Angie Kim moved as a preteen from Seoul, South Korea, to the suburbs of Baltimore. After graduating from Interlochen Arts Academy, she studied philosophy at Stanford University and attended Harvard Law School, where she was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. Her debut novel, Miracle Creek, won the Edgar Award, the ITW Thriller Award, the Strand Critics Award, and the Pinckley Prize and was named one of the best books of the year by Time, The Washington Post, Kirkus Reviews, and the Today show. Angie Kim lives in northern Virginia with her family. You can find her online at angiekimbooks.com or on Instagram @angiekimask.
"We didn't call the police right away." Those are the first words of this extraordinary novel about a biracial Korean-American family in Virginia whose lives are upended when their beloved father and husband goes missing. 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's brother runs through the front door bloody and alone, it becomes clear that the father in this 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. Full of shocking twists and fascinating questions of love, language, race, and human connection, Happiness Falls is a mystery, a family drama, and a novel of profound philosophical inquiry. With all the powerful storytelling she brought to her award-winning debut Miracle Creek, Angie Kim turns the missing person story into something wholly original, creating an indelible tale of a family who must go to remarkable lengths to truly understand one another.
Mia's narration drags you in and won't let you go until you read the final page. From the first sentence, I was invested in how this missing persons case would unfold, and I was absolutely shocked at the unexpected turns that this story took. Mia is the perfect imperfect narrator—while narrating in retrospect, she provides such detail to the story that it feels like we're living it in real time alongside her. This story is thrilling in a very chilling way. What happened to her dad? How does her brother play a key role in the narrative? Will they ever find out what Eugene knows? These questions are the threads we follow, and Mia provides compelling reason for us to care about her family members, and thus to care about this will all conclude—if it even does.
What impressed me most while reading was Kim's masterful ability to weave back and forth through time, to balance Mia's relevant analysis with her footnote explanations (which are so fun, I love footnotes), all while threading this missing persons case story with discussions of philosophy, ability, human connection, race, relationships, social justice, and so much more. Kim is an incredibly storyteller, weaving all of these threads together into a compelling, chilling, engrossing read. What makes all of this even more impressive to me is that, technically, majority of the novel takes place within the first 2-3 days of Mia's father going missing, and Kim is able to convey the urgency of this situation while also making relevant and necessary deviations into the past to describe how and why the family is experiencing the emotions they're feeling during this time. It reads as so effortless, and that's just how you know this book is one-of-a-kind, and that Kim's storytelling is something to be treasured and shared widely.
My few reservations can be described as a small hitch in narrative style, my disdain for COVID-19 narratives, and my desire for a more conclusive ending. This first is how Mia narrates—until the next thing comes along, everything that happens is a huge tactical error/a huge point of shame/the biggest and worst thing/etc. I was able to nod along with that, because Mia can't predict the future, of course the next snag in her dad's and brother's case would feel like the worst thing to happen. But, as we're reminded subtly (and sometimes not-so-subtly) throughout the narrative, Mia is transcribing this series of events after the fact—theoretically, she should have gained some perspective because she's looking back, instead of transcribing in the moment. Because Mia is such a sharp narrator, this felt out of character for her. My second reservation is that I dislike when the pandemic pops up in fiction. While I could appreciate the role the pandemic plays in this story (in fact, is quite central), I am upset that there was no mention of the pandemic in the descriptive copy, or really anywhere that would have provided a warning that this story takes place in 2020. It wouldn't have stopped me from reading (I already had the book!), but it would have been nice to have a warning! The final reservation pertains to a conclusive ending. Kim explains several times that missing persons are often women, and that there is usually no definitive way to know what happens in missing persons cases, because only the missing person knows the story—that's the crux of them. Based on the way the story unfolds, though, I was sort of expecting (maybe hoping) that we'd get a bit more of a resolution of more conclusive evidence. But, I can 100% see why Kim would have left us all in the dark! In fact, I think it's quite brilliant. As Mia explains, humans are hardwired to want a resolution, so I think that's exactly what I feel by the end of this. All this to say, I think these reservations are my own personal preference, and not something to hold against the read.
I am tempted to read Kim's debut now, because if it has any fraction of the amazing storytelling within the pages of Happiness Falls, then I know it'll be another fantastic read. Until then!
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
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