I first heard about Miracle Creek through a YouTube review. The reviewer really seemed to like it, so of course, I was interested. Courtroom dramas aren't usually my type of story, but this one sounded really intriguing. I decided to give it a go. I picked it up at Barnes and Noble a while ago, but didn't get around to reading it back then. I made it part of my 22 in 2022 Challenge, and finally started it this week.
The novel centers around the murder trial of a woman named Kitt and a child named Henry, who were both killed while undergoing medical treatment in a hyperbaric chamber. Someone set a fire near the oxygen tanks and caused the chamber to ignite, setting off a deadly explosion. On trial for this crime is Elizabeth Ward, Henry's mother. She was bringing Henry to these treatments to try and improve his autism, and her behavior before and during the fire appears to point to her committing this act of arson to release herself from the struggle of caring for her son. She claims to be innocent, but the circumstances of the crime definitely cast suspicion on her. The prosecution's case isn't as straightforward as it may seem though, and several of the other people that were around during the incident are hiding secrets about what really happened.
The narrative shifts perspective with each chapter, and each person that narrates reveals more information about that night. We hear from Pak Yoo and his wife Young Yoo, who run the hyperbaric treatment facility, Mary, their teenage daughter, Matt, another patient receiving treatment, Teresa, a mother of another young patient, and Elizabeth herself. Throughout their pieces of the story, a larger picture gradually begins to emerge of a group of people dealing with a variety of complex issues including grief, racism, abuse, and loneliness. All of these factors eventually come together to create the explosion, and each person's actions, both intentional and unintentional, have a part to play in the resulting tragedy.
I really enjoyed this novel and flew through it in just a couple of days. Kim does a nice job of creating a suspenseful and well-paced plot - she gives you information in bits and pieces that make you want to keep on reading to figure everything out. The plot was sufficiently twisty enough to keep me guessing and I liked how all the varying perspectives came together. The story was designed well and it was a solid reading experience.
I think its best element, though, was the emotional honesty. Kim doesn't shy away from having her characters express ugly thoughts, and that made everything feel more genuine. In particular, the feelings of the parents in this story towards their children were sometimes shocking, but very honest. Providing long term care for children with profound disabilities is an exhausting and frustrating business, and the resentment, loneliness, and depression of the characters in these situations was clearly described. The endless love they felt for their children was there as well, and the difficulty of dealing with all these feelings really humanized the characters. The way the characters grappled with real world issues like autism, child abuse, sexual assault, living as an immigrant, and infertility were portrayed well too. The story felt deeper than a typical courtroom drama story. It was a page-turner full of mini-cliffhangers and surprising twists, but it was about real things as well. It was more complex than I was expecting. I think it would make a great movie or limited series.
I wasn't too sure about a few aspects of the story. The way autism was portrayed left me a little uneasy - a lot of dubious "treatments" for it are discussed, and their inclusion is a necessary part of the story, but some of them appeared to actually be effective, which I wasn't too sure about. It felt weird that some truly kooky stuff was given a feeling of legitimacy. I know that the whole idea of autism being something to "treat" or "cure" is a huge point of contention within that community in the first place, and I found myself wondering what parents of children with autism would think about some of the stuff in this book. To be clear, I don't think that Kim did a poor job of presenting the issue, but something about it felt weird. Maybe that was the point. After all, Elizabeth was shown to be obsessed with trying to "cure" Henry, but this obsession was also shown to be based in her love for him. The push and pull of feelings between her being abusive and her just being a concerned parent was constant and messy to sort through, so maybe leaving the effectiveness of the treatments ambiguous was intentional. It just didn't sit quite right with me.
The ending of the story fell a tiny bit flat for me too. It relied on people feeling guilty and confessing to various things, which I didn't find to be terribly realistic. I didn't dislike the ending or anything, but I felt like it could have been more exciting. The build up to everything was fantastic, and then the resolution just didn't totally match up.
Overall though, I really did enjoy Miracle Creek and I'm glad that I put it on my reading list for this year. It was a surprisingly deep read with a lot of complex emotions and issues woven into its plot. I am looking forward to seeing what Angie Kim comes up with in the future.
Challenge Tally
22 in 2022: 10/22
Total Books Read in 2022: 43
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