Review of Happiness Falls by Angie Kim

*Happiness Falls* by Angie Kim (2023). Published by Hogarth.

I had heard of Angie Kim’s books before, and now I know that a lot of people loved one of the books she had put out previously, but for some reason I was never interested in going out and finding a copy for myself at the library.

But because I had no idea of what Angie Kim does or writes, that means I had no idea that Happiness Falls was a thing until I ended up receiving an advanced copy through the publisher and NetGalley. Thanks to the platform for the ARC and whatnot, I think this was an interesting first read for an author, albeit difficult at times.

Anyways, I procrastinated on reading this for months, as I got the ARC towards the beginning of 2023. I ended up finally reading it on my trip to New York City in August 2023, which I ended up venturing back into the Big Apple for my theater freelance work.

Anyways, one of my favorite things to do on the subway is grab a seat whenever possible, pull out my Kindle from the tote bag, and open a book. This trip I was catching up on my ARC backlog, and Happiness Falls was second on the list.

Here’s my review!

Grappling with the disappearance of the patriarch, one family has to figure out drama and secrets.

Mia’s father has gone missing, and her brother, Eugene, was found wandering the streets after almost getting hit by a car. Eugene and their father had gone out for a hike earlier that day, but Eugene, who is mute, was the only one who came home that day.

At first, the family decides to wait to put out a missing persons report, but when they finally do, it’s going to reveal a whole new storm for the family that they’re going to have to wade through.

They’re mixed race; Mia’s father is white and her mother Korean. A professor who has dedicated immense amount of time to studying language and disability because of Eugene’s condition, she cannot fathom the extent of what Eugene could have played in the role in the father’s disappearance, even after he turns violent sometimes with the investigators and even his own family.

Mia’s flashbacks with her other brother show the extent of Eugene’s situation on the family, but the story progresses even more when she begins to snoop.

She realizes that there are more secrets than she thought originally when it came to her father and what was happening behind the scenes, which shapes up the novel for the final arcs and climax to come.

There’s a lot about calculating happiness and discovering how it can be scientifically achieved, but I won’t go into more detail when it comes to this part of the mystery due to the immense amount of spoilers we could dive into, but I found this to be a well sculpted mystery by its end.

My one complaint going into about the first half of this book is that it was honestly pretty painful to read at times. I found the writing style to be a little too much for me—the main protagonist is Mia, and she narrates the book from her perspective.

There’s a lot of discussions throughout that can be pretty academic in nature, and as a graduate student myself, I understand what the points being made are trying to convey. Things are more complex than one human’s experience.

But this analysis from the main character as it was happening was a little too much for me.

There are also footnotes at the end of each chapter that kind of serve as afterthoughts or monologues reacting to certain things mentioned in the chapter, which I thought to be kind of excessive as well. I feel like due to the sheer number of philosophical and science discussions happening in the book, you’re going to want to take your time. I did take my time and it ended up making me want to drop the book in certain moments.

Overall Thoughts

I think this was clearly a well written book, especially when it comes to the actual plot and characters, but it gets too muddled down in the details at times. This made me, as a reader, want to give up even though I hate having to stop at the halfway point.

But because I wanted to give this book a fair chance—and to adequately gauge mysteries, you kind of need to get to the end of the mystery—I found that the payoff was pretty decent when I finally closed out that little Kindle book PDF.

I’d say definitely pick a copy up if you haven’t already, but make sure you note down the little things and space it out if you’re having trouble. Definitely lots to think about after this one.

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