Happiness Falls (Good Morning America Book Club): A Novel

Non-verbal teen son Eugene comes home from the park a mess, but the family members don't realize for a while that Adam (Dad) isn't with him.

Told mostly from Mia, the irreverent, hyperanalytical twenty-year-old daughter, there is a reason for everything...until there isn't.

I listened to this on library audio, along with the e-book. Quite good on audio - the footnotes fitted more seamlessly that way.

I loved the mixture of the mystery of Adam's disappearance, the exploration of non-communicative and non-verbal, how social media played a part, the autism community, police and legal drama and most of all the complex characters of the Park family. A fascinating page turner.

I’ve never had a book fall from 4 stars to 2 stars before. When I started this highly praised book, I was impressed and liked it. At about 1/4 of the way through I was getting very tired of the narrator. Mia grated on my nerves and the more I was tired of reading the minutia of her self-centered viewpoints of her family life. She went on and on analyzing, forming opinions, being argumentative and talking incessantly. I dropped the rating down to three stars. The way the book ended, although I was relieved I didn’t have to listen to Mia anymore, I was very disappointed at the ending because nothing was really resolved. So now it was two stars. I guess the best thing I got from reading this book was an appreciation of the difficulties experienced when raising a non-verbal child. I can’t really recommend this book.

This story primarily about Angelman Syndrome and family relationships is made into a mystery. Mostly the novel is successful but many of the details of the father’s disappearance are quite stretch. The author has an interesting psychological/philosophical approach using the 20-year-old daughter’s inner monologue to examine memory, language, happiness, and contemporary issues like police power, stereotypes, and use of social media. However, I found the contortions and length of the narrative the author made necessary to come to an resolution unbelievable. This made the latter part of the novel drag. The set-up is so good and the issues thought provoking but a simplicity in some of the plot points might have been better.

Mia, the irreverent, hyper analytical twenty-year-old daughter, has an explanation for everything- which is why she is not initially concerned when her father doesn’t come home with her younger brother, Eugene, from a walk in the park. They must have lost their phone, or stopped so,where for an errand. But by the time Mia’s younger brother runs through the front door bloody and alone, it becomes clear that the father in this tight-knit family might be missing and the only witness is Eugene, who has the rare genetic conditionAngwlman syndrome and cannot speak.

This novel tells the story of a family tragedy. One day, the father takes the youngest son out for their usual hike, but only the son returns home, alone and upset. The son, Eugene, is neurodivergent and non-verbal yet he is the only one who knows what happened. Told from the point of view of his older sister, Mia, a hyper-verbal and analytically-minded college student, the story follows the family as the police and volunteers search for the missing father and how the investigation begins to focus on the one person who can't speak for himself. His family tries to protect him, but some of their efforts backfire, and as they search for answers they discover the secrets that could solve the mystery or destroy their family.

There are positive things to say about this book. Kim does a good job with the pacing and keeping a long book moving quickly. Mia is an interesting character and it was brave for the author to choose her as the narrator, since she gives far more information that is needed at every step, complete with footnotes and long asides to explain everything. And since Mia is writing this after the events in the book are in the past, there is a lot of foreshadowing, and statements along the lines of "if we had only known how badly this would go wrong," which felt like the author didn't quite trust the readers to remember things without her telling them that a scene was important. The aspect I liked most about the book was how the family lived for awhile in South Korea and her descriptions of how that experience was for the family, as well as how they did as a mixed family in the US, were fascinating.

A friend of mine whose son is autistic, had quite a bit to say about the depiction of Eugene. It seemed far-fetched to me in a well-it's-a-novel kind of way, but she was angry about it. If you're the parent of a non-verbal kid, you probably have already heard about this book and have your own opinion. As a whole, this is the kind of book that ends up being a book club choice, but honestly, it isn't very good. Between the heavy-handed pay-attention-now writing and the over-explanations, I was not the reader for this book.

This book was not for me. It's the story of a family in crisis. In the spring of 2020 (yes, during covid - forms a background and adds to some plot points, but not "about covid"), a father goes missing. He was with his teenage son in a park and never comes home. This son must know something about the disappearance, but he is autistic with the addition of Angelman syndrome, which makes him nonverbal and uncommunicative.

At first, I really liked this. The narrator, the sister, is quirky and has a kind of fun voice. But, you know how in a lot of mysteries you feel like you're waiting forever for any real info to come to light? Well, in this novel, revelations are flung at the reader over and over at a breakneck speed. Some of these revelations are misread by the family, and some lead to the truth. But I was so annoyed that there was no room to process anything that was happening. And then, to be honest, the ending I found ridiculous and unbelievable.

I'd recommend skipping this.

When a father goes missing, the family's only way to determine what happened is to depend on Eugene, the youngest child in the family. But, Eugene is non-verbal. Mia and John, twins, and Dr. Hannah Park, the mother and a linguist, try to understand what happened to their father, piecing together various clues. A notebook is found, labeled HQ. Mia determines this to be Happiness Quotient, a project her father is exploring. Throughout the novel, questions around Eugene's involvement surround the family, and his difficulty in communicating what happened causes the police to be suspicious.
The book is very interesting, and made me think about communications in a different way. I also enjoyed the way the family came together.

Unique missing persons novel where the only witness is unable to tell what really happened.

Compressed and claustrophobic due to 2020 COVID isolation, a family stressed past any expectation of endurance when the father's sudden disappearance is potentiality blamed on the nonvocal 3rd child who has multiple cog native conditions. The family does hold together but their views of each other require substantial re-evaluation and living with numerous uncertainties. The characters are bilingual and all very language oriented, a linguist, and two students, and the missing father's philosophical and pragmatic efforts to decode happiness absorb the daughter who narrates the story.
Good and worthwhile, it is also overdone and a bit dry.

A great book!
Told by a college-aged narrator, with such a perfect "voice" that I was quite stunned to find that the author is in her mid-50s! The book is part mystery/whodunnit and part exploration of non-verbal disability - not your average combination!
While I could find minor quibbles with the plot and the telling, the result is an overwhelming success - moving, while being a great read.
I know have to go back and read her first book - Mystery Creek.

Told in the voice of Maia, the bossy older sister, we meet the Parksons. Mother is Korean, Dad is white. Maia has a twin brother who is very much not like her and then there is the youngest child, a 14-year-old who has Angelman's Syndrome and who does not speak. He comes home from his usual walk in the park with his dad without his father one summer day. How can they break through to Eugene to find out what happened to their father? Or rather, how they allow Eugene to tell them what he knows?

The Short of It:

Unfortunately, this one didn’t pull me in.

The Rest of It:

It started off very strong. A close-knit family with a special needs son. A brother, a sister and mom and dad. All, trying hard to find some way to communicate with fourteen year old Eugene after he returns home in a panicked state without his father.

What happened? Calls are immediately made but go unanswered. What about their possessions? Eugene is completely unable to provide an explanation.

The family immediately contacts the police. Was there an accident? After some preliminary search some items are found but in water and damaged. How did it get to the bottom of a stream? What about the notebook they found with the words Happiness Quotient? What was dad working on?

The author does a good job of presenting enough information to keep it interesting. But the communication research that takes place in preparation to communicate with Eugene pulled me out of the story.

There are cause and effect charts, and just a lot of small findings that lead up to the surprising conclusion. I felt that the story lost its way mid-point. The family’s frustration and their inability to really get along make it a tense reading experience.

Stayed up all night to finish, it's just that good.

A father goes missing and his non-verbal autistic 14-year-old son is the only witness. It took me longer to finish this book given the complex nature of the story, but I found myself swept up in it.

Angie is a brilliant writer, but Mia isn’t my favorite narrator because she doesn’t tell a story in a linear way and meanders too much. Recommended for you if you like exploring the complexities of family dynamics.

I had this book in my tbr list but cannot remember why I put it there. I think I must have heard it mentioned on a NY Times podcast as I see now that it was on the NY Times “best seller list” - a list whose books I normally avoid.

I’was down with the flu so I needed what I thought would be an easy read. It was, except it’s just too long with too many threads and themes. Plus, the author has used numerous lengthy footnotes as a device to explain concepts, the narrator’s thoughts and experiences, and family dynamics. I don’t know how these footnotes are presented in the print versions, but they are included in the narrative throughout the chapters preceded by the announcement of “footnote”. Minus the footnotes, you have the mystery. Was there a crime or wasn’t there?

The book covers the teaching of non-verbal people how to communicate by pushing, without guidance, a pen through one of the printed characters on a board in order to spell out sentences.

It is not till the end of the novel in the author’s end-notes that she explains that this method is fictional. But while you are reading, the footnotes make it appear that the method is real.This is relevant as the communication with one of the main characters is of prime importance in solving what might be a missing person or a murdered one. The need to validate the teaching method needs to be validated if the suspect is to be redeemed.

Another thread is about the possibility of assigning a quotient to happiness. Are lottery winners happier after a year, than people who became paraplegic a year after the accident that caused their plight? Great detail is gone into the statistics of various comparisons - to the level of different degrees of difference. If you tell your kids you are taking them to a good restaurant and then take them to a bad one, will they be happier when you eventually take them to a good one, than if you didn’t? The are footnotes after footnotes of such examples.

The immigrant experience of learning a new language and racial stereotyping also threads their way though Happiness Falls. As is computer literacy and the use of devices and modes of computer communication. The misinterpretation of how emails are read and SMS chats play a role. The computer engineer in me spotted some mistakes which sort of threw me off as I started watching out for more.

There’s a black man who is falsely accused by police, a lesbian couple, sexual stereotyping, the downside of the adversarial method of judgement, the voice of the voiceless … the list goes on.

Oh, and all takes place during Covid-19 lockdown.

Add in the missing person mystery, and there you have it.

A lengthy but an easy read of a well-researched novel.

I used the Happing Quotient ranking method to give it a three, with a low-ish standard deviation.

Mostly I was listening to the Audible version - which was very well read. It was a bit long and a bit preachy but it was good. I wouldn't jump up recommending it though.

There's a lot to think about in this one, happiness quotients, non-verbal children, expectations and anxieties around family relationships and secrets. I love the way these themes are unraveled throughout a missing person investigation. I can't comment on the author's treatment of ND individuals beyond that I found it respectful and informative. I'd love to hear ND individuals weigh in on the representation here.

I learned so much from this book about Angelman Syndrome and autism, and about living with a neurodiverse family member. I would rate this a 5 except that it took so long to get started that I was tempted to stop or skim. The diversions and footnotes did detract from the flow of the story, but added so much depth to the relationships and complexity of life in the family. Very impressive.

"We didn't call the police right away," Mia tells us from the get-go. On that fateful day when her father went missing, her brother Eugene came running back from the park where he was hiking with her father, shoving Mia down on his way to the house. Then, she thought, her father returned as well, but by the time she figures out the mistake, he's been missing for hours.

What starts out as a missing persons investigation shifts focus when it becomes clear to Mia, her mother, Hannah, and her twin brother, John, that Eugene is the prime suspect in her father's disappearance. He has both autism and Angelman's, and is unable to communicate what happened on the hike. As the family tries to piece events together while protecting Eugene from an overzealous police officer, they come to learn their own biases and misunderstandings about each other. Narrator Mia, a twenty-year-old college student home during the COVID shutdown, reflects on events in her hyperverbal way, including footnotes for some of her tangents. Ultimately, she asks how well we can know another person and what it means when we humans tend to equate verbal acuity with intelligence.

This canny mystery turns out to be less a mystery and more of a philosophical treatise and a dive into family, duty, and the value of ambiguity, something many of us struggle with every day.

Briefly, the mystery is set in Covid times (but it is not about Covid) with a hyper-intelligent and engaged family thrown together when the 20-year-old twins return from college for lockdown. The third sibling has Angelman's Syndrome and autism and is non-speaking. One day he goes out for a hike with their father and returns home alone, extremely distressed and with blood under his nails. The book is built around the search for their husband/father. There are many twists and turns and subplots but you should read it to learn about those things. Kim is brilliant in a number of ways, but not least of all in how clearly she understands people who are like her, and also people who are not like her. There are some very good writers who understand their own motivations and actions well enough to write excellent characters who are like them, but there are far fewer who get the right people whose motivations and life experiences are very different from their own. Kim belongs to that rare and humbling second group.

The book touches on many issues of racism and ableism since they impact everyone's choices here and Kim does this with a blessedly deft touch. This book is not about racism and ableism, but it also is not exactly not about those things since everyone's psyches are touched by those forces and they impact many assumptions, actions and inactions. One cool thing Kim does is put the explication of racist and ableist beliefs and actions in footnotes with a thorough but brief explanation. This works surprisingly well and tells us so much about everyone's choices without getting in the way of the central story. This is masterful. I did not read Kim's first book but it has been on my TBR. I need to get to that soon. I am very impressed.

Does happiness fall? That's the way I started thinking about this novel, the second after Angie Kim's intricately plotted Miracle Creek. This story is similarly dense, here focussing on the Parson/Park (the kids are the Parksons) family. One of the kids, Mia of the Mia/John fraternal twin pair is our 20-year-old narrator. And she starts with a bang: "We didn't tell the police right away."

With that fairly electric first line, we're off. Turns out that the dad, Adam, has gone missing. He'd gone to the park as usual with Eugene, the 14-year-old brother who has both autism and Angelman syndrome and cannot talk. So what happened? That is the crux of the matter.

Now this is a slightly unusual family. Mom Hannah, Korean-born, is a linguist. Dad Adam, American-born, is a corporate higher-up who has been delving deeply into psycho-social studies and 'happiness research' for lack of a better term. And the story takes these two major themes and weaves them in with the conditions Eugene lives with, how it affects the family, and what it has to do with the disappearance. Adam's notes are discovered early on: seems he's been....conducting experiements on the family? (To analyze the effect of various factors on happiness, but still.) Then Mia herself is verbose and sticks footnotes copiously through her narration. One doesn't have to read these, but I did and they didn't bother me as it might do for some readers. And that heavy foreshadowing! Couldn't you have left out all those ominous warnings, girl?

However. As well-executed as all this was, I began to get the uncomfortable feeling that what I was reading was not entirely fiction. Being alienated for not speaking Korean while living for a few years there as children; the automatic association of lower intelligence with certain accents; even the episodes of Eugene's therapists and his various meltdowns; casual racism towards black people in the U.S.: all this felt too on the nose, as though I were reading a real account of a family's toughest times. I began to wonder if there were just one too many threads here. That I couldn't work out which one could have been dispensed with is a testament to the author's skill, I suppose.

Then I read that author's note at the end. And sure enough some of my doubts were validated. I am still glad I read this, just that the subject matter almost felt theoretical in some sense, a bit of a slog. Nevertheless, Happiness Falls is a worthy work. I had to wait a long time for the library to loan me a copy and I'm glad I waited.

I was extremely disappointed in this book. I just finished the author’s previous book, Miracle Creek, and rather enjoyed it, so I was looking forward to this, her subsequent book. This was a typical second novel, one that fails to live up to the author’s prior book and to the hype surrounding the book.

The book read like a textbook for a philosophy class. The book is full of footnotes. Now, I appreciate that the author tried to do something different in a novel, being footnotes, but they were more annoying than useful. Too often in the book the author sidetracked from the story to discuss Happiness Quotient. The story often went off in tangents with the characters totally ignoring their primary quest, to learn what happened to their missing father.

I found none of the characters either likeable or relatable. I realize the protagonist does not always have to be likeable, but I cared for none of the characters. I cared not whether they succeeded or failed in their quest. The author at least needs to make me care about the characters. It appeared the author was trying to get a message through to the reader and simply “used” the characters to deliver that message. The characters were not well developed either, which is probably why I failed to care for them.

The dialogue was bland and unoriginal. All of the character sounded alike. We have two young adults that moved to the US from Korea at five years old, and a woman who moved here as an adult. All of them sounded the same as did all the other native English speakers. There needed to be some variety in the speech patterns. A twenty year old does not speak the same as a forty year old.

The story is one of a missing dad/husband, Adam. The last person to see Adam alive was his autistic, non-speaking son, who cannot tell what happened. The story is how the family and therapists were able to get him to communicate what happened to Adam. But at times, the story diverges and the family totally forgets about poor, old dad, and is more concerned with what makes one happy and if happiness is better or worse based upon preconceived expectations. Throughout the book I wanted to remind them to get back on track looking for Adam.

The book was rather long, just short of 400 pages. A hundred pages or more could have been cut and made the book a better and tighter story. Cut all the happiness quotient talk and footnotes. At times I really did not want to pick up the book and resume reading. I really would not recommend you waste your time or money on this book.

On the surface, Happiness Falls by Angie Kim revolves around the disappearance of a fifty-five-year-old man and the events that follow as both his family and local law enforcement try to locate him and piece together the events that led to his disappearance and the impact these efforts have on his immediate family. Adam disappeared while on a walk to a local park with his fourteen-year-old son, Eugene, the only witness to what transpired. Eugene is autistic and nonverbal, having been diagnosed with mosaic Angelman syndrome (AS). His family is protective of him and initially hides the fact that he was found running on the road in a disheveled, agitated state with bloodstains on his clothes from the police.

The events are narrated from the perspective of Adam’s twenty-year-old daughter, Mia. The narrative follows Mia, her twin John, and their mother Hannah over the weeks following Adam’s disappearance as they search for him and take care of Eugene. Mia is intense and does not mince her words when talking about her Korean-American family. She shares significant episodes from her childhood, her dynamic with different members of her family, her feelings about her father’s disappearance, and the facts that are subsequently unearthed in much detail. From Adam’s notes, found in his belongings, Mia finds his research on quantifying happiness, the “Happiness Quotient," and his analysis on the same, drawing on events from their lives. It is also evident that Adam had been keeping secrets, some of which Eugene might know about. The narrative follows Adam’s family as they try to decode what Eugene might know, not fully able to comprehend Eugene’s frustrations with his family’s assumptions about his ability to express his thoughts and feelings. Her father’s notes prompt Mia to take stock of her own life, her family dynamic, and how she relates to Eugene both as a sibling and as a human being.

Part family drama, part literary mystery Happiness Falls by Angie Kim is an exceptionally well-written work of fiction. The author excels at portraying complex characters, emotions and sensitive family dynamics. The meticulous research that the author devoted to characterizing Eugene shines through. The depiction of a teenager who is neurodivergent and his dynamic with each member of his family is both profoundly moving and thought-provoking. The novel explores themes of family, trauma and healing, the importance of giving each other space and respect within the family unit, human connection, communication and kindness, bias and inclusivity, among others. The pacing of this novel is on the slower side, and the writing is detailed and descriptive. You need to approach this novel with more than a bit of patience, but overall, I found this to be an immensely satisfying read.

The brilliantly penned Author’s Note truly enriches the overall reading experience. While I did enjoy the deep dive into behavioral psychology and philosophy complete with researched facts, analysis and Adam’s proposed hypotheses, I felt that it did become a bit too heavy for a work of fiction.
This was my first time reading this author, and I look forward to exploring more of her work.

Many thanks to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for the digital review copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Title: Happiness Falls
Author: Angie Kim
Publisher: Random House, Hogarth
Reviewed By: Arlena Dean
Rating: Four
Review:
"Happiness Falls" by Angie Kim

My Sentiments:

"Happiness Fall" is quite a story about Asian Culture that features 'happiness, autism, communication, trust, and linguistics' in a mystery story, This author gives the ready a story about a family after the father/husband goes missing at the park with his nonverbal son Eugene who was 14 years old and diagnosed with Autism and Angelman syndrome, who came home bloodied and dirty. What happened to the father? There will be many parts to this story that one will have to keep up with so you will get the whole understanding of the way the POV is taking place and being told in the second person by Mia, a 20-year-old biracial Korean American...her father Adam Parson as she looks back on what had expired. The story is a mystery...what happened to the father is loaded with lots of secrets that deal with plenty of perceptions and assumptions. Will this family be able to find out what has happened to the father as they protect Eugene from what is happening? To get these answers and more, pick up this read and see how well this author brings it all out to the reader.

Thank you to Net Gallery for the read and my giving my honest opinion of the novel.

I didn't see how Angie Kim could do better than her earlier book, MIRACLE CREEK. But I'm happy to tell you she did. I'm amazed with HAPPINESS FALLS and in more ways than one.

Mia tells the story that begins with her missing father. During her family's search for him, they learn many partial truths. Did they really know him as well as they thought?

Even more so, this book is about Eugene, Mia's younger brother. He is autistic and also has Angelman syndrome, which is so misunderstood both in this story and in real life. They did not know Eugene as well as they thought.

HAPPINESS FALLS deals not only with a missing father but, also, a suspect brother who cannot communicate. In so doing it amazes as it takes on many issues and surprising twists.

And in the end, is there really a determination?

This review is of an advanced copy of HAPPINESS FALLS.

When I was a teenager I heard my grandmother talk about a neighbors whose wife was unable to move or talk, and they had no idea if she was mentally normal. He parked her in front of the television when he left for work. That terrified me, the idea that someone could be mentally normal but unable to communicate or move. (It also terrified me to think of being forced to watch daytime tv all day long.)

Angie Kim’s new novel Happiness Falls is a mystery and a family drama concerning the disappearance of the father, a son who cannot communicate the only witness. For Eugene’s mosaic Angelman syndrome means he is unable to talk, and he has motor difficulties, the fixed smile on his face giving no clue to his feelings.

Father Adam and mother Hannah came to odds over the false hope of Eugene learning to communicate, leading to Adam becoming a stay-at-home dad and Hannah returning to her career.

Twins Mia and John are nothing alike. They take after different parents, so a teacher thought Mia was Asian and John was Caucasian. John is an optimist, easier to like. Mia is a sceptic, logical, snarky.

Every day, Adam took Eugene for a walk in a park. One day, Eugene ran back home alone, distraught, blood on his clothes. Adam was nowhere to be found.

Secrets come out that bring doubt about Adam’s activities. Mia is especially interested in her father’s notebook discussing what he called the Happiness Quotient, a scientific exploration of how people’s optimism or pessimism affects their happiness level under differing situations.

When the police arrest Eugene, the family has to work fast to try to understand what happened on the walk near the Falls. What they learn is shocking and life-changing for them all.

What sets this book apart is Mia’s delving into the Happiness Quotient and exploring philosophical questions, and its addressing issues of communication. The family experience includes Hannah adjusting as a non-English speaking immigrant, and the family spending time in Korea where Mia felt categorized as an idiot for not speaking Korean. Eugene is presumed to be child-like in his mental development because he can’t communicate.

In the Author’s Note, Kim warns that we should not judge people based on their external appearance, nor should we judge people’s intelligence by their verbal skills, something she experienced as a young immigrant to America.

Yes, the passages from Adam’s notebook slow the book down, but this is not a page-turner, plot-driven beach read. Narrated by Mia, we see the story unravel through a complicated series of revelations that engage us, while he grappling with larger issues informs and elevates us.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book.

What an exhilarating book! The main plot is about a missing husband and father, but Angie Kim has loaded an exceptionally immense amount of material into the narrative. There are several intriguing story arcs intermixed with the vanished father. Mia, the novel's narrator, has recently changed her college major to algorithmic composition, a mix of computer science, math, and music. Her footnotes and side comments about this subject are fascinating. Mia's brother, Eugene, has Angelman's syndrome and autism, which causes large motor dysfunctions and leaves him unable to speak. A great deal of information is given about this syndrome and some enthralling treatment ideas. Eugene was with his father when he disappeared. Adam, the father, was intensely interested in happiness and what he labeled the happiness quotient. He had been engaging in small experiments to test his theories. Mia reads his notes and history concerning this subject and discovers riveting and disturbing material.
Happiness Falls is a remarkably intelligent book that can be skimmed over in parts if the reader is not interested in the deeper subject matter. Much of this substance is located in the footnotes. I found each theme captivating. Angie Kim has truly outdone herself. This is an outstanding novel that should not be missed.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the ARC of the book.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

This is narrated by Mia, a college student, whose father goes missing while in an area of parkland with her brother Eugene. Eugene is autistic and has Angelman Syndrome, meaning that he does not speak and cannot tell anyone what happened to his father. I liked Mia's sardonic voice initially, but it became rather relentless, as did her habit of ending chapters with ominous foreshadowing of the 'if only we had known what would happen next' variety. She also used footnotes more than was ideal for a reader using a Kindle, as I was. There was a fair amount of science, linguistics, sociology and psychology, which was better integrated into the story in some places than others.

I found the ending rather unbelievable, although I am sure the author has done her homework and my scepticism is of the variety the book seeks to address. I also found the ending underwhelming and unsatisfactory. Covid seemed to be used as a bit of a plot device - popping up where it was useful.

I preferred this author's first novel.