Narrated by Mia, a twenty-year-old member of a Korean American family, the story unravels the intricate dynamics within her household. Mia is portrayed as a genius, emotionally reserved, skeptical, and straightforward, much like her father, while her mother specializes in linguistic studies. Their family dynamic is further shaped by Mia's twin brother, John, who contrasts her pessimism with his optimism, serving as a peacemaker within the family.

The family's cohesion is shattered when Eugene, Mia's 14-year-old brother who suffers from autism and Angelman syndrome, mysteriously returns home alone from his daily walk with their father. Concerned by his erratic behavior and their father's absence, the family embarks on a frantic search, only to be confronted with cryptic clues suggesting foul play. As they grapple with the possibility of their father's suicide, abandonment, or harm, the narrative unfolds into a gripping mystery that keeps readers on edge.

Narrated through short chapters interwoven with Mia's introspective footnotes, the story delves into complex themes such as linguistics, mental health, racism, and family dynamics. Despite its length, the narrative remains engaging, offering insights into the struggles of caring for a teenager with rare conditions. The characters, flawed yet deeply caring, resonate with authenticity, evoking empathy from readers.

The book's poignant portrayal of familial sacrifice and the challenges faced by Eugene in expressing himself resonates with emotional depth. The powerful ending leaves a lasting impact, prompting reflection on the complexities of love, sacrifice, and resilience within families. In conclusion, it's a compelling read that leaves a profound impression, making it one of the standout books of the year. Highly recommended for those seeking a thought-provoking and emotionally resonant narrative.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the Random House Publishing Group/Hogarth for sharing this brilliant book's digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts.

Angie Kim’s second novel, Happiness Falls, is much like her first (Miracle Creek)­ — the simplicity of a mystery/thriller genre label does not evoke fully what this book is about. Of course, for those who love the mystery, you’ve got it. You want more complex family dynamics? That’s here, too. What about themes of class, race, and cognitive disabilities or neurodiversity? It’s all right there in Happiness Falls — in addition to the scientific, philosophic, and musical ponderings of the protagonist, Mia Parkson.

I went in not knowing much about the book and was hooked right away. The portrayal of the family dynamic was great and really let you connect with the characters. I will definitely be looking into Kims previous books.

Thank you Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

I have such mixed feelings about Happiness Falls: On the one hand, it was a brilliant mystery and a dynamic, swift family drama. Equally, its attention to matters of ability and disability struck a profound note for this reader. On the other, the flaws of its characters annoyed the hell out of me. Still, hats off to Kim who wove the story and its characters so seamlessly together that I compulsively — and sometimes against my will — read to the very end.

The noel revolves around a mixed race, Asian and White American family: parents (Hannah and Adam), two young adult children (Mia and John), and an adolescent son (Eugene) who has a mental disability and is non-speaking. One day Adam and Eugene go missing. Eugene returns, injured and unable to articulate what has happened to his father. As the police, authorities, and the family attempt to unravel Adam’s last know whereabouts and uncover the mystery of his disappearance — and hopefully, his safe recovery — family secrets, fears, and flaws come to the surface.

A distinctive appeal of the novel is how Kim embeds a discussion of ability/disability rights and the treatment of persons with disabilities into this tale. What assumptions do normatively abled persons make about those who express themselves differently, about those who are deemed “disabled”, and about the parents and their responsibilities to society and their loved ones with disabilities? It is this element of the novel which makes it so resoundingly relevant and contemporary to our moment.

What then did I find so irritating about the novel? Mia. I found Mia irritating. I found myself annoyed with her youth and rigidity. I have little patience for inflexibility in fictional characters (ironic and hypocritical, I know, but there I am). Still, I could understand her position, and Kim speaks through Mia, as the primary narrator of the novel, with a depth of skill I can only envy as a writer.

The resultant dissonance makes Happiness Falls an engrossing read, one which I could not tear myself from until I reached its end.

I loved this book! Kim expertly weaves a gripping mystery with profound explorations of family dynamics, communication, and the pursuit of happiness. Through the disappearance of Mia's father and the struggles of her autistic brother Eugene, Kim delves into themes of love, loss, and the complexities of human connection. Mia's narration provides a unique and insightful perspective, drawing readers into the family's turmoil and resilience. With its masterful storytelling and thought-provoking themes, Happiness Falls is a must-read for anyone seeking a riveting mystery intertwined with profound emotional depth. 5 stars! Thanks to net galley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

How to write a review for Happiness Falls….this was a well written and important book. Important because it brought life to kids with communicative disorders like Eugene, something in our society we don’t usually see or read about. I liked the family as a whole. I was intrigued enough to find out what happened to keep going to the end. But boy was that hard to do especially at the beginning. Mia is such a selfish egotistical zennial that I almost gave up after the first chapter. I’m an intelligent person but reading about their dad’s happiness experiments, and Mia’s comparing stuff to sonic discords in music plus several other little things like that was so dry and boring and it made me feel dumb. Plus the ending I wasn’t crazy about. And the footnotes were hard to read in kindle format.

Overall I did not enjoy this novel. If I was rating on enjoyment I’d give it 2 stars. But I’ll give it 3 on its subject matter and being well written.

**Thanks to the author and publisher fir the e-arc I received via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.** Due to my love of the author’s last book Miracle Creek I also bought a hardcover from Book if the Month.

Thank you to Net Galley, the author, and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

It's hard to know where to even begin with this one. It's a winding, complex mystery novel that keeps you compulsively reading until the very end. And while some readers might not love where it ultimately lands, I respect the unconventional approach.

As the story opens, we discover that the patriarch of the Parson family has gone missing. Even stranger, his non-speaking son, Eugene - who is presumably the last person to have seen him - returns home covered in blood. His daughter, Mia, begins piecing together clues as to his whereabouts, uncovering a lot of troubling information in the process. She starts to question how much she actually knows about her dad; was he leading a double life? Was the research he was independently conducting on happiness a factor in his disappearance?

My recommendation: come for the mystery, stay for the commentary. Kim has full faith in her readers to keep up with this journey. She covers a lot of ground, making a number of deliberate choices along the way that distinguish this book from some of its contemporaries. While I (like many other readers) would have liked some loose ends to be explicitly tied up, I also appreciate the fact that life is often ambiguous.

It's easy to glean that a lot of intention and research went into writing this particular story. Having met individuals like Eugene (and seen some of these amazing tactics at work), I appreciated the emphasis Kim placed on motor vs. cognitive deficiencies; how adamantly she emphasized the harm that comes with presumption.

Highly recommend if you're the type of person more interested in exploring the question than immediately arriving at a definitive answer.

An eye opening book about family dynamics and how we treat differently abled people. I learned SO much and it made me tilt my head and out loud say “huh” (in a good way) several times. I love a book that challenges my thinking and teaches me. The mystery element and wondering what has happened to their missing family member added suspense and curiosity. This book was an excellent read!

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group, Random House Hogarth allowing me an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My original review:
Oh my goodness. I have not read a novel that's taken my breath away like Angie Kim's HAPPINESS FALLS in ages. This is one of those books I started recommending to others even before I finished reading it. About halfway through the story I thought I had everything figured out, but I was completely wrong and everything came together in such a satisfying way. The story is so important and so beautiful in how it advocates for neurodiversity and inclusion. The representation of a multi-racial family also felt authentic to me (which is often not the case). HAPPINESS FALLS is a keeper.

Updated review:
I have since educated myself more on representation of neurodiversity and have learned of some issues with the representation of Eugene and how the family responds to his miraculous journey. I still really enjoyed the story, but I do want to acknowledge that there are problematic aspects of the portrayals that are harmful to these marginalized communities.

A thought-provoking mystery that delves into the disappearance of a father while hiking with his non-verbal son who has Angelman syndrome. The book challenges how we think about assumptions, presumptions, preconceived notions, and cognitive biases. As humans, we often feel the need to find explanations, and this book explores that tendency.

I paired the audiobook and physical book. While I'm glad I had the physical to reread information about the Happiness Quotient, the narration captured so much heart and soul of the story! I've always enjoyed Shannan Tyo - a fabulous YA narrator! But Thomas Pruyn stole the show. Happiness Fall would be a terrific book club selection!

The description of this book calls it a family drama and a thriller and that could not be more accurate! We have a missing father, dynamics between siblings and other family challenges that collide in an intriguing page-turner. A great read!

3 stars (rounded up from 2.5)

I had a hard time with this book. I nearly DNF’d it, after borrowing the audiobook from my library. The main narrating character is Mia, a 20-year-old college student who is home due to the pandemic in June 2020. I found her to be unlikeable and irritating. She goes off on tangents all the time, partly science-y and partly philosophical, none of which, I felt, added to the story. At about 35%, I turned to the ebook which allowed me to skim past what I felt were the nonessential stuff and get to the heart of the story.

The story - Mia’s dad Adam has disappeared. Her younger brother, Eugene, 14, is autistic and also has Angelman syndrome (something I knew nothing about). He comes home from the park, where he’d gone with his dad, at a run, bleeding. Because he can’t speak, the family doesn’t know what has happened. The family is biracial (and this enters into the story). The dad is white, the mom is Korean. Mia looks more like her mother and her twin brother (fraternal twin, obviously) looks more like their dad.

There’s a lot of foreshadowing (if that’s the correct term) with phrases like “knowing what I know now” and “but that was before.” I found that annoying too. There are also footnotes, which the author says you can skip - on the audio, that’s not really an option, but once I was in the ebook, I could, and did, skip them.

I loved seeing Eugene’s growth over the course of the tale and that’s mostly what helped me stay the course and finish the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hogarth for the opportunity to read a review copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

I loved the story, it was unique! I loved the prospective. You really feel the main character. It was a difficult to read but I’m glad I did.

Mia and John are twins and are home from college due to the pandemic. Eugene is their younger brother who has autism and AS. Eugene comes home alone after being out on a hike with their dad and the family realizes that their dad is missing but they can’t get any information from Eugene on what happened since he is non-verbal. An investigation is started and Mia and John try to uncover what happened while protecting their brother. Many secrets are uncovered as they dig into what happened.
I loved this story. It was so creative and kept me on my toes the whole time. I was constantly going back and forth on what I thought could have happened. The story was very well written and the mystery aspects were just what you want in a mystery book, unpredictable and unexpected. The end of the story even left you wondering a bit if the truth fully came out. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes mysteries and honestly just to anyone in general.

**Thank you, NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group, for sending me this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.**

This is an engrossing, important book about autonomy — wrapped inside a missing person mystery.

All hail Angie Kim! I love her writing and she can do no wrong in my book. I LOVE Miracle Creek so was hoping that Happiness Falls would be just as good and I'm happy to say that it was! I enjoy her blend of mystery with well-written literary fiction.

I enjoyed the mix of mystery/thriller and social commentary, especially with how much Covid affected everyone in this story. It was satisfying to see all the pieces of this story finally come together, although I wish [it had a happier ending. :( (hide spoiler)]

This was an excellently paced family mystery/procedural. The writing was stellar. I especially appreciated the Angelman representation, as I have a nephew with that condition. Really well-done with a satisfying conclusion.

I really enjoyed this book. While there is a mystery at the heart of the plot, the book itself is NOT a mystery. Rather, it's a story about a family and their dynamics, and how they're impacted when their patriarch disappears under mysterious circumstances. The characters and their flaws are very real and raw, and it was a joy to get to know them and watch them develop. Very well written.

This book was tense and full of twist and turns. I was on the edge of my seat. It was more of a family drama then a mystery. I do feel like the footnotes are not as necessary to read.