Happiness Falls: A GMA Book Club Pick

Books | Fiction / Literary

3.9

Angie Kim

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK • When a father goes missing, his family’s desperate search leads them to question everything they know about him and one another in this thrilling page-turner, a deeply moving portrait of a family in crisis from the award-winning author of Miracle Creek. OPRAH DAILY’S #1 NOVEL OF THE YEAR • ONE OF PEOPLE’S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • A WASHINGTON POST, BOOKPAGE, KIRKUS REVIEWS, NEW YORK POST, GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, BOOK RIOT, CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY, REAL SIMPLE, CRIMEREADS, AND SHE READS BEST BOOK OF THE YEARBelletrist Book Club Pick • Finalist for the New American Voices Award • Finalist for the Virginia Literary Award • “This is a story with so many twists and turns I was riveted through the last page.”—Jodi Picoult“A brilliant, satisfying, compassionate mystery that is as much about language and storytelling as it is about a missing father. I loved this book.”—Gabrielle Zevin, author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow“I fell in love with the fascinating, brilliant family at the center of this riveting book.”—Ann Napolitano, author of Hello Beautiful“We didn’t call the police right away.” Those are the electric first words of this extraordinary novel about a biracial Korean American family in Virginia whose lives are upended when their beloved father and husband goes missing.Mia, the irreverent, hyperanalytical twenty-year-old daughter, has an explanation for everything—which is why she isn’t initially concerned when her father and younger brother Eugene don’t return from a walk in a nearby park. They must have lost their phone. Or stopped for an errand somewhere. But by the time Mia’s brother runs through the front door bloody and alone, it becomes clear that the father in this tight-knit family is missing and the only witness is Eugene, who has the rare genetic condition Angelman syndrome and cannot speak.What follows is both a ticking-clock investigation into the whereabouts of a father and an emotionally rich portrait of a family whose most personal secrets just may be at the heart of his disappearance. Full of shocking twists and fascinating questions of love, language, and human connection, Happiness Falls is a mystery, a family drama, and a novel of profound philosophical inquiry. With all the powerful storytelling she brought to her award-winning debut, Miracle Creek, Angie Kim turns the missing-person story into something wholly original, creating an indelible tale of a family who must go to remarkable lengths to truly understand one another.

Mystery

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More Details:

Author

Angie Kim

Pages

416

Publisher

Random House Publishing Group

Published Date

2023-08-29

ISBN

0593448219 9780593448212

Ratings

Google: 5

Community ReviewsSee all

"Listening to the audiobook and this was just outstanding. A nonverbal boy comes running home from the park where he was with his dad, but that dad is missing. Family tries to solve the mystery of where the dad is but uncovers so much more about their father and their nonverbal brother. So well researched as you find out from the author’s note at the end."

Danielle Henry

"I liked it and thought it was interesting and then it became a Covid book"

Gillian

"Unique missing persons novel where the only witness is unable to tell what really happened."

Ricki Marking-Camuto

"Easy quick read. Interesting. "

C G

Christina Gonzales

"As soon as I saw that Angie Kim wrote a second book, I just had to get my hands on it. This was hard to put down. A lot of modern thrillers focus more on the twists and turns in sacrifice of plot, and at some point you come to realize that you're reading variations of the same story by different white women. That's why I love how refreshingly original Angie Kim's books are. From the moment I started Miracle Creek, I knew she was an author to keep on my radar, and I was right. Happiness Falls centers on a Korean American family: Hannah and Adam, their 2 young adult twins, Mia and John, and their nonverbal teen boy with Angelman syndrome named Eugene. When Adam goes missing, Eugene is the only person who knows what happened to him, except he can't talk. The family goes through the wringer trying to uncover what happened to Adam and whether or not he's still alive, all while trying to understand and have more meaningful interactions with Eugene. This book was beautifully written and deeply researched. I had never heard of Angelman syndrome before, but I feel like Kim educated me naturally on how it can feel to not only be the family member of someone with Angelman syndrome, but to actually have it yourself. It really made me stop and think about how I view people who are nonverbal. We tend to view people who don't communicate "normally" as less intelligent, but the truth is, we have no idea what's going on in their minds. Eugene had a LOT to say, a lot of feelings, and a lot of frustration. I couldn't imagine having that all kept inside with no way to release it. Of course he would jump up and down and scream, I would too. I also really liked how Kim made parallels between being nonverbal and having a "foreign" accent. There was a line in the book that really struck me about how we tend to only refer to Asians as speaking in "broken" English. In the same vein, a lot of us tend to infer a person's intelligence by the thickness of their accent. For example, Hannah had a Korean accent, and she also had a PhD in linguistics. Those two factors should be independent of each other, yet we tend to conflate the two. Happiness Falls is a beautiful, tragic, philosophical novel about family, racism, and what it means to be human. Because in the end, we are all only human, regardless of language, race, culture, or speaking ability, and we all deserve the same respect. My only criticism is that Mia seemed much too wise for her age, but I enjoyed her commentary immensely and found it incredibly insightful nonetheless. This book isn't even out yet and I'm already eager for her next one. Sincere thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!"

Leah Silecchia

"3.7 ⭐️ Loved the storytelling but not so much the story"

Eric Cash

"Unless you find all (or most) of the various things the main character finds interesting, you may not enjoy this book. Luckily, I did"

Nena Obrien

"I loved the writing style in this book (if you don't mind side notes you will too). I really enjoyed this book until the last few chapters where the mystery was simply solved without any twists or turns. It was just "expected". However, if you look at this book in a different light, examining the character development of Eugene, his struggles and accomplishments, and how that impacts the family, it really is a great book. Does it have a happy ending, no not really. Is it extremely exciting and awing, also no. However, really thinking about the underlying themes in this book made it more enjoyable and entertaining for me."