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sarahalldone's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
informative
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
dylanhafer's review against another edition
4.0
In Happiness Falls, Angie Kim expertly augments a taut missing-person mystery with fascinating questions about how we measure happiness, verbal communication, and how well we really know those close to us. As Mia digs deeper into unknown sides of her father and brother, Kim explores these complex topics in a way that pulls the reader into her intellectual curiosity. A total page-turner, but with ample substance to match the suspense.
lisacaccamo's review against another edition
5.0
This book was a little out of the norm for my usual genre but boy am I glad I read it. So well written! You can not help but fall in love with this family and just route for the best conclusion possible. I enjoyed the book/storyline but more importantly, I have a new found understanding and respect for those who are non verbal and the struggles they must endure everyday. Thank you Angie Kim for opening our minds and expanding our knowledge.
julieschmidt77's review against another edition
1.0
I almost never write reviews but I just don’t understand how so many people enjoyed this book. I had to force myself to finish it several times, thinking that it would get better. I really don’t like all of the extra information, it bogged down the story. And i still feel like not too much happened.
emgibson13's review against another edition
3.25
3.5 stars, rounded down.
I’m currently trying to get into mystery/thriller style books as they have dominated my mom’s book shelf for years and are known to be pretty engaging/escapist (highly rated book characteristics for my pleasure reading). Unfortunately, this second attempt faired only slightly better than my previous foray into the genre this fall as I struggled to remain invested.
I was pleasantly surprised upon starting the book that the protagonist Mia was college-aged and speaking in third person, which are two of my preferred protagonist characteristics. I really didn’t read much about this book before deciding to pick it up, and I definitely didn’t know who the main POV would be from. I’m not a huge fan of traditional cop crime thrillers (ACAB) as I often see them as pro-cop and anti-presumption of innocence/legal rights, so I simply hoped that wouldn’t be the case. I enjoyed learning about her family through her perspective and see as she challenged her preconceived notions about her family.
Another thing that I didn’t expect about this book: it’s super, super intellectual between the information about Eugene’s diagnoses/communication and the HQ philosophical questions/experiments. In some ways, the “mystery” aspect of the story seemed very secondary, more of a vehicle for the author to discuss the aforementioned intellectual topics. While I did find these discussions illuminating, they often took me out of the story and ruined any suspense that had been building. As a result, the author had to rely on lazy foreshadowing (repeatedly saying stuff like “if we had known then…”) to attempt to create intrigue even at the 80% mark, and by that point I just felt resigned to know the full story so it would just stop being teased. To “quote” the book’s HQ idea, I think my expectations for the end reveal were raised too high by the continual foreshadowing, and thus it didn’t excite me when it ended up closer to the baseline.
I’m currently trying to get into mystery/thriller style books as they have dominated my mom’s book shelf for years and are known to be pretty engaging/escapist (highly rated book characteristics for my pleasure reading). Unfortunately, this second attempt faired only slightly better than my previous foray into the genre this fall as I struggled to remain invested.
I was pleasantly surprised upon starting the book that the protagonist Mia was college-aged and speaking in third person, which are two of my preferred protagonist characteristics. I really didn’t read much about this book before deciding to pick it up, and I definitely didn’t know who the main POV would be from. I’m not a huge fan of traditional cop crime thrillers (ACAB) as I often see them as pro-cop and anti-presumption of innocence/legal rights, so I simply hoped that wouldn’t be the case. I enjoyed learning about her family through her perspective and see as she challenged her preconceived notions about her family.
Another thing that I didn’t expect about this book: it’s super, super intellectual between the information about Eugene’s diagnoses/communication and the HQ philosophical questions/experiments. In some ways, the “mystery” aspect of the story seemed very secondary, more of a vehicle for the author to discuss the aforementioned intellectual topics. While I did find these discussions illuminating, they often took me out of the story and ruined any suspense that had been building. As a result, the author had to rely on lazy foreshadowing (repeatedly saying stuff like “if we had known then…”) to attempt to create intrigue even at the 80% mark, and by that point I just felt resigned to know the full story so it would just stop being teased. To “quote” the book’s HQ idea, I think my expectations for the end reveal were raised too high by the continual foreshadowing, and thus it didn’t excite me when it ended up closer to the baseline.
hostd's review against another edition
4.0
Overall liked the book, but found the I skipped over all of the footnotes. Between those and some of the more heavy science-y based writing thought it brought the book down.
thepolaroidtherapist's review against another edition
3.0
An interesting dive into ambiguity, liminal spaces, intersectional identities of race and ability, and the drive/compilation to quantitate qualitative data when emotions frustrate and confuse us
annasailors's review against another edition
3.0
3 — this rating might change with time. But MEH. The story was good, the family dynamics felt really real. But it felt like a lot of uphill work for not much payoff. Idk maybe the problem is me, because the missing person element tends to be left open ended in real life, so in that way it felt appropriate. But overall I found the details to be a drag even when they were helpful to the story. I do love Eugene, what a great storyline for a usually overlooked character. Mia may have just been much smarter than me so her rants were sometimes hard to follow.
mollison's review against another edition
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
triciareiter82's review against another edition
1.0
I shouldn’t mark this as finished because I ended up skipping to the end to figure out what happened. This book had been on my TBR for a few months and when it finally became available I couldn’t wait to start it. I made it about 35% in when I decided there was no way I could finish. The narrator was unlikeable, the footnotes were too much and I felt like it moved way too slow. I was expecting a mystery/thriller and instead was met with a scientific discussion about ASD and AS.