Miracle Creek by Angie Kim
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
”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.”
Wow. An intricately put together story of a deadly event, those who may (or may not) be responsible and the enduring relationships people form. Written from a own voices perspective (Korean immigrant to America as a child) and with an in-depth understanding of the law; Miracle Creek is at once poignant, beautiful, horrifying and deadly. Let’s get into some of the details.
Narration
There is a large cast of characters in Angie Kim’s story. Each of them are distinct and easy to remember, which I appreciated. From the parents of the children to the children themselves and the other adults involved in the submarine therapy. Each of them has a small piece of the overall story and what happened on the fateful day when an explosion injured and killed people. Therefore, in their own way, each character is an unreliable narrator. It's not until every single perspective has been considered, heard from and pieced into the overall puzzle that the ending reveals the truth of the situation.
Disabled Children and their Parents
There is an excellent portrayal here of the exhaustion that happens to parents of kids whom are disabled, suffer from chronic illnesses, etc. Two mother's in particular are found to say things like "somedays I think my child would be better off dead" and similar phrases. This seems innocent enough right? Parenting is hard work and certainly anyone who has known someone caring for a child with special needs can understand the intent of the statement. Well that is until someone murders one of those children... Now that innocent statement becomes a whole new piece of 'evidence'. I really liked the way Kim played this out and showed reality. We all say things that could be construed incorrectly but aren't actually meant to be taken literally. It’s not until an extreme context is applied that those innocent words take on a more literal meaning.
Everyone's a Suspect
I don't read a lot of murder mysteries generally (maybe a couple a year?). I always like to read bestsellers and inevitably thrillers or murder mysteries hit the top of the charts so I read them. That, plus the disabled representation and discussion of unconventional medical treatments, drew me to pick-up Miracle Creek. Because I'm not a big murder mystery fan I'm not sure how common it is to have every single person (more or less) be a suspect in an incident. That is the case here. Each of our characters had a number of motives, opportunities, etc. to sabotage the compression chamber (submarine). And so because of this there is a lot of awful thoughts and theories to slog through. It makes the characters seem fairly 'icky' (if you will) at times. However, reflecting on the characters individually, I think each of them is actually very realistic. And let's face it, at our worst we all have undesirable traits; and the time for those undesirable traits to surface will always be when someone is digging for information, like during a murder investigation.
Courtroom Talk
If you're a fan of John Grisham (or the like) then the courtroom talk here will seem tame. Kim is a trial lawyer herself, yet I didn't find the court discussions or descriptions difficult to follow. That may be because we don't have an omniscient narrator here; but instead see the courtroom through the eyes of different participants at their understanding of educational level. Given that a lot of the story is told in the courtroom as flashbacks (which I usually dislike) there is still a good flow to the novel. I could still picture and feel the emotions as events were told to the court. I attribute this to excellent writing by Kim. This is especially impressive as this is Kim’s debut novel! I’m expecting her next to be that little bit better to get five stars! ;)
Pacing
As with most books there is a lull in Miracle Creek. It's relatively short (not even 50 pages probably) and it's right smack dab in the middle of the novel. When you hit this point I recommend just pushing forward a little harder to get to the last half of the story as it is well, well worth the ending.
Overall
I wouldn’t say this book is amazing or at the top of its (very crowded) genre. However it is certainly worth reading if you like some court drama, murder mysteries or puzzling a situation out based on comments from different points of view. KIL has written Miracle Creek so well that I believe everyone can find something to like about it. A well written book, with solid characters and an organized plot, will always transcend genre boundaries.
Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.
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Middlegame by Seanan McGuire
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I'm always nervous when one of my favourite authors comes out with a novel that seems to be very different from anything they've ever done before. In the case of Middlegame, Seanan McGuire has given us a book that is unlike most things I've read before. As usual she stands in a class all her own and screams "look at me"! And while I really enjoyed this unique science fiction, dystopian, magical realism (add other genres here) story; it wasn't up to the 'snuff' I expect from Seanan. It felt a little drawn out and perhaps needed one more round of solid editing to be more concise.
Date, Time & Place
As someone who reads a lot of historical and science fiction I'm familiar with the usual date, time, place information at the beginning of a chapter. Generally I find myself flipping back (or in the case of a book on my eReader cursing) to remember what the last date, time, place I was given was. McGuire solves this issue sooo elegantly. I want this to become a new standard for date, time, place monikers. We get in brackets, at the beginning of (most) chapters, notes about if it's: later the same day, a different day, a few hours later, a month later, years later, etc. Or in the case of some fun time warping a note about how skewed time has become. It may seem like a small this but this little detail was critical to my enjoyment of Middlegame as I wasn't constantly flipping back and forth to orient myself.
More like Mira Grant
For those not familiar with McGuire's work she also publishes horror books under a pseudonym Mira Grant. I wish this was a Seanan McGuire meets Mira Grant novel. There are moments during it when the depth, detail and goriness (to be frank) of Grant's books would have been better suited here. Now you may think to yourself; they are the same person! But I honestly believe that a good writer (and McGuire is amazing) puts on a different 'hat' to write in certain genres or under different names. What I wanted here was a little more Grant with my McGuire. While Middlegame feels more like a Blake Crouch book than anything else I can think of in recent years; it still has the strong relationships and magical allure of most of McGuire's writing.
Our Hand of Glory is described as a melting gruesome thing and so I have to say my second disappointment with the gore factor in Middlegame was the very underwhelming cover. Where's the melting? Where's the burning flesh? Where's the horror that the hand used to belong to a real person?
Mixing Religion, Magic, Science & Alchemy
A really good science fiction or fantasy book (in my mind) will take different aspects of real-life knowledge and blend them with ones you might not expect. While the study of alchemy has long been the disproved sibling of science; there is no doubt that they have roots that come from the same place. McGuire takes the alchemy concepts, today's science and mixes it all around. Adding a healthy dose of religion, superstition and magic into the pot. By the time you come out of Middlegame you won't be sure what might have been rooted in science or math and what wasn't. I liked this treatment of the technical aspects of this book as it left more up to the imagination and it didn't let doubts seep in the way a book that is very science based might have. A clever way to deal with a magical realism story that people can believe and connect with.
Lost in Time & Space
There are few writers that can twist a timeline around on a reader and keep their attention and the order of events in order. Some of those writers include Blake Crouch, Stephen King, Brandon Sanderson and (now) Seanan McGuire. The veteran writing style and touch of McGuire kept me not only entertained; but also oriented in the every fluctuating timeline of Middlegame. This is not a single timeline story and part of it's allure and magic is that time twists around in places and creates opportunities for things to happen in a magical way.
Why Four Stars?
By now you may be wondering why I only gave this four stars. There are points during the story where the plot is bogged down by mini-info dumps. The first time it happens I figured McGuire was just ensuring we caught some nuances. But by the last 100 pages there were STILL large amounts of text that just explained away happenings. Certainly for the average writer this would be expected; but McGuire is anything but an average novelist. So it was disappointing to see a poorly used tactic come out of the writing on more than one occasion. Additionally I found that at times the dialogue between characters was a bit stilted and ridiculous. As though it was only there to ensure the reader that our characters were still pinged into the intricacies of the story.
Overall
I think Middlegame might have benefited from more smooth proofing or an editor that would recommend cuts in some of the denser parts of the novel. If you have enjoyed Mira Grant before then definitely read this. If you're more into the Heart of the Doorway or the Incryptid series this may be a little too complex to your taste. Although, ironically, if all these books existed in one multiverse it could potentially explain a lot of things. And maybe they do all exist in the same place and time; without every encompassing the same time and place. Middlegame will keep your brain moving, engaged and a good dose of McGuire's imagination at it's best.
Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
There are some books which need to be read at their publication time. Anything which is the first of its kind, relevant to current events, or just odd can sometimes only be truly appreciated at the moment in history with which it’s existence coincides. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (thus referred to as Hitchhiker) may fall into all three of these categories; but it’s solidly in the last.
Plot
To say there is plot in this would be like saying there is substantial fruit juice in gummy candy. It’s such a small, minute amount that it’s barely worth categorizing or referencing. I couldn’t tell you what the plot is in Hitchhiker to save my life. All I know is there’s a book about the galaxy, Earth is blown up (in opening chapters) and we follow around this random human who has no real business being in space. None of these things are truly plot. In fact there is no real reason to tell this story that I could find; except to maybe write some ridiculous (and sometimes amusing) science fiction.
Historical Context
I was not born when this book was written by Douglas Adams. As a child of the early 80s and a teen of the 90s, there is something about the 70s decade that eludes me. I believe this is likely one of the main reasons I don’t “get” Hitchhiker. Sometimes you need to be in a moment, or understand how little of something existed in order to appreciate the mind boggling change when a new innovation, trend or piece of writing comes along that changed everything. Hitchhiker seems like a text that requires you to appreciate and know the exact state of the world at the moment it was published. I would never presume to say it isn’t an important book for its time period, as I wasn’t there to know and trust those who were that its publication was a significant turning point in literature.
Philosophical
I think everyone can agree there are a lot of philosophical inferences and statements to be taken from this novel. I have long loved the idea that the meaning of life is 43, for example. It’s a random, nonsensical thought; and yet isn’t it comforting to think 43 might truly be the answer to the universe and everything in it? The same as I love the idea of the world being transported on the back of a turtle through the galaxy (see Discworld). And so there is no way anyone could argue that Hitchhiker doesn’t have value in some way today given it has sooo much room for interpretation. However, at this moment I am (perhaps) just not intelligent enough (or I don’t care enough) to sit down and derive what many of the lines in Hitchhiker are truly about. Good news for readers; there are many books and papers written about it, all by people more talented in this area than I.
Overall
I feel very “meh” about the whole book; and am most thankful it’s a short read. Maybe it’s a lifetime of hype around Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy bringing my expectations too high? Maybe I’m just not in the right generation to truly appreciate what Adams had to say. Or perhaps it’s that Hitchhiker is special to a generation because it was released at the perfect moment. If this last is true, I absolutely respect the importance of any novel to a time period (even if I can’t experience that importance myself).
While I’m unlikely to read Hitchhiker again or carry on with the rest of the series (especially after reading that it’s not in sequential order and grossly contradicts itself throughout the remaining books) I do want to say that it’s a unique and clearly pervasive piece of literature that every bookworm and/or science fiction reader should delve into at least once. Even if it’s only so you understand pop culture references and have a moment to wonder what it might be like to be the last human in the galaxy.
Side note: I have to wonder if Adams had heard of the concept of the internet (as was being developed by the US military in 1970s; or if he thought up a device, that provided the user with all the galaxy’s data at their fingertips, on his own...)
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