Happiness Falls: A GMA Book Club Pick

This is my favorite book that my book club has read! It's such an engaging mystery that it's a page turner, but also smart, rewarding read (not a cheap guilty pleasure book, but equally enjoyable)

This is a gripping & amazing story - both a well crafted mystery as well as a thrilling and thoughtful psychological drama

Kind read it a second time a year later when I recommended it for book club. Loved it both times.

I've done more detailed reviews than this one, but mainly I'm here to say that this is a mystery that appealed to me - someone who is not big into the mystery genre. (I mean, I've read Sue ("A is for Alibi") Grafton - but (1) Grafton was a great writer and (2) I have an enduring fondness for the Santa Barbara, CA environs she evokes so well.)Now I've got to read Angie Kim's prior novel, because she nails family dynamics - the good and the dysfunctional, and she really has a double mystery here - the second one being a question of what goes on in the mind of a child with a condition that renders him effectively mute and non-communicative...but is he as intelligent and aware as any of us?_Happiness Falls_ probably rates a minor trigger warning for those who have loved such a child, for reasons that are kind of spoilers in themselves. And also, there is maybe a bit of wish fulfillment to be found here in terms of what is possible. Angelman's syndrome is a real thing, and I though there was a (spoiler) with Eugene that seemed to serve the plot more than really justify itself in credible scientific terms.But I'm also a Science Fiction reader who is willing to suspend disbelief of pretty un-explained stuff like faster-than-light travel, so...VERY MINOR SPOILER BELOW:...BUT IT IS A SPOILER...LAST CHANCE...Nit-picking: to me, the protagonist's bi-racial heritage is somewhat underexplored. It gives some texture to the family/family members, but is fairly "surface". At one point, Mia is concerned about introducing a boyfriend to her mother (due to race? An un-named something else?) - and you wouldn't necessarily expect that as the family itself is a merging of cultures -- but what that something is, is not explained, and ultimately becomes a non-issue. I almost felt like the author was drawing on her own life experience here, but then either shied away from the issue or couldn't figure out how to make the situation relevant to her fictional family in a logical way.END SPOILERWhat else? Lovely descriptions of the Virginia/DC suburbs, especially the natural areas. (Though these were also sometimes sad and haunting in the context of the story.) Good philosophy to chew on along with the actual mystery, although I found the lack of closure on the father's "Happiness Project" unsatisfying. (Wasn't he a businessman? Why did he leave his work to be a SAH dad, with 2 adult kids and likely the financial means to provide the best of care to his younger son? - who might have also benefitted while getting older from developing routines that could endure into his adulthood and past the point where his parents could care directly for him... Was the Happiness Project evidence of a brewing career change? Was the father planning a book, or to go into academics? What was/would have been the conclusions of his work?)So yes, more nit-picking than I originally thought I'd cover, but it remains: I'd read more from this author.

Maybe too many twists and turns, it seemed at the end of every chapter there was another "twist". I like a book that is not predictable but maybe not every chapter. Some of the subject matter was a bit tedious (the HQ stuff). Interesting take on stereotypes and those persons with so-called non verbal disorders. Worth the read.