Reviews tagging 'Death'

Happiness Falls by Angie Kim

24 reviews

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

ncoletti's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism and Blood

Moderate: Death of parent, Death, and Police brutality

starrfishandcoffee's review

challenging dark emotional informative 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism and Death

Minor: Rape

jialianyang's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense 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

5.0

I see why this book is a bestseller! The narration is at times cerebral and fully in a teen voice, but eventually the character and plot developments twist and turn so rapidly that you can't help but flip page after page. This is a story about family, loyalty, secrets, respect, ableism, the limits of our public safety system, language, philosophy and more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Ableism, Death, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Racism, Infidelity, War, Kidnapping, Xenophobia, Cancer, and Panic attacks/disorders

kerrygetsliterary's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Pandemic/Epidemic, Xenophobia, and Racism

kimveach's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

Wow!  This is a hard book to rate.  By the end of it, I wanted to give it five stars, but at the beginning, I wasn't sure I would even finish it.  Compared to "Miracle Creek," this book is overly wordy.  I understand the artistic choice as the narrator is hyperlexic (I didn't even know that was a thing.)  It is like listening to a young adult/teen girl speak stream-of-consciousness.  Annoying and too much.  I think it would have been better if this book was from multiple points of view (like Miracle Creek.)  Then, we would have pauses/breaths between all of Mia's thoughts.

As the book went on, I became increasingly interested in the ongoing story of her non-speaking brother, Eugene.  Even though I have a son with ASD, I know very little about the world of non-speakers.  Learning about the progress of therapies since the turn of this century was fascinating.  The ramifications of trying to defend a child who can't tell their side of the story in our legal system were frightening.  And with all this, we still had the mystery of what happened to the father.

Reading the reviews, I can see that some people could not get past their dislike of Mia and her wordiness.  However, I'm glad I did.  I hope the author's next book will be a bit easier to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Colonisation, Dysphoria, Forced institutionalization, Ableism, Medical content, Grief, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Cursing, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, and Toxic relationship

soobooksalot's review

emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious reflective tense 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

It's somewhat ironic that a book dealing with communication is hard to describe. 
At it's base, Happiness Falls by Angie Kim is a missing-persons story. But it's so, so much more.
The story is uniquely told by 20-year-old Mia, a Korean-American whose father Adam goes missing while in a park with her brother Eugene.
Eugene is nonspeaking, being afflicted with both autism and Angelman syndrome. Gathering information about Adam's disappearance proves a challenge.
We as readers come to know so many details about the Parson-Park family from Mia's perspective - not only of Adam and Eugene, but also her twin brother John and mother Hannah. Their family history, their challenges and backstories.
The story takes place during the height of Covid, which serves as a parallel to being closed off from others, and finding alternate methods of relating and communication. 
While there is a mystery to uncover in Happiness Falls, it's ultimately a story of acceptance, diversity, connection, and what can make us truly happy.
It's a book to be experienced - recommended! (And also her debut Miracle Creek, if you haven't already read it.)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Bullying, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death of parent, Grief, Ableism, Cancer, and Death

suzydunk's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cultural appropriation, Bullying, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death of parent, Racism, Rape, Death, Racial slurs, and Sexual assault

lilawsahar's review

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

God I learned so much from this book. I am destroyed that Eugene lived for 14 years without being able to communicate because he doesn’t have fine motor skills and his disability enables him to speak. How did he wake up each day knowing that he was going to be treated like an idiot and he had to continue on? The realization that people live like this in real life is gut wrenching. And how I contributed to this idea. Not treating people with disabilities as equals. Makes me sick. Everyone needs to read this book. It blew me away with that insight alone. 

I am also utterly sick that we will never know what happened to their dad. Did Eugene kill him? We will never know especially since she put the wrong passcode in the cell phone. I wouldn’t have done that. They don’t know who Eugene is because he wasn’t able to communicate with them. But Eugene knows them. That’s gut wrenching to me. What happened to him??

Tbh I think the happiness quotient part was unneeded in the story. That’s just my take.

He just wanted his daughter to have a good life. But the story isn’t able her. It’s able Eugene and him.

Also ACAB. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death, Bullying, Confinement, and Police brutality

Minor: Sexism, Rape, and Racism