Reviewers have described Happiness Falls as a literary thriller, literary mystery, and philosophical drama, highlighting its generic blending of mystery plot elements with literary subject matter and thematic resonances. Mysteries tend to focus on an event, usually a crime, and follow the efforts of an investigator to determine what happened and who is responsible. By contrast, thrillers usually focus on a crime that haven’t occurred yet, organized around a ticking clock countdown as an investigator races to prevent the crime. While the novel opens with the unsolved mystery of Adam’s disappearance, it also includes the racing against time element of Eugene’s secure placement order—the family needs to solve what happened to Adam to prevent Eugene from being locked up. However, unlike traditional mysteries, in which all loose ends are typically explained by the end, this novel subverts the genre by leaving ambiguities unresolved. Adam’s whereabouts are not completely clarified, and readers are left with questions about whether the family has fabricated evidence to free Eugene.

The novel’s tone and themes also stray outside the bounds of typical thrillers; its philosophical and psychological considerations are features of literary fiction. Angie Kim situates the novel in the

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