Book Review - Happiness Falls by Angie Kim

Title: Happiness Fall
Author: Angie Kim
Genre: Mystery/ Fiction
Published: 2023
 
Description: When a father goes missing, his family’s desperate search leads them to question everything they know about him and one another.
 
Mia, the irreverent, hyperanalytical twenty-year-old daughter, has an explanation for everything – which is why she isn’t initially concerned when her father and younger brother Eugene don’t return from a walk in a nearby park. They must have lost their phone. Or stopped for an errand somewhere. But by the time Mia’d brother runs through the frond door bloody and alone, it becomes clear that the father in the tight-knit family is missing and the only witness is Eugene, who has the rare genetic condition Angelman syndrome and cannot speak.
 
What follows is both a ticking-clock investigation into the whereabouts of a father and an emotionally rich portrait of a family whose most personal secrets just may be at the heart of his disappearance.

Review: When Mia’s younger brother Eugene comes back home alone from a walk with their dad, she doesn’t think much of it. He is probably behind. But when her mom and her twin brother John return home, questions start arising. Their dad is clearly missing. And nothing is at it seem. The only person who knows what happened is Eugene, but he has a rare condition called Angelman syndrome, he cannot speak.
 
“Happiness Falls” is not your standard mystery. The book focuses on the characters, the family we follow in this book.
 
The story is told through the perspective of twenty-year-old Mia, the daughter of the Korean-American Park family. Mia is not a typical narrator, nor is this a typical family. The building and exploring of these characters is the heart of the book. If you’re not a character driven reader, this book may not be for you. I’m not either, most of the time, but the way this story was told did captivate me. And the mystery is one I wanted to see solved. But still, I would have loved it more when I did enjoy character driven books more.
 
The novel goes in several different directions, because Mia and her family also do some investigating of their own. And the way Angie Kim treated the character of Eugene was so beautiful. I never heard about Angelman syndrome before. I read, from people who are more familiar with this condition, that Kim was very respectful about it.
 
I really liked this book, but never got to the point of loving it.
 
Rating: 3,5/ 5