New Book Review Blurbs: Stephen King, Angie Kim, and the Funniest New Book of 2023

By Dustin Rowles | Books | October 4, 2023 |

By Dustin Rowles | Books | October 4, 2023 |

I don’t know how 2023 has been for others who consume a lot of books, particularly newly released novels, but it’s been a slog for me. There have been some highlights (I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai and Yellowface by R.F. Kuang are my two favorites this year), but I’ve also read a lot of books this year that I barely remember. I’m so FOMO about missing new books that I rarely read anything more than a year old, but over the summer, the well ran dry, and I caught up on several old titles that I’d always meant to read like Killers of the Flower Moon and Cutting for Stone.

But as they say, when it rains, it pours, and much-anticipated novels fell out of the sky in September. It may take the rest of the year to plow through them. So far, it’s been a treat, beginning with Angie Kim’s Happiness Falls. I loved her 2019 debut Miracle Creek, so I’d pre-ordered Happinesss Falls as soon as I was able. I was not disappointed.

Happiness Falls is a sort of mystery about a man who goes missing and the family’s desperate search to find him. The only witness is Eugene, the man’s son, who has Angelman syndrome and therefore cannot speak. It’s a great story, but it’s most interesting when it examines the relativity of happiness. A bored teenager, for instance, may not be happy unless she has an active social life, but the same teenager recovering from cancer may long for those boring, mundane days. How do we provide ourselves with a baseline so that normal experiences consistently make us happy? It’s a fascinating concept mixed into the mystery of this missing man. To wit: Would you be happier if he were dead and you were able to continue believing he was the perfect husband and father, or would you be happier knowing that he is alive but is a bad man who has a secret life with another woman?

Stephen King remains insanely prolific, not just for a 76-year-old but for any 36-year-old. I don’t read everything (I stay away from fantasy, like Fairy Land), but I always keep up with the Mr. Mercedes universe. In Holly, Holly Gibney — a private investigator seen in Mr. Mercedes and The Outsider, among others, gets to be the central character. King has always been a great storyteller, and he’s always been able to develop interesting and believable characters. Still, he too often resorts to the supernatural to bail him out when he writes himself into a corner, and that’s even the case in some of the Mr. Mercedes universe of novels. In Holly, however, he keeps it completely grounded with a private detective novel about an old professor couple who abduct people and eat them because they believe it allows them to live longer. It’s set during the vaccine era of the pandemic and interestingly weaves the politics of the vaccine into a story about serial killer cannibals. It’s a fun read and vintage Stephen King.

Finally, the readership here introduced me to John Scalzi with one of my favorite novels of 2022, The Kaiju Preservation Society. He returns in 2023 with Starter Villain and it is, likewise, a blast. It seems to me that there used to be more authors who were funny and could tell a great story, but it’s a rarity these days, at least in the genre of novels I typically read. Scalzi is hilarious, and I’d probably want to hang out with his characters even if the storytelling weren’t as great as it is.

In Starter Villain, Charlie is a going-nowhere deadbeat who inherits his uncle’s company. It turns out his uncle was in the business of villainy, and he has a lot of enemies to boot. But for the outrageously profane genetically engineered dolphins — who are on strike — and cats who can communicate via word processor, there’s not a lot of “sci-fi” involved. The villains are basically billionaires, Elon Musk types who control the planet behind the scenes. Charlie must unravel the mystery of his late uncle, abide by his wishes, and not sell out!

It’s definitely the funniest novel I’ve read in 2023- the foul-mouthed dolphins are hysterical- and probably my quickest read, as well. Those who follow Scalzi on social media also know he loves cats. With Starter Villain, he’s found a way to work that obsession into his novel, which is actually dedicated to his felines.

Final note: We do not review the work of our friends for ethical reasons, but that doesn’t mean we cannot promote it. Joanna Robinson, who started on this site before moving to Vanity Fair and The Ringer and becoming the Queen of the Podcast World, has a new book out with Dave Gonzales on Tuesday about the MCU. It is “unauthorized,” so it is not studio bullshit. She’s been working on it for years! If you haven’t, pre-order it now!

One of Joanna’s best friends, Diana Helmuth — who has contributed a few times here, and whom I have been lucky enough to hang out with — also has a memoir out called The Witching Year, where Helmuth spends the year learning the art of witchcraft. Read it if you’re into witchery, or read it because you’re into clever writing and dry humor. Either way, read it! Support the Pajiba universe!