a false road....I really enjoyed that part! I've never read anything quite like it, and I have to agree with other reviewers in that it's apparent Angie Kim has real-life experience with the courtroom; it really shone through every carefully arranged scene. Some things had a pretty dramatic touch which overall fit the theme of the book quite well.
One of the characters, Mary Yoo, is in a pretty similar situation to the author herself - a Korean girl who moved to America in her preteens and had to completely assimilate to a different culture that was downright hostile to her at times. The entire Yoo family and the background they all carried around, as well as Janine (another Korean woman married to Matt, an American doctor) and her insecurities about herself and her position in this world, were beautifully, if painfully, explored and I'm sure I'm not just talking out of my ass when I say that Angie Kim got at least partially inspired by her own life and wrote it into words. It felt raw and messy and flawed and utterly, painfully human and it struck a chord even in me who will never fully understand what it means to be a stranger in your own country.
Overall, flawed and messy characters seem to be the author's absolute strong suit and I highly enjoyed that asepct even though it made me downright uncomfortable at times.
What I didn't like:
But, Sylla, you might ask: why give this book such a bad rating if you enjoyed the human messiness of it all? Well, sadly: there's a pretty good reason for that, and it's how Autism is handled in the entire novel and is made the center of attention without centering autistic characters at all.
(CW: Child Abuse, Ableism)
The entire novel hinges on the fact that an HBOT facility (which stands for "hyperbaric oxygen therapy") blows up in the middle of a dive and kills two of the people inside, a mother (Kitt) and another mother's autistic child, Henry. Now the first sign of alarm for people somewhat versed in the medical field (and what I had to look up): HBOT is actually not even fully approved for the "treatment" of autistic children because the data is inconclusive. There is just not enough evidence to support claims of these kids being "healed" by spending a while in a pressurized chamber with 100% oxygen delivered to them via a diving helmet. But that is, sadly, not all and definitely not the thing I disliked the most.
I started this book without really knowing what I was getting into and at first, I was simply reading and puzzling along about whether or not Elizabeth, mother to the deceased Henry mentioned above, was actually the person to set the fire or not. I started getting uncomfortable at some point (and couldn't really put my finger on it) because while the book and its characters focus a lot on their respective autistic or otherwise disabled children, none of them ever gain their own voice in the process.
And while I somewhat understand that I guess, the fact that most of these mothers and their pain was centered when it came to their disabled kids was just downright disgusting to me the more I thought about it. Is it hard to be a mother? Well, obviously, but to constantly center the pain of everyone around a child in need of more support for whatever reason is just really not the way to go about it in my opinion.
Also, I was just very uncomfortable with the fact that every one of these characters believes that their autistic kids can be "cured", while the only people to oppose the HBOT thing (a bunch of protesters of which only one gets a name) and the search for a "cure" for autism are only superficially described and serve as antagonists for basically the entire novel.
One of the main characters is also shown having to come to terms with the fact that she did abuse her child since she just told herself, "But I didn't hit him so it's not abuse, right!"
Obviously, this is something people do have to face and I have to say I'm glad she did because the things described were enough to make me feel sick to the stomach and empathy for her poor son. It nonetheless left a bad taste in my stomach, especially compared to everything I said above.
TL;DR: I feel like I have to give this book a 2-star rating because the portrayal of autism while just depicting how much parents of autistic kids suffer is not something I want for autistic people to read; I can only imagine the hurt it would cause. It's a well-written book with a highly interesting premise and set-up but overall, I just couldn't enjoy it for these reasons and I cannot recommend it exactly for those as well.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Child death, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship