HAPPINESS FALLS

by Angie Kim

I’m not sure how I happened to pick up this book.  I hadn’t read Kim’s previous book Miracle Creek, but I’m definitely going to read it now.  Happiness Falls is one of the best psychological thrillers that I can remember reading—ever.  Written at a suitably fast clip, Kim had me exclaiming out loud several times, as well as rereading previous pages to make sure that what I thought had just happened had actually happened.

Told from the point of view of 20-year-old Mia, a biracial Korean American, the reader learns of her father’s disappearance and her family’s stressful search for him in the days and weeks that follow.  Having gone on a hike with Mia’s younger brother, Eugene, who is autistic and cannot speak, not only does her father fail to return, but Eugene does return, barreling into the house covered in blood and in obvious distress.  As the search for her missing father proceeds, it becomes clear that the police think that Eugene murdered his father.  But, of course, he can’t be questioned because he doesn’t speak. Mia holds out hope her father isn’t dead and will come home any moment.

Kim develops a multitude of clever plot twists so that I was constantly changing my mind about what had happened to her father.  Had he run off with the mysterious woman he’d been calling regularly for months?  Or, more insanely, was he conducting some sort of experiment on happiness and expectations?  Learning the story through Mia’s thought processes added a fascinating angle to the story.  Her reactions to the police and the lawyer, beliefs about her twin brother John, her sympathy for, but distance from, her mother, all play into how the reader interprets the disappearance.

Happiness Falls not only packs a powerful punch as a psychological thriller, but cuts deep as a portrait of a family’s love and connection.  Underlying it all the reader feels how important good communication is and what can happen when it gets withheld.  Definitely read this book.  It’s a humdinger. (Liz)