Angie Kim

**Updated review

Thank you to Gallery Match, Angie Kim and Picador USA for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Angie Kim’s writing is so eloquent and emotional, I didn’t feel like I was reading a debut novel. This book wasn’t unputdownable for me, but rather a slow-paced adventure that I savored over several days...like a super yummy dessert!

As each person tells their story, they express their private thoughts and shocking secrets, in this courtroom drama. So many characters show more chose to hide information they didn’t think was relevant to the trial. It was disturbing to know that so much crucial information was being withheld. And other information was being twisted to fit the claims of the lawyers. Deciding on Elizabeth’s guilt or innocence was hard...as was considering other suspects.

“It scared Matt a little, how these lawyers could take a given set of facts and spin them in opposite directions.”

Elizabeth, the young mother of an autistic son is on trial for his murder. It’s easy to condemn her. She presents as an emotionless monster. Her actions aren’t what we consider “normal” for a grieving mother. Some even describe her behavior as creepy. Is there a “normal” way to act after your child has been killed? Or is it possible that she committed this horrendous crime?

“Elizabeth’s laugh had felt like that, like she’d been in so much pain that she’d bypassed crying, straight past it to something beyond: a grief-stricken cackle that transmitted more pain than any sob or scream.”

I was saddened by the fact that she sat in the courtroom alone, with no support from family or friends. Her parenting skills and every negative comment she made regarding Henry was put on display to be dissected. Her words were taken out of context and judged harshly. Haven’t all parents spit out words in anger, that they later wanted to take back? I know I have. The daily demands and challenges she faced as a single parent of an autistic child were brushed aside, as if it wasn’t outside the scope of typical parenting. Even “friends” were willing to convict her because of their twisted impression.

Pak and Young Yoo, Korean immigrants, play another important part of the story. They start an experimental medical treatment clinic—HBOT—designed to help autism and many other issues. Henry attends these “dives” at Miracle Submarines on a daily basis. Were the Yoos willing to sacrifice their business for an insurance pay out, because their American dream didn’t prove to be what they hoped for?

Young’s sense of right and wrong was so strong, she was one of my favorite characters! I can’t wait to read future books by this author. Her writing is amazing.

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. An addictive debut novel for fans of Liane Moriarty and Celeste Ng, Miracle Creek is both a twisty page-turner and a deeply moving story about the way inconsequential lies and secrets can add up—with tragic consequences.

My Rating: 4 ⭐️’s
Published: Picador USA
Pages: 357

Recommend: Yes!

#GalleyMatch Twitter: @AngieKimWriter Instagram: @angiekimask show less

DAYUM! This book was gripping from page one. A "submarine" used to immerse patients with high oxygen flow explodes, killing a few patients and injuring others. The submarine was a new kind of treatment used to treat disabled kids as well as other ailments so the deaths and injuries are even more harrowing. All fingers point to Elizabeth, the mom of the little boy who was killed, as the culprit. She "suspiciously" sat out from the submarine and was caught drinking and smoking with the same show more kind of cigarettes that were used to start the fire. As the story unfolds, each chapter is told through another character; from the people who ran it, to the people inside the submarine when it caught fire. Angie Kim did a damn good job writing complex characters that make it impossible to determine who the culprit is. Slowly it emerges that many have motives, many have weak alibis, and many have way more involvement in this tragedy then they realize. This book is fast paced and heartbreaking. Full of twists and turns that kept me guessing. Storytelling at it's finest. show less

What an exhilarating book! The main plot is about a missing husband and father, but Angie Kim has loaded an exceptionally immense amount of material into the narrative. There are several intriguing story arcs intermixed with the vanished father. Mia, the novel's narrator, has recently changed her college major to algorithmic composition, a mix of computer science, math, and music. Her footnotes and side comments about this subject are fascinating. Mia's brother, Eugene, has Angelman's show more syndrome and autism, which causes large motor dysfunctions and leaves him unable to speak. A great deal of information is given about this syndrome and some enthralling treatment ideas. Eugene was with his father when he disappeared. Adam, the father, was intensely interested in happiness and what he labeled the happiness quotient. He had been engaging in small experiments to test his theories. Mia reads his notes and history concerning this subject and discovers riveting and disturbing material.
Happiness Falls is a remarkably intelligent book that can be skimmed over in parts if the reader is not interested in the deeper subject matter. Much of this substance is located in the footnotes. I found each theme captivating. Angie Kim has truly outdone herself. This is an outstanding novel that should not be missed.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the ARC of the book. show less

A highly engrossing debut novel, that definitely draws on Kim’s background in courtroom law. However, apart from the twist-and-turn courtroom drama on display here in Miracle Creek, there is far more at work as the reader navigates the characters’ individual reactions to the truths elicited on the stand and also the lies that they all hold inside them about the same event: the explosion of an HBOT chamber (hyperbaric oxygen therapy) that results in the deaths of an autistic child and a show more mother of another child on the spectrum, as well as permanent injuries to other people, all either undertaking this experimental procedure or in some way connected with its operation.

Husbands lying to spouses; children lying to parents; parents resenting their special needs children: this could be the stuff of genre-lit—more specifically, the stuff of mainstream fiction. And while Miracle Creek is certainly that, it does investigate some hard truths about very important issues: what it means to be an immigrant in America; the pull of family ties; the stress, agony, and life-sucking burden of having special needs children; and what it means to be human, how all of us are connected to our communities—both in the face of tragedy and in the more mundane moments.

Kim delves into these humane issues with the expertise of a more seasoned novelist with grace and ease, to be sure; the only downside—for this reader, anyway—to this pretty addictive read (a great summer/beach book, in case you're looking for one) are the far more than occasional sentences that read clumsily and/or perhaps needed a better editor.

4/4.5 stars show less