Book Club Discussion: Miracle Creek by Angie Kim

[ufcasey]

Hello!

Welcome to the day-late discussion of this month's book club pick - Miracle Creek by Angie Kim.

Below are some discussion questions, but feel free to ignore them and just talk about your thoughts/feelings/impressions of the book!

1. Were you already familiar with the hyperbaric oxygen therapy, or HBOT before reading this book?
2. This book is a mixture of things: the immigrant experience, the HBOT, and the court case. These things also relate to experiences the author had herself. Do you think this added to the realism of the story or did you feel it combined too many things into one book?
   
3. Were you surprised to discover the identity of the person who set the fire? Do you view what that
   
   person did as murder? Was that person’s sentence fair? How about the sentences of the others?
   
4. What characters did you relate to the most?
5. What was your favorite part of the book? Least favorite?

ETA: for those of you who have read the book quite a while ago, here's a good summary of what happened in the book to refresh your memory: www.bookrags.com/studyguide-miracle-creek/#gsc.tab=0 

[ufcasey]

Tagging people who may have read this book:

CrazyLucky, abs, tacokick, charlatti, Clairex, travella, meowmaps, aspentosh, spedrunner

[CrazyLucky]

I didn't really like this book. I felt like the evidence or background was too obvious that it was trying to lead you to conclude one thing when the answer was something else.
Neither of my children have physical or cognitive limitations, but I think the author did a good job of explaining a little bit just how hard it is to be a parent of a special needs child. Not just the difficulty of taking care of the child, but the added difficulty of judgment from those who have never been there and even more so, judgment from people who HAVE been there.
There were a lot of things in the book that were so different from the way I see things, and I appreciate a new perspective. Things like the deference to the father (It's been a while and I can't remember names!)
And then other things that I just didn't like - the grown man pursuing a relationship with a 17 year old.
And then things that were like - just no. The description of how the little boy died was too graphic for me. I have a ten year old son and stuff like that really gets to me.

I was surprised to find who set the fire. I don't think it was murder, but I'm no lawyer. Manslaughter maybe?

I think I related most to the woman being accused (Elizabeth?). I think all mothers can relate at least a little. You try to do what's best for your kids, and you are definitely going to screw some things up. But to believe that you caused the death of your child, yeah, I can see going to a pretty dark place.

[aspentosh]

I read it last year but it was one of my favorites of 2019 for sure. Pulling some info from my Goodreads review.

I had never heard of HBOT but I could tell that the author lived the experiences vs researched them. And those behind the scenes type of passages were my favorite part of the book. Can't think of something I hated or disliked. I also really loved how she wrote this almost as a murder mystery and used the courtroom to both bring to light and squash theories.

No lawyer, but I definitely don't think murder.

[tacokick]

I tried to read it three times. I think I got 3/4 of the way through? I could not get into it. I remember it being almost too simplistic plot wise but at the same time written in a deliberately obtuse way if that makes sense

[abs]

I read about half of this. Ultimately I felt like none of the characters were likeable so I didn't really care what happened to them.

[meowmaps]

I remember really liking this book. I enjoyed the character development and learning about the secret lives of these on-the-surface average people. I also liked the mystery. I didn’t guess who it was right away and even when I knew it didn’t take away from the various twists and turns. I can’t remember everything clearly but I’m pretty sure I would classify it as an accident vs. murder.

[travella]

I had never heard of this being a type of treatment for the issues the parents were seeking it out before reading this book. I found it interesting. I really enjoyed this book 4.5*. I read this book a long time ago so I pulled my goodreads review.

Even though the writing of the trial felt sloppy at times (too much dramatic flair at times to feel real to me), I loved the trial layout of the storyline. I loved how pieces of the mystery slowly started to come together through the use of the trial and character pov during the trial. I loved how pieces of evidence were misconstrued and how some people weren't quite honest. So even as the puzzle started to come together, sometimes pieces were out of place and things weren't quite right. There was this hope as I read that the justice system would work as intended and the truth be found in the end.

For the author's first book, I felt she did a wonderful job. She really conveyed the conflicting feelings that the characters were feeling. I loved how Young learned to stick up to her husband in the end. I can see myself reading more books by this author in the future.

[aurora]

It seems like this is a book you either like or hate (per the responses). I liked it. I tend to enjoy multi-perspective books.

I think Kim did a good job humanizing parenting a special-needs child. I can't even imagine what Elizabeth went through.

The one for whom I'm most mad about the outcome is Matt. He sexually assaulted a teenager and walked away from it. I thought Young was wise to help Mary understand that accepting the consequences was important to her healing, not just the community. I don't have enough knowledge to say if her sentence was fair.

[wesleycrusher]

Oct 29, 2020 20:54:44 GMT -5 aurora said:

I think Kim did a good job humanizing parenting a special-needs child. I can't even imagine what Elizabeth went through.

Yes! I really related to that angle- looking at your actions and reactions and thinking "this is not the person or parent I thought I would be."  I think that is one of the things that made me like this book, and generally I'm not a huge fan of mystery or domestic thriller type books.   

I've heard of HBOT, but I guess I always thought it was something done in a hospital and only one person at a time. I didn't realize it was done at private facilities and that they were big enough for multiple people.

[jwright]

I enjoyed the book, and read it awhile ago. I liked the multiple narrator style, but some characters I enjoyed more than others. I liked the depiction of the immigrant family and their perspectives. Did not like the guy (Matt?) that was having fertility issues. I'm not a parent so didn't relate to the other characters but felt sympathy and made me think about some of my parent friends and their experiences.

Overall 4.5 stars from me.

[minzy]

I didn’t love reading about the death of an 8 year old child with autism (discussion of the video of Henry was tough to read), but I thought this was a pretty compelling book. I liked the mixture of legal and medical issues. I think the author did a great job with details. She was skillful in how she could make so much come from one event. I think she effectively used the trial as a vehicle to lay bare everyone’s flaws. However, I also didn’t find too many of the characters likable, and I especially didn’t like Matt. What a creep/criminal.

Legal nitpicking, I didn’t love how they tried to use Matt as both a fact and expert witness, you generally wouldn’t do that. And once there was all this doubt about Elizabeth’s potential guilt, if I were her attorney, I would have been filing motions to try to stop the trial or have the charges dismissed or reduced. Who knows, doing that earlier in the process could have changed Elizabeth’s outcome, too. Also I think the police would be trying to solve it, and not so much Abe as the prosecutor. And Pak wouldn’t have been on trial in the middle of Elizabeth’s trial, even though it almost seemed like that was happening as the week went on. But anyway.

I didn’t love how HBOT therapy was presented somewhat evenly. A business opportunity for immigrants (good) versus something potentially woo (poor efficacy of treatment, bad). From what I know of it, it is not considered to be effective for the “treatment” of autism - likewise with the GFCF diets, sauna sweatings, treatments with bleach, and chelation. I almost wanted to hear more from the perspective of the protestors, because I think they would have explored that facet of it more.

I had such empathy for the parents of the children with special needs. The tremendous care required 24/7 is so damn difficult. I have several friends with kids with special needs, and they are always thinking of shorter term things like how to lift and maneuver their kids as they gain weight, and longer term things like housing and finances and what happens to their kids when they die. Something like the Henry House would probably be a place many parents could use for respite, and I’m pretty sure there aren’t nearly enough of those types of places currently in existence.