Angie Kim’s debut novel Miracle Creek tells the story of a fictional medical accident and of the lives undone by that tragedy. Part courtroom procedural, part family drama, the book shifts perspective as the characters tell their version of events. The more we as readers discover about the day of the accident, the more we realize that each of our narrators seems to be hiding their own secrets. A strong, interesting debut.

Miracle Creek earns its comparisons. In the lead up to its release, you'll probably see Angie Kim's name alongside Lianne Moriarty's, and Miracle Creek's title next to Big Little Lies, and that's fair. This book shares a lot with Moriarty's 2014 novel. At its core, this is a book about people coping with a crime that's forced them to question everything. It is, truly, a book about a big little lie. But comparisons can often cheapen the experience, and Miracle Creek stands steadily on its own.

Kim's debut novel is a breakneck courtroom thriller, the author's own experiences in law clearly informing the book's ability to lock the reader into a scene. That she is herself a Korean-American immigrant also carries the narrative, which centres largely around the Yoo family, a working-class Korean-American family trying to find their place in a country that wasn't exactly what they were promised.

The book isn't perfect. With more twists than a pack of Twizzlers, there's at times a feeling of "how many is too many," but as the story shifts, perspectives from each character changing the narrative and context, its many seemingly unfathomable twists are less about the whodunnit and more about the whydoit. Because even if you think you've figured out the ending, you'll be eagerly flipping the pages through the end to understand why.

I enjoyed this book, and I wouldn't have if NetGalley didn't let me read an advance copy. I went in looking for a pulp-y pager turner, a modern mystery I could fly through. I got that. But the human elements stand out to me. Motherhood. Illness. Sacrifice. Lies. Abuse. And most importantly, context.

This doesn't check every box I look for in fiction, but it damn sure tries.

I received an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review

Oh this was excruciating. Well written and I’m glad I read it, but excruciating. We’re talking dead autustic kids excruciating, an adult taking sexual advantage of a teenager excruciating, infertility excrutiating. Good for those days when you have to make yourself cry.

It took five years for Pak Yoo to save enough money for a family visa. He finally could emigrate from Korea to the United States following wife, Young and daughter, Mary who were living with a very demanding host family. Moving to Miracle Creek, Virginia, Pak now owned and operated The Miracle Submarine, a 100% pressurized oxygen chamber designed to heal damaged cells through deep penetration of oxygen during sixty minute "dives". As a controversial, experimental treatment, protesters felt that Pak's clients were "guinea pigs". To the parents of children with autism, cerebral palsy and other health issues as well as adults with fertility issues, the Miracle Submarine offered hope, especially to the "double dive" clients who signed up for twice daily treatments for forty days.

This hyperbaric therapy (HBOT) clientele included Matt, a doctor. Matt's in-laws viewed him as having a "defect". Wife Janine insisted on HBOT treatments for his infertility. Elizabeth Ward's devotion to eight year old autistic son Henry could be considered to be "Puppeteer Parenting". Henry was enrolled in numerous therapies throughout the day. Kitt was the mother of TJ, eight years old, autistic and non-verbal. Rosa was a sixteen year old teenager with cerebral palsy. Teresa, Rosa's mother was thrilled that Rosa could now say "mama". Contrast that with Elizabeth's expectations for Henry!

The night dive on August 26, 2008 was fraught with difficulties. Protesters caused a delay in the start time of the dive, the AC and lights were not working and the DVD stopped mid-song. The back oxygen tank then exploded. Elizabeth's son, Henry and TJ's mother, Kitt were killed. Four others were seriously injured. Why is it that Elizabeth chose not to dive with Henry that evening asking Kitt to keep an eye on him? According to the accident reconstruction expert, the fire started outside the chamber, under the oxygen tubing. Whose cigarette and matches started the blaze?

Elizabeth Ward was on trial for the murder of son, Henry. She had mentioned that life would be easier if she wasn't a round-the -clock caregiver. Was this a recipe for murder? The ensuing court trial was very engrossing. Defense lawyer Shannon Haug was determined to deflect the blame. Who might stand to gain from Elizabeth's conviction? Pak and Young want to collect the insurance money from the fire and jump start their lives. "The story Pak has invented to protect them had, with time and repetition, become the truth...". Pak and Young were not the only ones speaking half truths. A perfect storm of lies and deception was created that could affect the outcome of the case.

"Miracle Creek" by Angie Kim is an absolutely riveting read. Each primary/secondary character was thoroughly fleshed out. This reader was able to sympathize with Mary Yoo's feelings of isolation and loneliness as a teenage immigrant. The exclusion felt by the parents of special needs children and the need of support from an insular community of parents with similar experiences cannot be understated. The courtroom trial was fascinating, the twists and turns made this reader continue to question Elizabeth's culpability. "Miracle Creek" by Angie Kim is a debut novel of the finest caliber. A must read!

Thank you Sarah Crichton Books, Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "Miracle Creek".

Miracle Creek is dramatic and thrilling and sad. It's a story about a courtroom drama to find out who is responsible for a fire that killed 3 people. The fire happened in a hyperbaric oxygen facility owned by a Korean immigrant family. They have a child with special needs who uses the hyperbaric oxygen chamber. They will do anything for their child. Several perspectives in the story. A little confusing at times. Well written about caring for children. I came to understand that everyone is lying or so it seems. It's a very twisting round and round kind of story. It's so intriguing and tragic that you just have to keep reading. What is going to happen? It's a good engrossing story that pulls you in for a while. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Whew, this one was quite a ride! I love a good unreliable narrator, and this book had plenty of those. If I was ever worried that a courtroom drama wouldn't have enough action in it, that fear was quashed in the very first chapter.

The Incident, as it's called, is a truly brutal event. It's painstakingly told from numerous points of view and may cause the reader to physically cringe, but it's the center of a complicated blame-game where almost everyone is either holding back or outright lying. These exclusions lead to even more tragedy and conflict, where by the end multiple parties share varying amounts of culpability.

We also get a raw and vulnerable look at what it's like to care for a special needs child day-to-day. Even as the characters make mistakes in their parenting, you can't help but feel a great amount of empathy for them. And as much as anything else, this is a story about one family's immigration. Their complicated dynamic after uprooting themselves and having to readjust to a completely new set of social and cultural rules...I can hardly fathom going through something so difficult.

Angie Kim really did an exceptional job covering so many distinct perspectives and story lines at once. And near the end, the book really had me exactly where it wanted me!

Miracle Creek, by Angie Kim - what a fabulous debut novel!

I can’t think of another book which had me guessing the outcome so much and in such a believable way. The first few pages confused me a little as I was unfamiliar with the subject matter and thought it may be a distopian story. But no, it was about a ‘medical’ treatment I was unfamiliar with and which challenges conventional thinking.

There is a very rich cast of characters who you sometimes love and sometimes hate, sometimes understand and sometimes wonder what they are thinking! Some are truthful always and some occasionally.

This story left me guessing and puzzling right the way through and had me up late into the night to find the answers. And the moral issues it posed certainly made me wonder what I would do if I found myself in this situation.

What a ride!! Miracle Creek by Angie Kim is a story about the Yoos, Pak, Young, and their daughter Mary an immigrant family from Korea relocating to Miracle Creek, Virginia to provide a better life for their daughter.

The Yoos own and operator a hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT). HBOT treatments are believed to be effective in re-mediating autism and male infertility, by sitting a chamber (tank) and breathing pure, pressurized oxygen.
During a treatment session a fire breaks out and kills three people inside the chamber, among those that passed is an autistic boy name Henry and his mother Elizabeth is put on trial for his death and the other two victims.

This novel is filled with dark secrets, twist, turns and confusion (confusion in a good way). This book will have you hooked from the start and have you guessing to the end. What a thriller! Kim touch base on so much; family relationships, the struggles on immigrants and much more. Loved this book I highly recommend.

Thank you Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Sarah Chrichton books for the advanced copy of Miracle Creek. I absolutely loved this book. It is one of my new favorites of all time! Angie Kim's writing is so stunning and compelling that I felt I could relate to every character. I really enjoyed that each chapter was from a different character's perspective which greatly enhanced my understanding of them. I will definitely be recommending this book to everyone and be purchasing a physical copy when it releases.

Wow, what an engrossing and extremely ambitious novel. I devoured this in under two days, something that very rarely happens for me.

On the surface, this is a courtroom drama about what happened one August night in Miracle Creek, Virginia when a Korean immigrant family's hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) chamber catches fire and, subsequently, explodes, killing two patients and injuring others, including the operator, Pak, and his 17-year-old daughter. In a surprising turn of events, it's not Pak who is put on trial, but Elizabeth, the mother of the 8-year-old autistic boy who died alongside her friend Kitt, the mother of another autistic child who was also undergoing HBOT. Was it murder? Did she want her son, around whom her entire life was structured, to die?

The events that happened that night are uncovered over the course of the trial and come from the perspective of several people who connected to the tragedy: Pak; his wife Young; their daughter Mary; Elizabeth; Matt, a patient who was inside the chamber during the fire; Janine, Matt's wife; and Teresa, the mother of a teenaged patient. With each, we get deep into their involvement and theories about that night, as well as the individual struggles each are dealing with, often privately: immigration and assimilation; grief and loss; parenting children with disabilities; guilt; infertility; and more I won't mention, due to spoilers.

For me, it was a little hard to keep up with the volume of these alternating perspectives, and I might have removed at least one. Because there are so many different themes in this book (that's largely what I meant by it being so ambitious), it was a little overwhelming to have them pile on top of each other. That said, they're all written very well with a lot of care and reverence.

Overall, I loved this book. It kept me incredibly engaged, continually trying to understand what happened on that fateful day. Like any mystery, there are breadcrumbs and red herrings, but what sets this book apart is the additional layer of emotional weight on the top of the plot. A really fantastic debut novel!

After a fatal explosion during a therapy session, the perpetrator and motive seem clear-cut (though horrific). That is, until we realize everyone involved has secrets of their own. Told through multiple perspectives, this debut weds Celeste Ng’s nuanced treatment of family dynamics with Jodi Picoult’s mastery of courtroom drama.

I would highly recommend this novel. It’s fast-paced and definitely reels you in emotionally. Lots of point of views, so many aspects to think about.

What an engrossing debut by the author who knows how to write mysteries where every character has a story to tell!

This a courtroom drama where we get to see the story from every character's point of view. And yet, the mystery of who is the culprit keeps you at your toes till the final reveal. I loved how every time I would become almost sure about a certain character being the culprit, the author throws a new curveball at us.

Every character is dishonest here. Everybody has their secrets and motives. Everybody lies. This book explores so many themes - motherhood, autism, immigration, abuse. But I think above all, it was about the extents that a mother could go to for her child. One thing that impressed me was how the author tackled the topic of struggle that every mother faces in their frustration with their inability to control their children's life - be it their health or behavior. 

It took me awhile to get into the story. What ultimately sucked me in was the courtroom shenanigans. The cross-examinations were so well done! I would have loved to see the culmination of the whole thing in a courtroom too. Not that I didn't like the way it happened, but I was hoping for the case to culminate like a typical courtroom drama. Kudos to the author for making it unpredictable!

Even when I thought I had it all figured it out, I was wrong. And that makes me so happy! There are a lot of important themes going on here, all of which have a depth to them that made me stop and think what or who was right and wrong here. A great read!

“But that was the way life worked. Every human being was the result of a million different factors mixing together—one of a million sperm arriving at the egg at exactly a certain time; even a millisecond off, and another entirely different person would result. Good things and bad—every friendship and romance formed, every accident, every illness—resulted from the conspiracy of hundreds of little things, in and of themselves inconsequential.”

I can’t believe this is a debut novel. It has all the complexity, tension, nuance and pacing that you would expect from a much more seasoned novelist.

I’ll admit that I was ambivalent about reading a “courtroom drama,” but it’s so much more than that.

Pak, a Korean immigrant, moves his family to America to start an experimental treatment center that claims to cure children of autism by placing them in a pressurized oxygen chamber. Soon, he has a dedicated group of patients: kids whose mothers are into controversial, pseudo-scientific autism “treatments” like IV chelation and ingesting bleach.

When a fire breaks out during a session, killing three people inside the chamber, one of the kids’ mothers is put on trial for murder of her own son and the other two victims.

As the trial progresses, it becomes clear that the events leading to the tragedy are much more complicated than anyone ever could have imagined. Seemingly everyone is keeping secrets from each other in an effort to protect themselves and each other.

The narrative delves deep into a number of characters—from Pak and his family to the mother on trial to the other parents whose kids partook in the oxygen treatments. There are extremely complex dynamics at play here, and Kim explores these dynamics boldly, with tons of nuance.

There’s the family dynamics between Pak and his wife and daughter: his wife’s customary submissiveness and the intense pressure on Korean men to provide for their families. And there’s also a frank and sympathetic exploration of what it’s like to have a special needs child. Kim is unafraid to wade through murky gray areas, no matter how uncomfortable. Her characters are real people trying to do their best in difficult situations, and that means they’re not always entirely likable. They harbor dark and shameful thoughts...but really, don’t we all at certain points?

There is a part of me that wonders if it’s almost irresponsible to turn anti-vaccer types into sympathetic characters. I’m genuinely curious how parents of autistic children will feel about this book. But Kim, to her credit, reserves judgment and avoids moralizing to readers about what’s “right” or “wrong,” instead allowing us to come to our own conclusions about the characters and their choices.

On top of all the nuanced relationship dynamics, this is just a really engaging novel that will especially appeal to readers who enjoy literary mysteries. Kim is a lawyer, and it shows, as she has clearly thought out every piece of the puzzle.

I’ll be surprised if this isn’t a huge hit when it comes out.

Angie Kim knocks it out of the park with her debut novel, “Miracle Creek.” This riveting courtroom drama deftly navigates multiple narrative perspectives, as well as diving into meaningful contemporary topics, like the immigrant experience. This book is sure to be a smashing success.

A captivating, tightly-woven courtroom drama with a crime at its heart and characters I loved to follow! This is a fantastic debut from Kim, who uses a courtroom as the launching pad to tell the story of a devastating crime that left two people dead. The trial reveals deep secrets that suggest that wasn't just an accident.

I found the story detailed and the plot intricately woven, the characters sympathetically created. I don't often read courtroom stories because they can be a little tedious, but Miracle Creek was more focused on the crime at the heart, making it suspenseful and beautiful.

With wonderful themes of parenting, inter-racial marriage, special needs parenting and fertility challenges, book clubs will have a lot to talk about here. Miracle Creek is definitely one to add to your 2019 TBR list.

Miracle Creek is a unique take on a courtroom drama, that leans more towards literary fiction than crime procedural. A year after a fire leaves two people dead at an experimental medical facility, secrets begin to unravel during the trial. Kim weaves the recollections of multiple characters involved in the event with courtroom drama, creating a gripping novel that becomes quite a page turner towards the second half. It can be hard to balance many different characters while also giving each their due, but Kim does a superb job. I never felt that I wanted more or less of a character, and Kim balances plot, personal history and thoughts in each section. Every character is unique and realistic, completely their own person. As the novel goes on, we slowly begin to see how each 'white lie' builds up to create a complicated web that eventually unravels and complicates the lives of all the characters involved. I'm very excited for this book to come out, and more people to discover Kim's amazing storytelling!

All the feels. All the twists and turns. There were so many notable qualities about this book! For one, the author did a great job with character development - she made them very relatable and real by exploring their thoughts and personal struggles. During each chapter, there was some new revelation or twist that kept me captivated and invested in the unique plot. On top of the courtroom drama, the novel touched on deep issues...cultural assimilation, stereotypes, parenting, "normalcy". Loved the writing and thought this debut novel was excellent!

Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book.

MIRACLE CREEK is author Angie Kim's debut novel.

Let me say that again, MIRACLE CREEK is author Angie Kim's debut novel.

Why am I repeating myself? Well, once you read this book, you will understand. The deft way Angie Kim steers the reader and fleshes out each character all while also creating an emotionally fraught courtroom drama and detailing equally emotional backstories for each of a wide range of characters is so skillfully achieved that it is difficult to believe this is her debut novel.

The topic of children on the autism spectrum is always an emotional one. Such deep feelings can bring out either the best in someone, or the very worst. Teachers, doctors, therapists and especially parents can often feel that they know best, and that other people are irrational if they do not follow their advice.

Imagine being the mother of a child who is unable to effectively communicate with you. Imagine that you discover a new form of therapy that has shown positive results, would you not do everything you could to get that therapy for your child? As a parent, I know that I would.

In this book, readers are exposed to the people who run an HBOT facility. They are the Yoos', a couple from Korea with a teenage daughter.

The treatment center the Yoos have set up involves putting a patient or group of patients inside "—a pressurized oxygen chamber that patients enter for therapeutic “dives” with the hopes of curing issues like autism or infertility."

Everything seems to be going fairly well until tragedy strikes and two of the patients die in a horrific explosion.

That single event causes ripples among the community, the patients and their families, as well as the Yoos'  who own "Miracle Submarine." These ripples will sweep readers along,  immersing them into one of the best and most dramatic books of 2019.

I have "favorited" this book and I fully intend to read it again and again. I am also recommending this book to my local library and to any and all local book clubs.

There are many themes happening in this story that are relevant to things happening in today's America. The Yoo family are immigrants and they need to adjust to American living. Also, issues such as autism, infertility and discrimination are wound in and around every chapter.

Angie Kim has crafted a tale so compelling and so believable that readers will be left wondering if this is really fictitious, or if it is based on a true story. I am excited to share this book with everyone who reads my reviews. I firmly believe that if you are only going to read a few books in 2019, MIRACLE CREEK needs to be one of them.

I rate this book as 5+ Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ which is the highest rating I can bestow. Angie Kim is incredibly talented and I am now a fan.

*** Thank you very much to #NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this wonderful book.***

Ingenious, well-crafted pageturner with a very original premise: an exploding oxygen tank in an oxygen-therapy facility. (Not somehing you encounter every day). And the multiple pov's keep you guessing about what really happened until the very end.