Translated by Sean Lin Halbert — Introducing Yuna Shin: a mother, wife, narcissist, perfectionist and murderer in this newly translated novel from Korean author You-jeong Jeong. As the title suggests, main character Yuna believes that happiness is perfection, and she will eliminate all imperfections to achieve it – whether it’s a family member, a man or a child.

The author’s 2018 novel, Good Son, also centred on a mother-child relationship. Here, she deliberately chose not to give Yuna Shin a voice. Instead of portraying the evildoer’s thoughts, Jeong shows the destructive effect Yuna has on the lives of three other people: her second husband, her sister and her daughter.

Everyone in Yuna’s life goes out of their way to please her, stay on her good side, avoid her wrath. From a young age, her mother fuelled her selfishness and her hatred for her sister, Jane. Yuna’s second husband, Eun-Ho, agrees to her every demand and, when he dares to defy her, she disappears for days, usually to her mother’s.

But the most chilling account is that of her young, six-year-old daughter, Jiyoo. Jiyoo has grown up with no affection from an emotionally unavailable mother, treading carefully around her, sure to make no sound or do anything that might make her snap. This is especially true when her mother’s voice is high-pitched and nervously shaking. All Jiyoo has is her slightly creepy Dad Puppet, an old toy of her mom’s she believes protects her.

Jiyoo recounts a strange episode in her life. Confusingly, though Yuna has remarried, she takes Jiyoo and her first husband, Joon-young, for a short break to her grandmother’s cabin in the woods at Half Moon Marsh. Eun-Ho, Yuna’s current husband, is under the impression that Yuna is at her mother’s house with her daughter. Little does he know that they are with the ex-husband.

Although Yuna got her way with their divorce settlement, Joon-Yung retained visitation rights, a thorn in Yuna’s side. Why is Yuna playing happy families? Is it just so that Jiyoo can spend some time with her father or does she have something else in mind? Jiyoo’s worst fears are realised when her father is gone the next morning.

Despite Joon-young being missing for six days the police are unconcerned about the suspicious disappearance of a 37-year-old man. His sister, Min-young, takes matters into her own hands and contacts Yuna’s older sister, Jane, for help.

Jane, however, cut all ties with Yuna when she was 19 because she could no longer tolerate her sister’s psychopathic behavior. Yuna took everything that belonged to Jane, including her mother’s affection and later, her boyfriend, Joon-young. According to Jane, Yuna was “…so imaginative that she could lie about a genocide if she needed to.” Through Jane, we see the young Yuna – a killer in the making.

Eun-Ho, Yuna’s second husband, thought he hit the jackpot when he married Yuna, a wealthy businesswoman. Yet, Yuna was a woman of extremes, and Eun-Ho learned that it was best to keep quiet and comply instead of becoming a victim of her violent behavior. Losing was better than ruining his marriage, and he had already lost his son, Noah, to a freak accident. Apparently, Eun-Ho suffocated the child in bed when rolling over him, but Eun-Ho was a light sleeper…

With Jane’s assistance, Eun-Ho sees the real Yuna, layer by layer. Jiyoo starts to suspect that her nightmares, especially those concerning their visit to Half Moon Marsh, could be more real than she thought, and the eerie, wolf-like howl of the loons in the marsh might not have been birds at all. People seem to have disappeared from Yuna’s life, particularly those who threatened her idea of perfection. Yuna’s mantra is, “Happiness is subtraction. It’s getting rid of the possibility of unhappiness until life becomes perfect.”

Even though we know who the killer is from the start, Jeong tries to amp up the tension by using multiple perspectives. In comparison to Good Son, however, Perfect Happiness isn’t quite as suspenseful. Switching between the three characters, as well as their referring to Yuna as ‘wife’ and ‘mother’ adds to the confusion, forcing the reader to constantly focus to keep track of who’s who. This is particularly noticeable when dealing with Yuna’s two husbands.

It’s not clear how or why Yuna became such an extreme character. In her note at the end of the novel, You-jeong Jeong says she’s noticed “…ominous signs in current society: vanity, pridefulness, and most of all, an obsession with happiness.” She also mentions that it’s inspired by someone in her life.

Perfect Happiness feels like a slow unraveling into madness and the inevitable. It’s dark, disturbing, and claustrophobic – everything a psychological thriller should be. If only its pace were a little faster.

For more Korean crime fiction, try A Twist of Fate by Se-Ah Jang.

Creature Publishing
Print/Kindle/iBook
£15.99

CFL Rating: 3 Stars