Reviews

Happiness Falls by Angie Kim

miavic's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

annie_bordeaux's review against another edition

4.0

i loved the characters and how realistic they are, along with everything else. the writing is amazing and you really feel mia's personality in the first person format of the book. the little footnotes along the way are an innovative way to write and make a lot of good points. nothing in this book was predictable which made it a really fun read, but i would say the mystery itself is probably the least interesting part.

rochellem's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I was let down by the YA tone of this novel, and honestly found the first half of the author’s note more interesting than the majority of the book. I think it could also have been cut down significantly, and found the characters to be quite flat despite the length. Perhaps it was the audio format but the sections read from the dad’s notebook were very boring.

delafork's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

julie_is_reading's review against another edition

challenging reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

kaitieburger's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

jessnoon's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

thekristinashow's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective fast-paced

4.5

 WOW. This book tackles multiple complex themes but in a way that the reader can understand without getting confused. 

The story follows a Korean/White mixed family as they discover the father is missing. The last person to see their father alive is their non-verbal, autistic 14-year old brother. 

The most eye opening part of this book is how it challenges the reader to tackle their potential biases of people with non-verbal disabilities. Just because they cannot speak, doesn’t mean they don’t have thoughts, intelligent ones at that. Sometimes they just don’t have a way to communicate effectively and end up being mis-labeled. 

This book will definitely sit with me for a long time, and it makes me want to explore other books by Angie Kim, stat. 

missbrendareads's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

hennyb's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0