Will I love Happiness Falls?

The voice of the main character was compelling. Annoying at times, but that was part of her character.

A quirky mystery on the surface -- a man goes missing -- but ultimately a deep dive into the human condition, with all the flaws and inconsistencies that suggests. Charming, funny, gut-wrenching.

The complicated and wonderful characters in Mia’s family really drew me in. They all have enough to deal with: the pandemic; Mia’s first breakup; her complicated relationship with her twin, who seems to do everything right; their brother Eugene’s disabilities, which mean he’s often discriminated against or underestimated; and their parents’ struggles to keep it all together and move on from heartbreaking false hopes.

When her father disappears, Mia doesn’t let her other problems or even the fear and heartbreak get in the way of her determination to find out the truth–no matter how painful–and protect Eugene from unjust suspicion.

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Sometimes, I read to be entertained, sometimes to enjoy the author’s use of language, and sometimes to make myself think about my own life. Rarely does a book do all three. This one did.

Not only is it a great mystery, with sparkling prose, but it made me think about my own family in a way that is going to stay with me for a long time.

In Happiness Falls—Angie Kim’s follow-up to her critically acclaimed debut, Miracle Creek—the trial-lawyer-turned-crime-writer takes another giant step towards perfecting what I like to call the “philosophical mystery” novel.

Yes, the engaging plot is a twisting tale about a missing person that had me guessing and re-guessing what happened from the first to the final pages.

But within this tightly wound whodunit, Kim poses—and perhaps even approaches answers to—some of life’s biggest questions, including what one might do to become truly happy.