However, what she does can be seen as child abuse like making him drink bleach. She wanted her son to be normal and would go to great lengths to ensure that he could behave like neurotypical children. For instance, Elizabeth is the mother of Henry – the dead autistic child, and she’s on trial for the murders. In other words, although all of them have good intentions, they are unreliable as narrators. Each one of them is layered, has their own motives and conflicts, and is sympathetic (to some degree), but not completely innocent when it comes to the crime.

Normally, I would think that there’s way too many perspectives because how can one remember who’s saying what? Fortunately, this book doesn’t have that problem. On the other hand, Miracle Creek brings nuance to its themes, which have more of a long-lasting impact. While Where the Crawdads Sing contains a lot of familiar tropes, it doesn’t do anything new with them, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Miracle Creek has a lot of things going for it as I will explain in this evaluation, which certainly appeals to a wide range of readers, but there’s a big difference between the two novels. It’s a pure coincidence that I posted this review the week after the movie version of Where the Crawdads Sing – another book that received a lot of hype upon its release. A showdown unfolds among various characters who may or may not be keeping secrets in regards to what happened. Miracle Creek takes place over a course of four days and follows a murder trial after a hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) chamber explodes and kills two people including an autistic child in a small town in Virginia. And given the plot, I knew I had to read it. I remember looking at the May 2019 issue of Book Pages magazine and seeing the book cover on it. Miracle Creek – the debut novel of Angie Kim – was popular when it first came out. Once readers finally have a chance to read about the titles in question, they might ask, “What did people see in this book?” When certain novels get popular, there’s a risk that they can be overhyped to the point that it might ruin their appeal.

Miracle creek book