Happiness Falls

(3.75 rounded up to 4)

I was super drawn to books about Asian American families last year and this fit the bill perfectly. It turned out to be even more than I'd expected featuring a non-verbal autistic character. I have twin cousins similar to Eugene, so it was like getting a closer glimpse into what a day might look like from their perspective.

When Adam Parson doesn't come home with his son, Eugene, his family desperately searches for answers. It seems as though only Eugene has the answer, but given he doesn't speak, his mother, siblings, and the detective working on the case can't hear his side of the story. Unfortunately, given Eugene's history of outbursts along with some scattered bits of evidence, he is made a suspect.

The story is narrated by Mia, Eugene's older sister. She helps to decode her father's journal which is the family's best lead they have to finding out what happened. In their findings, several different scenarios are compiled.

I was more interested in Eugene's storyline than I was in the overall mystery, though it did have its intriguing moments. Though ultimately important to the plot, I grew bored whenever there were readings from Adam's journal. Some parts of the story felt unnecessary while others felt unresolved, but for the most part, I had a good time reading.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book. Angie Kim's Happiness Falls is an exploration of family and of how far are we willing to go for them. This book combines elements of mystery, delves into family dynamics, disability, and touches on the concept of happiness. While it falls slightly short for me in its final pages, it's still a compelling read.

Throughout the story we follow Mia who is both an unreliable narrator and emotional anchor. In the initial chapters, Mia's scattered thoughts and wavering perceptions piqued my interest. The revelation of her doubt about her own memories adds an intriguing dimension at the beginning of the book, explaining the scattered nature of her narrative voice, and setting us up for the uncertainty that is to come.

Mia's younger brother, Eugene, is autistic, and right from the start of the book, we know that he has witnessed something significant happen to his father. At a young age Eugene was diagnosed with Angelman syndrome, also known as the “Happiness Syndrome,” and has had a difficult time communicating, especially with his family. We can tell that the author has done a lot of research on this topic as she goes on to portray Angelman with sensitivity and authenticity. This portrayal not only provides insight into the challenges faced by individuals with disabilities but also serves as a means of understanding Eugene's experience and his family's bonds surrounding his condition.

The author's use of footnotes adds an extra layer to the narrative, as it helps to bridge cultural gaps and helps us get to know the families' Korean background and upbringing; a touch of realism is at play against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic; and the concept of the “Happiness Quotient” also becomes significant and a way of understanding the story, urging the characters, specifically Mia, to confront her own perceptions of happiness.

The narrative lost me a few times as it ventured into detailed explanations including quantitative equations and formulas. While they helped us to understand Mia's and her father's thought processes, the mathematical details occasionally confused and even made me bored. In addition, the way the book resolves itself felt sudden and a bit convenient for me and left some parts of the book unexplained and not fully explored. I understand that this may have been a way for the author to reunite the family collectively in their mission to save Eugene, but it left questions unanswered that, as a reader, I just desperately wanted answers to.

In conclusion, Happiness Falls is a story that is unlike a typical mystery. I went into it thinking this was a thriller/mystery and I came out feeling like it was more about family, and the different, sometimes complicated, dynamics within.

I'm giving this book 4 stars

This book promotes methods of nonverbal communication known as “Rapid Prompt Method” or “Spelling to Communicate”. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association's official position is that “use of the Rapid Prompting Method (RPM) is not recommended because of prompt dependency and the lack of scientific validity”. There just isn't any evidence that it's actually the individuals and not the facilitators doing the communicating (see: ideomotor effect). Now there are certainly some people that have trouble with speech and can communicate in other ways, but the case of Eugene in the book going from essentially zero communication to complex sentences and writing poetry is too fantastical to believe. I kept expecting the book to have some twist that actually no, it wasn't him, but sadly that wasn't the conclusion. There are some obvious red flags with these methods, e.g. why does it require a human to hold the letterboard vs. just having it stationary? Why does it only work with certain facilitators? Indeed these are even present in the book itself, yet they seem to be ignored by the author/narrator by the end.

The initial part of the book I thought was pretty good, comparable to Miracle Creek. The mystery of the father's disappearance and the finding of different hints was intriguing. But this all fell apart by the end and turned into some kind of advertisement for these unsupported “communication” methods. The ending was very unsatisfying as a result.

See this article for more info on this:
https://www.asha.org/slp/asha-warns-against-rapid-prompting-method-or-spelling-to-communicate/