Reviews tagging 'Death'

Happiness Falls by Angie Kim

22 reviews

murve's review against another edition

4.25

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. :(

Thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Ableism, Bullying, Death, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Suicide

marymwest's review against another edition

emotional informative mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

Perhaps a 3.5. On audio. Objectively this was a good book and I recognize that. I really appreciate Eugene’s storyline and the research and attention to detail that the author put in to making his story come alive. However, I found the MC annoying and I didn’t love that covid & the pandemic were incorporated in the storyline (although technically necessary for the plot). I felt like the whole thing kept dragging on and on despite the bulk of it taking place over the course of only 3-4 days. And then in the end, I didn’t feel satisfied with how everything wrapped up, but not in the way that it was supposed to feel ambiguous, you know? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Death of parent

Minor: Rape

lindseybkoehler's review

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness and Grief

Moderate: Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Cancer, Ableism, Mental illness, and Terminal illness

Minor: Cultural appropriation, Forced institutionalization, Bullying, and Deportation

sparklefarm's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I love discovering new-to-me authors and loving them immediately. This was an excellent read - I was hooked and in suspense from the get-go. Philosophical, tense, and personal - not a mix I expected, but one I really enjoyed. The author's note was meaningful (although upon reflection made some of the philosophizing and reflection within the work a bit heavy-handed, although I don't know that I really minded). Highly recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Death and Death of parent

Minor: Cancer, Racism, Rape, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Ableism

madisus's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.0

I really enjoyed this book, and loved the thematic focus on language and communication. Some elements were a miss for me, but overall I loved Mia’s analytical POV and her insights and reflections on her own family and the community at large. This is the second book I’ve read this year set during COVID lockdown— Kim utilizes this as an active participant in the mystery, to great effect. General paranoia, lack of contact, and danger of illness all play a role in how this story unfolds. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism

Minor: Death

kristapeters's review against another edition

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Cursing

alexisgarcia's review

emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

the more i think about this book, the less i like it. i think i like the premise and this was a book i couldn’t really put down. but the writing was definitely pretty clunky and the narrator was pretty irritating. there were a ton of aspects of the characters and plot that didn’t get flushed out. none of the characters felt well-rounded and almost all of them were incredibly unlikable.

also i hated the ending. i think it’s hard for authors to get away with an unresolved ending, and this one definitely did not get away with it. also i wasn’t willing to believe that they had no clue that Eugene could spell or have any intelligible thoughts at all. how do you spend all day and night with him without getting an inkling about it. at that point it just feels like blatant negligence and abuse. 

there were also so many parts of the plot that were convoluted and pretentious. idk, i did like a lot of this but there was also a lot that disappointed me too. also, i am BEGGING authors to stop putting covid in the background of their books when that is not apart of the main plot at all. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Racism, Car accident, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Cancer, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Infidelity, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Ableism, Death of parent, Cursing, Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

_david_'s review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

The book starts of with a cliché (a witness that cannot speak), but do not worry and stick with it, it's handled very well. I really appreciated the author's sensitive and thoughful portrayal of nonspeaking characters. It's clear that she researched and spoke to people who are nonspeaking themselves about it. This care is also evident in the author's notes and acknowledgments.

The main character shows some bad behavious: making quick assumptions, speaking around a nonspeaking character instead of to them, and just acting as a general teenager. However, the future main character, whose POV we're following, calls her past self out on it and voices her shame. In general I feel like Mia would've made more sense as a teenager than someone in college/uni.

The author's background in philosophy shines through, especially in the exploration of happiness. It's clearly written by someone with an academic background.

The ending left a positive lasting impression. I'm sure I will think back on it often during the rest of my life.

The reason that I'm giving the book 4 stars instead of 5 is because the writer POV often annoyed me with her perspective. I specifically refer to all the moments which said something along the lines of "but with the information I know now, why [odd thing] happened made sense" without any further explanation. It happened too much and sometimes for relatively minor occurrences. It disrupted the flow of the story and was hard to take serious after a while. A small point that I disliked but not enough to affect the score, that only Mia, Adam (the dad) and Eugene were well rounded characters. Hannah (the mother) and especially John were quite flat eventhough they were very important to the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Racism, Violence, War, Death, Police brutality, Ableism, Bullying, Rape, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Abandonment, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Car accident, Xenophobia, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, Colonisation, and Mental illness

Minor: Dementia, Classism, Toxic relationship, and Cancer

arayo's review

challenging emotional informative mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Ableism, and Grief

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic and Police brutality

Minor: Rape, Abandonment, Cancer, Car accident, Infidelity, Suicide, and Violence

yeaeun's review

hopeful informative mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Rape, Death of parent, Violence, Death, Ableism, Xenophobia, and Hate crime