This is an incredible piece of literary work, beautifully written in a creative and original style about a Korean American family with twins Mia and John and their autistic younger brother Eugene. The story is told through Mia using the present day and memories of their life in Korea visiting their grandmother Harmonee.
The book begins with Eugene running home from an outing with his father, without his father, to which Mia begins the book with, “We didn’t call the police right away.”
In a very original style, Mia’s story unfolds in chapters using exceptionally interesting footnotes and travels back and forth between their home in DC and their life for a short period in Korea. She paints a deep portrait of her missing father by telling of his fairly new life as a stay-at-home dad and his work with her nonverbal brother Eugene making him sound like the perfect father.
This is an extremely well-written book in the style of “Little Fires Everywhere” and “Gone Girl” only with much more depth and character construction. Kim describes not only the plot as it moves along, but every family member so you begin to know them and how they react throughout.
The plot centers around Eugene and their missing father. But it’s so much more than a missing person mystery. Kim educates the reader on Eugene’s autism and rare genetic disorder mosaic Angelman syndrome (AS) which means he can’t talk and this becomes an integral part of the story which I found fascinating. To read this book is also to be educated on many, many things.
There are red herrings in the story, and several plot twists, which Kim presents in an I-Need-To-Finish-This-Book-Today way. She’s a great voice in the spectrum community, Asian American community, and a gifted writer.
I list this book in my top ten reads of the past five years.
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The chilling story of the abduction of two teenagers, their escape, and the dark secrets that, years later, bring them back to the scene of the crime. | Learn more
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Finding Happiness
🔡ℍ𝔸ℙℙ𝕐 ℙ𝕌𝔹 𝔻𝔸𝕐 ℝ𝔼𝕍𝕀𝔼𝕎 - HAPPINESS FALLS by Angie Kim🔡Format: Hardcover & AudioLength: 387 pgs/ 13h4mPub date: September 26, 2023Publisher: HogarthRating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟Thank you to Angie Kim, Hogarth Books, and NetGalley for my review copy. These thoughts are my own.📝𝙱𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚏 𝚂𝚢𝚗𝚘𝚙𝚜𝚒𝚜:𝘞𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺.This is how our story begins. Mia, twin to John, is our narrator. She and John have been home from their sophomore years of college since the start of quarantine. It is now June. (This was about the point in time where we all started saying ohhh this is sticking around. 🥺)Her parents, Hannah and Adam, are a biracial Korean-American couple. Brother Eugene is 14 and has a rare genetic condition called Angelman syndrome and is a non-speaker.When Adam goes missing while at the park, with Eugene as the only witness, the family must try to find him through alternate sources. Mia also stumbles upon some of her dad’s journals and research on happiness and it leads her to question… a lot.🌊𝚃𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚜:I found Happiness Falls to be engaging and thoughtful. My mind was definitely put to work. I learned so many new things, which I LOVE. Because I think in parentheses I was obsessed with the footnotes. Mia’s footnotes were my parentheses! I also really *got* her voice, even more so because I read & listen at the same time. The audio was perfection. I have three kids, 19-27, so I’ve either already been through a Mia or I’m going through one now. The only part that bogged me down was Adam’s research. After doing a masters +30- reading research makes me cringe, but that’s a me thing. But… (not going to spoil it) the last little bit of research Adam does took it down a notch for me. And the wrap-up seemed a little off. These are why I took off a star.But I did love the book and do recommend it!Out now!
Top reviews from other countries
Mig Bardsley
Brilliant, moving, intelligent
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 20, 2024Anita Coulson
Precious little happiness…
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 19, 2024