Miracle Creek by Angie Kim

Miracle Creek

by Angie Kim

'That wonderful, brilliant sort of book you want to shove at people as soon as you've finished so they can experience it for themselves' Erin Morgenstern

A thrilling debut novel for fans of Liane Moriarty and Celeste Ng about how far we'll go to protect our families - and our deepest secrets

My husband asked me to lie. Not a big lie. He probably didn't even consider it a lie, and neither did I, at first . . .

In rural Virginia, Young and Pak Yoo run an experimental medical treatment device known as the Miracle Submarine - a pressurised oxygen chamber that patients enter for "dives", used as an alternative therapy for conditions including autism and infertility. But when the Miracle Submarine mysteriously explodes, killing two people, a dramatic murder trial upends the Yoos' small community.

Who or what caused the explosion? Was it the mother of one of the patients, who claimed to be sick that day but was smoking down by the creek? Or was it Young and Pak themselves, hoping to cash in on a big insurance payment and send their daughter to college? The ensuing trial uncovers unimaginable secrets from that night?trysts in the woods, mysterious notes, child-abuse charges?as well as tense rivalries and alliances among a group of people driven to extraordinary degrees of desperation and sacrifice.

Angie Kim's Miracle Creek is a thoroughly contemporary take on the courtroom drama, drawing on the author's own life as a Korean immigrant, former trial lawyer, and mother of a real-life "submarine" patient. Both a compelling page-turner and an excavation of identity and the desire for connection, Miracle Creek is a brilliant, empathetic debut from an exciting new voice.

(P) 2019 Macmillan Audio

Reviewed by lessthelonely on

4 of 5 stars

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4/5 stars

This book took a lot of time to read, and that isn’t to say it was hard to read - at least, not in the sense that I had to force myself to keep reading. Every single time I grabbed this book? I was having a good time. A very entertaining time, in fact. But it’s been hard to find time to read. Or write. Or do anything that isn’t college related.

But I did finish this book, even if I went on Google because curiosity got the best of me and I just wanted to know who the real culprit was - and I’m kind of glad I did this, because the final pages of the book were still just as engrossing even with the huge reveal spoiled. It was still filled with tension and everything I expect from a thriller mystery.

Anyways, Miracle Creek is a book that has been lauded as one of the greatest books of 2019, and it’s been on my radar for quite some time, like a lot of other books. Believe me, if I was a person that reads more than one book at once, I definitely would, but because I’m not, it’s usually really hard to getting around to reading books that I am definitely interested in. But I’m very driven by moods when reading: sometimes I want romance. Sometimes I want something enthralling and twisty to try and figure out all the big reveals before they happen. Sometimes I want smut, pure and simple.

But the truth is, this book delivered on so many fronts and the fact is that it didn’t have to to be as enjoyable as it was... but, somehow, the author did it. You can tell this is a book that was written from experience and not something that was very heavily researched. Heavily researched books tend to ebb a little bit on that I learned this very cool thing and I’m going to explain it with a lot of wonder attached to it. Angie Kim appears to know a lot about most of the things that this book deals with: autism, HBOT, moving to another country. At least, I know she knows a lot about the first two.

What we end up with is a book that you truly can’t put down once it gets down to the wire. I’m going to admit it took me a bit to get into it. And then I read the Goodreads reply by the author herself saying that people tell her it takes a little bit to get into the story. In my case, that was absolutely true. All I needed was for the lawyers to start talking to the judge.

This book has graphic descriptions of incidents that can easily be found triggering, but what triggered me a lot was a lot of perspectives this book manages to get to the core of: on autism, ironically, you get a spectrum of all the possible perspectives of it - positive, negative, mixed? It’s all here. And they always make sense, even when they leave you mad.

At the same time, this book alternates between court scenes (it is labeled as a courtroom drama) and I would say these are the highlight of the book: it’s not that the lawyers are the best characters, but their dialogue is the most interesting. You will be surprised with how easily you can agree with both the accusation and the defense attorneys's points. But then, you have some slower moments with each of the 6 POVs this book has in it. This was the part that was difficult to get into, because it starts slow, but after the first testifying scene? It picks up, and with a lot of moving parts.

It’s a tight, extremely well-written mess, coupled with a lot of detailed and nuanced characterization. And as twists start hitting, each turn starts taking a toll on you, leaving a noticeable mark. There’s a reason why I went on Google to get spoiled: I couldn’t wait to get to the truth, and I knew I wouldn’t have time to read for some days.

Pick this one up. I will definitely get it physically when I can.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 30 May, 2022: Finished reading
  • 30 May, 2022: Reviewed