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Happiness Falls

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Happiness Falls

By: Angie Kim
Narrated by: Angie Kim, Sean Patrick Hopkins, Shannon Tyo, Thomas Pruyn
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About this listen

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
OPRAH DAILY'S #1 Book of 2023
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK
FINALIST FOR THE NEW AMERICAN VOICES AWARD
AMAZON EDITOR'S CHOICE & TOP TWENTY NOVEL OF THE YEAR

'A Brilliant, satisfying, compassionate mystery.'
GABRIELLE ZEVIN
'Bittersweet, sensitive and moving.'
GUARDIAN

'I can't remember a book with more layers. . . I was riveted through the last page.'
JODI PICOULT
Mia Parkson's life is turned upside down when her stay-at-home dad, the family's anchor, goes missing. The only witness? Eugene - her younger, nonspeaking teenage brother.
As the Police struggle for leads, and her mother and twin brother struggle to keep things together at home, Mia gains access to key clues about her father's disappearance. Headstrong, hyper analytical, and with secrets of her own, she decides to try and solve the case. But could Mia's impulsive actions be putting her whole family in danger?
'Gorgeous . a layered and innovative exploration of family, love, happiness, and race.'
JEAN KWOK

'Stunning!'
JO BROWNING WROE

©2023 Faber & Faber (P)2023 Faber & Faber Family Life Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Mystery Fiction Suspense Disappearance

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Critic reviews

'The most moving and humbling portrait of humanity.' MARY BETH KEANE
All stars
Most relevant  
Loved this book it’s very special, I bad to read it in parts though it too intens for an unstoppable read. Through

Beautiful

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To begin with found the plot too detailed and ploddy, but that was needed to build the family’s world which includes a non-verbal person. Truly appreciate the gripping plot and my new understanding of the experiences of different people.

Loved the growing understanding of non-verbal world

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I loved everything about this book. Not only is it as insightful as it is compelling, it features brilliant characters, and is told from a fascinating and fresh perspective. The narrative forces readers/listeners to challenge their own assumptions and prejudices. It gives a voice to people who are often marginalised and overlooked, and highlights important social issues without ever being heavyhanded. I learned so much about Angelman syndrome and the experiences of nonspeaking neurodiverse people. I loved listening to the author's afterword and from the work she mentions she does with nonspeaking writers, she sounds like an amazing person. I've never reviewed an audiobook before but really wanted to convey how much I enjoyed this and how relevant it is too.

Interesting, intriguing and important

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The challenges to the traditional understanding of some children, diagnosed as being autistic, is fascinating. The plot of the story is unique.

The hopefulness

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I really enjoyed this book as it has made me think and reflect on verbal communication, prejudices, life and happiness .. a great read

Insightful

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Really enjoyed this story and it kept me guessing. Felt like I was in the drama with the Parkson family, and Eugene’s autism and angelman syndrome provided a new insight for the story that unfolded. Really enjoyed.

Loved this family drama with some big messages

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The story is very interesting and explains the dynamic of an immigrant family with their internal and external struggles. Sometimes you forget that this is about a potential crime, because the daughter's experiences are explained so captivatingly.
The book is written in first person from the daughter's perspective, but everyone's actions and feelings are well explained.
The narrators of the audio book is very good too.

Family, culture, mental health and maybe a crime

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Absolutely loved navigating the twists and turns of this Korean-American family as they became aware of the disappearance of their father and as this situation began to unfold. The situation was further complicated by the fourteen year old son, who has ASD and Angeman syndrome, and was also unable to communicate verbally, being the last person to see him. The novel was filled with twists and turns and was multi layered as it also included the racial elements of looking white/korean/black in America, particularly during 2020, as well as our bias and assumptions surrounding people we can consider to be 'non verbal' or intellectually inferior based on our own prejudice. Highly recommend

A mystery novel with a difference

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It was a good story that I didn't see the ending coming, but the narrating character goes on and on, which again I know is intentional, but I found it draining to listen to all the random intense details and distracting from the story.

It is an incredibly interesting story

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If you enjoy narration from a teenager who enjoys overanalysing everything with a clear love of psychology and maths with a history of being a pathological liar... oh and someone who looks at her brother and starts going on about how much of a man he has become and focuses on his arm muscles... a lot..... And someone who TAMPERS with evidence and LIES again and again.....then this is the book for you!

To summarize In the end I supported the Detective, wanted the dad dead and wanted the kids to all serve time, it was a deeply flat ending of "oh okay I guess we'll never know"

If you yourself love psychology you may enjoy a teenagers inner overthinking, especially when discussing forms of communication and identity this book is for you.

This book felt in one word "boggy". It was opinionated factually where the same narrator had lied easily multiple times which resulted in me never trusting the “facts" she (and the writer) was advocating/ giving... which seemed like every other sentence... so every "fact" made me care less and dislike the narrator more.

Justify, re-justify, opinion, theory, overthink, over-justification and then barely enough plot momentum to keep me going and then the mystery never gets a conclusive ending (no surprise with the context of the plot) but come on after such a boggy slog give me something rewarding... like an actual ending...

A Tampering Teenagers’ Overjustifications

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