Miracle Creek

Angie Kim’s novel Miracle Creek (2019) is a courtroom drama and classic whodunit—during an alternative medical treatment, hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), an explosion kills two people and injures six others. The fire that caused the explosion was set deliberately, and readers follow along as Kim weaves moments of drama set in the present with flashbacks to the past. Kim, a Korean immigrant who came to the United States as a child with her parents, is a former trial lawyer and a parent to children with chronic illnesses; she became interested in HBOT after using it to help one of her children. This study guide refers to the eBook edition of the text.

Miracle Creek begins with a definition of HBOT, the central focus of the story. Breathing in oxygen at a higher atmospheric pressure allows the oxygen to be dissolved at greater levels than normal. Because damaged cells need oxygen to heal, such therapy can speed recovery. HBOT traditionally treats carbon monoxide poisoning and decompression sickness in divers. Many people believe HBOT can also treat cancer, autism, and diabetes. However, there are risks to this treatment, especially fire. The novel tells the story of what happened on the day a fire started near an HBOT chamber, known as Miracle Submarine, resulting in two deaths and numerous injuries.

A series of narrators tell the story: Young Yoo and her husband, Pak Yoo, who emigrated from Korea and now own the HBOT chamber; Matt Thompson, a medical doctor being treated for infertility; Teresa Santiago, parent of Rosa, being treated with HBOT; Mary Yoo, Young and Pak’s daughter; Elizabeth Ward, accused of starting the fire, whose son Henry was killed in the fire; and Janine Cho, Matt’s wife and an investor in Miracle Submarine.

On the day of the fire, Young has taken over command of the final “dive” of the day, the term used to describe an HBOT session, while Pak ensures that a group of protestors does not return to the area around the chamber. Participating in this dive are TJ Kozlowski, severely autistic, accompanied by his mother, Kitt; eight-year-old Henry Ward, also autistic; Rosa Santiago, who has cerebral palsy, and her mother, Teresa; and Matt. Normally, Henry’s mother, Elizabeth, also attends the dive, but on this occasion, she asked Matt and Kitt to supervise Henry. Young leaves the chamber briefly, and when she returns, the oxygen tank explodes. The force of the explosion throws Mary into the air; she is in a coma for weeks. Pak is injured trying to get the patients out of the chamber, paralyzed from the waist down. Teresa and Rosa suffer minor injuries, while Matt suffers severe burns to his hands and loses two of his fingers. Henry and Kitt are killed in the fire.

The rest of the story covers the trial, which begins a year later. Although Pak was initially suspected of having started the fire, Elizabeth was arrested, supposedly motivated by her desperation to get rid of her disabled son. At first, the district attorney’s portrait of Elizabeth seems accurate: a mother desperate for attention, to the extent of purposely making her own child sick, who then kills that child. Her illness the night of the explosion was feigned, and the actions she took prior to the dive, such as cancelling all of Henry’s therapy, seem suspicious. She even told Teresa that her life would have been better without Henry in it.

However, Elizabeth did not kill Henry, and Young is the one who discovers the truth: Mary started the fire. Several factors motivated Mary to start the fire: Matt sexually assaulted her; Janine confronted Mary because she believed Mary was having an affair with Matt; and Mary is unhappy living in America. Mary believed that if she burned down the chamber, she would get to return to her previously happy life in Korea. Mary did not mean to hurt anyone and believed all the patients were gone. Pak knew she started the fire and tried to cover for her. In fact, Pak started a fire using a cigarette and put it out in hopes of framing the protestors. Mary stumbled upon the staged scene and relit the cigarette.

Just as Young has pieced the mystery together, the district attorney notifies them that Elizabeth has committed suicide. Pak wants to keep quiet, but Young insists that Mary confess and clear Elizabeth’s name. Mary is sentenced to 10 years in jail, and Matt and Pak are convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice. Teresa and Young work together to open a residential center for autistic children and their families, in Elizabeth and Henry’s honor.