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Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Review: Miracle Creek by Angie Kim @AngieKimWriter

Miracle Creek 
by Angie Kim


Publisher: Sara Crichton Books
Publish Date: April 16, 2019
Kindle Edition
349 Pages
Standalone
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery, Literary Fiction

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 showdown unfolds as the story moves across characters who are all maybe keeping secrets, hiding betrayals. 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?

My Review:


Phew... this was an emotional read.  Debut novel, my ass! Ok, let me pull myself together here.

The Korean/American views within this story is so on point it breaks my heart.  It's hard to try and be a part of two cultures while feeling like you're failing at both.  I remember when I was young and was embarrassed by my mother's accent or felt like my Korean family was making fun of me for trying to speak Korean (I'd realize later they were just really happy I was trying!) and my American classmates would speak to me slowly or in an accent that I actually didn't even have since I had lived in the States since I was 2.  Kids are mean.... in any case, these portions strewn throughout the book just really pierced at my heart.

And this is what this author does.  Kim brings EACH of these characters to life.  Even the characters you start off despising, you realize that they're HUMAN and what they're going through is something you can only imagine.  Some of these parts were hard to read.  Some characters never found any redemption within my head … in all instances, I will not forget a single one of them.  I'm looking at YOU, you character, that I want to hunt down.... oh.... Hi everyone.  Guess I'm still here.  *waves* 

"That was the thing about lies; they demanded commitment. Once you lied, you had to stick with your story."

There really is a lot to discuss here.  The alternative medical practices, how different pieces of the community reacted to it and why.  The intricacies of everyone in their relationship to each other, the town, their children and those "like themselves" are brilliantly written and cohesive.  And I like that we get an ending that seemed real and honest and not just a bow tie.  

★★★★★

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