Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim

64 reviews

omgmkg's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

I’m not sure how to give this book a star rating. I found it insufferable at first because it was just so obvious that each perspective was obfuscating a lot. The inclusions of little details thrown in like “…before cigarettes and Matt” that were largely irrelevant to the current topic and I guess designed to build suspense just really didn’t work for me. It was super weird to have them especially since they were not in first person. The court room procedural was boring and unnecessarily detailed for me, hard to get through… until it wasn’t. At some point, I switched to the audiobook, which made things easier right away. And then the story itself got me. By the end of this book, I really liked it. I liked the dilemmas each character faces, I liked the deep complexity and conflict. 
It was also a compelling exploration of motherhood (but almost all of it is super dark, at least at first…)

Spoiler

the book really started to work for me when Young began to investigate and put the pieces of the puzzle together herself. Then, any obfuscation was by others for a REASON (they didn’t want her to find out the truth) rather than casually just not mentioning things or making them purposefully mysterious just for the reader. Her third person but limited perspective also worked for me here. And the book fully gelled into something pretty fantastic once the whole family knew the truth and disagreed about what to do next. That was really great writing and a super compelling challenge. It is where the heart of the book truly lies. I’m not sure how the author could have gotten there without at least some of the parts that didn’t work for me, but I wish there had been less purposeful misdirection and more focus on Young and her family.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, Child abuse, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Suicide

Moderate: Xenophobia, Gaslighting, Excrement, Medical trauma, Sexism, Medical content, and Alcohol

moniipeters's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Xenophobia, Blood, Body horror, Car accident, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Abandonment, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Sexism, Violence, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Terminal illness

thatonecatmom's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Suicide, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Racism, and Alcohol

antidietleah's review against another edition

emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Medical content, Sexual assault, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Racial slurs

msprufrock's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

I'm having a hard time deciding how to rate this novel. On the one hand, I do think it's well-written (in terms of description, use of language, writing style, etc) and a compelling story. I thought the trial scenes were mostly well-done, and I was guessing at the true guilty party until it was revealed, with each character's perspective bringing new facts and twists. All that's great - if there were no complicating factors, I'd rate this pretty highly.

However. Most of the story points are based on what seems to me to be a pretty ableist idea, that it's possible to "cure" autism. I'm not autistic, but I've listened and spoken to enough folks on the spectrum to know that it's not possible and not needed. Often, these treatments are harmful to autistic people. The only voices in the novel pointing this out are the protesters, who are pretty much always portrayed in a more villainous role. 

I don't know. With that being so central to the plot, I'm uncomfortable giving it a high rating or recommending it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Ableism, Child death, Murder, Sexual assault, and Death

Moderate: Suicide

moriahleigh's review

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Alcohol, Child abuse, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, and Suicide

Minor: Bullying, Infertility, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, and Toxic friendship

shainabriley's review

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual assault

Minor: Suicide

lpdx's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child abuse, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, Sexual assault, Child death, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide, Chronic illness, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, and Rape

Minor: Excrement and Infertility

zneo7's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

bookishhl8275's review

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I loved the writing style, the character growth and the storyline was so interesting to me.
I’ve never read a legal thriller and this book opened me up into a world of books I thought I’d never read!
Highly recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Murder, Death, Violence, Gore, Sexual assault, Child death, and Death of parent