Miracle Creek by Angie Kim
(Format for this read: Audiobook)
This book pulled me in from the second it started.
Right when I thought I had figured out what it was about, something else would happen and BAM…another layer was revealed.
Here is the official summary:
“How far will you go to protect your family? Will you keep their secrets? Ignore their lies?
In a small town in Virginia, a group of people know each other because they’re part of a special treatment center, a hyperbaric chamber that may cure a range of conditions from infertility to autism. But then the chamber explodes, two people die, and it’s clear the explosion wasn’t an accident.
A powerful showdown unfolds as the story moves across characters who are all maybe keeping secrets, hiding betrayals. Chapter by chapter, we shift alliances and gather evidence: Was it the careless mother of a patient? Was it the owners, hoping to cash in on a big insurance payment and send their daughter to college? Could it have been a protester, trying to prove the treatment isn’t safe?
“A stunning debut about parents, children and the unwavering hope of a better life, even when all hope seems lost” (Washington Post), Miracle Creek uncovers the worst prejudice and best intentions, tense rivalries and the challenges of parenting a child with special needs. It’s “a quick-paced murder mystery that plumbs the power and perils of community” (O Magazine) as it carefully pieces together the tense atmosphere of a courtroom drama and the complexities of life as an immigrant family.
Drawing on the author’s own experiences as a Korean-American, former trial lawyer, and mother of a “miracle submarine” patient, this is a novel steeped in suspense and igniting discussion.”
This book has A LOT of things happening in it y’all.
I do not think it is possibly to give just one word to describe the category this book should fall in:
mystery, courtroom drama, family saga…those are just a few.
The numerous challenging issues that affect immigrants who venture to America to provide better and more prosperous lives for their children are dug into deeply in this book.
Assimilating into an unknown culture just to survive, learning a new language, figuring out how to financially support yourself, feeling alone and lost and trying to find a way to make everything work.
But that is not all this book is about.
It is also about the complicated and challenging role as a parent of a child with special needs.
The never ending fear, the extreme exhaustion, the constant juggling of appointments and therapies and procedures, the endless research, the feelings of isolation, and also the fervent love and devotion.
And that it is STILL not all this book is about.
This book also digs into the depths of complicated marriages, controversial medical treatments, science and technology, coming of age as a teenager, gender roles, devoted friendships….
and also an intense courtroom trial that has you guessing until the very end of the real events that took place.
Told you…it’s got A LOT.
This book is told from multiple character perspectives, which is one of my favorite things in a novel. It really helps you connect with each of them and also really helps you get a full picture of what REALLY happened.
Because one side of the story is just that…and until you know ALL the sides you don’t know the WHOLE story.
100 percent enjoyed this book even though I don’t usually like the whole “who dun it” vibe….I think because there was so many other things going on to absorb and take in.
Definitely recommend y’all!