Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Happiness Falls by Angie Kim

4 reviews

thekatreturns's review

Go to review page

emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I am absolutely blown away that this comes from the same author as Miracle Creek, which has been thoroughly critiqued for its intense ableism. But I guess this book is proof that people can learn and grow and change their behavior with more information and more relationships with those most affected. Because, my goodness, this book is everything the general public should be reading about nonspeakers with regard to disability politics. The difference between the two is ridiculous and near unbelievable, and yet, the trajectory of Angie Kim’s learning is very clear me as someone who has been immersed in autistic community since the mid aughts. I know exactly how she got here, it’s clear as day, she even names specific people she learned from in the authors notes, and yet I’m still astounded that she got there at all when so many don’t. Thank you, Angie, for listening to neurodivergent people, autistic people, and most specifically nonspeakers. For broadening your horizons from the people at the center of Miracle Creek, who mean well and yet do so much harm. For addressing the nonspeaking community’s relationship with pseudoscience, testing, and disbelief directly, in the text, in an incredibly thoughtful and empathetic way. And also, for writing a damn good literary mystery. 

Yeah, aside from this being a book that I’m heartened is doing well in sales and reviews because its message is so crucial for the world to understand- this is a great book and it is not at all too preachy about said message. 

Many other reviewers found Mia annoying, but it was extremely easy for me to get into her head. Probably because we have pretty much the same personality and thought patterns. I didn’t find anything annoying, but then again I am a huge sucker for footnotes in literature. I enjoyed the morphing of her observations
“we should have done this” “I wish this had happened this way” from being like “if this had happened differently maybe we’d have solved the mystery” to “if this had happened differently maybe I would feel differently.” It’s subtle, and maintains the tension longer than it could have otherwise.


The other criticism I found in reviews of the book was that it went too deep into philosophy and the mystery of the
dad’s Happiness Quotient experiments.
I disagree with these reviewers, because, well, the idea of Welcome to Holland (a seminal essay by Emily Perl Kingsley) is constantly on the mind for disabled people and their families. The philosophies presented are a natural fit, and their hyperlogical presentation by the characters is one of many signs of autistic traits in the rest of Eugene’s family and therefore quite realistic.

Which brings me to my final point. This is not a 5 star book for me, and it so, so easily could have been. I desperately wanted to
switch into Eugene’s perspective for an epilogue. Not to get answers to Mia’s burning questions, because I think it’s beautiful and metaphorically resonant that the family doesn’t have answers to everything. But to spend some time in his head, to give him the chance to write the ending to this chapter of his story. I can see how that would feel weird for Angie as she’s not nonspeaking herself, but I maintain it could have been done in collaboration with a nonspeaking cowriter. I can also see how that would be seen as indulging doubters by saying, “yes, this kid can write, here, look at him!” But he’s not real, so no real child is being made into a self narrating zoo exhibit. Plus, the line this book walks with presenting very conclusive proof of spelling for Eugene, and acknowledging the pain of doubt, is so deft that I trust Angie and her brain trust of nonspeaking people in the acknowledgments to have handled it. If this book ever gets a sequel about some other mystery happening to these characters, I want Eugene to narrate it.
My second criticism is that Matthew Rushin should be in the acknowledgments, given that
autistic young people navigating the legal system in Virginia
is a huge plot point. Was any of this story directly inspired by him? Probably not, the details are very different. But I seriously doubt the relevant laws in real life would exist without his story.

Also, sorry if it seems disrespectful that I’ve referred to the author as Angie throughout, just a habit in transcribing my previously orally expressed thoughts. I mean full respect when I say that everyone who’s ever been criticized for something they write should listen and learn like she has very clearly done. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

_david_'s review against another edition

Go to review page

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.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

ncamp214's review

Go to review page

reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I am so disappointed in this book. I absolutely loved the beginning. I was pulled in right away, hoping to have a mystery/thriller about what happened to Adam Parson and how Eugene could save the day despite being non-verbal. The book slowly dissolved into a plot with a lot of threads that never seemed to connect. Mia, the narrator, is extremely unlikeable and untrustworthy. Her extra thoughts in the footnotes took me out of the story and were more often than not unrelated. I was really hoping for a big reveal or satisfying ended, but the author didn't give us that. It was ambiguous, which I *think* was the point? 

After reading the acknowledgements I was FLOORED that she choose to write a book about a debunked method of communication called FC. While I am not well researched in the Autism or non-speaking communities, from I have read, writing a book on this topic seems to be at best irresponsible.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

annoyedhumanoid's review against another edition

Go to review page

mysterious reflective slow-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

i loved the narration. i understand why it isn't for everyone, but my brain works in the same way so i felt at home. i also appreciated how this book advocated much more strongly for the humanity of its characters with disabilities than Miracle Creek (Angie Kim's debut novel) did. and that it took place during covid times. my main issues were that, compared to Miracle Creek, the plot:
  1. wasn't as gripping. it started to drag three-fourths of the way through, and i got fed up with all the cheap foreshadowing of the form "looking back, i wish [x] hadn't happened".
  2. didn't feel as expertly-crafted. though i recognize that's kind of the point—
    not all mysteries, especially missing person cases, have neat solutions; that's life
    —it was still somewhat disappointing. i'm trying to
    learn the lesson Mia did and
    accept an open ending—
    i choose to believe that her and John's mind-meld recreating the accident was a display of fraternal jeong, just the tiniest bit of magical realism.
nonetheless, this has cemented Angie Kim as an author on my radar, and i'm looking forward to her next book.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
More...