Thank you Creature Publishing for my gifted ARC!

Wow - what a horrifying story. And so eloquently, cloyingly and suffocatingly written. I couldn’t get enough of this story about a covert narcissist. I keenly felt the pressure of trying to please a person like that. It is a losing game. I think Perfect Happiness will go down as one of my favorite books of the year. Powerful, riveting, profound.

Jiyu was barely six years old during that terrifying weekend with her parents. She was so happy to see her dad again, but after that night, he disappeared forever, and nightmares have haunted her ever since. Yet, she knows she mustn't ask Mom any questions...
I loved the way the novel is structured in three parts, each with three chapters, from the point of view of three different characters... But never Yuna, who is at the center of everything. It's her daughter, her sister, and her husband who gradually help us understand her, to understand her true personality, at the same time as they discover it themselves. The author explains this choice at the end of the novel, and I find it very relevant. It brings this really interesting psychological aspect that is never addressed head-on, and it's very clever, because here, it's the characters who suffer the damage who speak. You might think it would be difficult to build suspense throughout this story when you think you already know who the culprit is, but it's truly addictive. After a first chapter that gave me a bit of trouble, I simply didn't want to put the novel down, for Jiyu, this terrified little girl who loves her mother despite everything, for Jane, her worried aunt, and even for Eun-ho when his life turns tragic. In short, a delight.
It's hard to explain why without giving away spoilers, but the ending is the element that disappointed me a little in this story. It's not what I expected, and the aspect that annoys me the most is found in the author's other crime novel that I've read. The first time, I loved it, but this time, I wish it had been different.


Jiyu a six ans à peine lors de ce weekend terrifiant avec ses parents. Elle était tellement heureuse de revoir son papa mais après cette nuit-là, il a disparu pour toujours et depuis les cauchemars la hantent. Pourtant, elle sait qu'elle ne doit poser aucune question à maman...
J'ai adoré la construction du roman, en trois parties, de trois chapitres chacun, du point de vue de trois personnages différents... Mais jamais de Yuna, qui est pourtant au centre de tout. C'est sa fille, sa soeur et son mari qui nous aident peu à peu à la cerner, à comprendre sa véritable personnalité, en même temps qu'ils la découvrent eux-mêmes. L'autrice nous explique ce choix à la fin du roman et je le trouve très pertinent. Ça apporte cet aspect psychologique vraiment interessant qui n'est pourtant jamais abordé de front et c'est très intelligent, parce qu'ici ce sont les personnages qui subissent les dégâts qui parlent. On pourrait croire qu'il serait difficile d'établir un suspense tout au long de cette histoire alors qu'on pense déjà savoir qui est la coupable et pourtant c'est véritablement addictif. Après un premier chapitre qui m'a donné un peu de mal, je ne voulais tout simplement plus lâcher le roman, pour Jiyu, cette petite fille terrorisée mais qui aime sa maman malgré tout, pour Jane, sa tante, qui s'inquiète et même pour Eun-ho quand sa vie tourne au drame. Bref, un régal.
Difficile de vous expliquer pourquoi sans vous spoiler mais c'est la fin est l'élément qui m'a un peu déçue dans ce récit. Ce n'est pas ce que j'attendais, et l'aspect qui m'agace le plus se retrouve dans l'autre roman noir de l'autrice que j'ai lu. La première fois, j'avais adoré mais cette fois, j'aurais aimé que ce soit différent.


Liens à venir.

Jiyoo's mother takes her and her father on a family vacation to the cabin in the woods at Half Moon Marsh. Jiyoo is excited to see her father but she knows if she gets too excited she'll upset Mother. So while Jiyoo would love to run up to him and hug him she doesn't, but even so Father promises that they will go back to the marsh tomorrow. But the next morning Father is gone, Mother tells her that he had to leave and he won't be coming back.

Wife has been gone for five days now, which isn't new but what is new is that Eun-Ho has unplugged his landline and shut off his cell phone so he doesn't call Wife and plead for her to come back. Unfortunately, as Wife, his Mother, and Noah his son have made plans for the weekend and even though he's made it this long without calling her he knows he has too as she is very late. Deciding to put it off a little bit longer Eun-Ho leaves the house to catch up on some grading at school when he is surprised to find his sister in law Jane pulling up. Giving a brief introduction Jane informs Eun-Ho that he needs to tell Wife that Jiyoo can not stay at Grandma's that weekend because she has left the country and Jane is not watching her. She leaves after relaying her message leaving Eun-Ho very confused, Wife is at Grandma's he thought.

Jane cut ties from her sister Yuna years ago, she knows what Yuna is like and as an adult she has determined she does not need to out up with her erratic behavior. While Jane does love her niece she refuses to get taken in my any of Yuna's problems, she knows for a fact if she agrees to take Jiyoo Yuna will keep taking advantage of her. By this simple act of refusing to watch her niece Jane will set off a chain reaction that will destroy many lives. Jane will have to decide if she is willing to face hell in order to save what she can.

Omg what a freaking ride! This is only my second book by Jeong and I can't wait to read more!

We start off knowing who the killer is from the get-go, to be honest, who it is isn't the point of this thriller, it is to demonstrate just how many lives a narcissist can destroy. Jeong does an excellent job of this. Wife, Mother, Yuna. They are all the same person; a person who should have protected, cherished, and loved these characters unconditionally. Instead, she belittled, betrayed, abused, manipulated, and ultimately destroyed them. I found that not giving Yuna a voice in this was brilliantly done. Especially to drive home the point that she knew exactly what she was doing was wrong. As the daughter of a narcissist I find that narcissists are often portrayed as being so self-absorbed they aren't aware that what they are doing is wrong and that's simply not the case. They *know* it's wrong it's just not their fault. A narcissist can justify all of their actions as their victim's fault "If you had not done this then I wouldn't have had to do that." By not allowing Yuna's voice to enter the conversation we can truly see that mentality. It also gives us no choice but to accept that Yuna is not just a horrible person she is a psychopath. Because everyone around her has been trained (for lack of a better word) by Yuna, for most of the book her victims are in complete denial. They spend chapters trying to find a way to prove that she had not done what she clearly had. Without Yuna's voice we aren't pulled into her web so we can see her for what she truly is from the get-go; a monster willing to remove anyone she sees as an obstacle to her happiness.

I also found it interesting that Jane, Eun-Ho, and Joon-young (Jiyoo's bio dad) had a narcissist somewhere in their lives that wasn't Yuna. You surprisingly don't see this reference often in books, but whether people like it or not the possibility of marrying a narcissist after being raised by one is pretty high. Jane had their mom, Eun-Ho had his mother, and Joon-young had his younger sister. None of them were as bad as Yuna, but each of them manipulated these characters using very similar tactics. Eun-Ho actually points this out twice once regarding his mom and once regarding Joon-young's little sister.


I think my only very tiny complaint here is Jinu's character. No matter what he said I don't understand why he never said anything. Not when he originally started having suspicions nor later on when it was fairly freaking obvious he needed to open his mouth instead of dropping cryptic messages. Like c'mon dude the bodies are piling up.

Highly recommend this one. It kept me on the absolute edge of my seat. I will say though that this is definitely going to trigger people who have been in any sort of relationship with a narcissist.

As always thanks to NetGalley and Creature Publishing for the eArc!

This was a struggle and I think it was mostly because I have a person like the protagonist in my family and so to see this from the multiple perspectives of those affected was almost too much. Still, It's an important and poignant novel and should be widely discussed.

Gave this one a try, but the pacing didn’t work for me, found it a little slow for my reading taste. Some interesting characters and family dynamics, I’m sure this book will be a good fit for some.

Thank you, Creature Publishing, for providing the copy of Perfect Happiness by You-jeong Jeong. This was an uneven read for me. I didn’t get into it until about 15% through, then I lost interest again. The parts I enjoyed were well-written but I couldn't follow the story, and the long chapters made the book tedious.I would give this author another try if the description were really compelling. 3 stars

Such a tricky book to give a review for. The writing (translation) was good, great. The subject matter was depressing and eery.

It is basically a character study of a woman who is 'unhappy' - to say the least - and her pursuit of a happiness that is out of reach for her, unless she can manipulate people to make it happen.

A powerful but pressuring novel, I think it's something one will read just the once.

To say I enjoyed it, doesn't sound right. I appreciated it and found the writing to be intriguing and entertaining.

It's not the type of thing I'm comfortable reading. It feels too dark and gloomy, not suitable for reading during the day, in a happy mood.

“I think you will eventually become happy if you slowly collect happy moments over a lifetime.”
“Wrong. Happiness isn’t addition.”
Yuna stared out the balcony window, as though she were searching for a distant horizon. Although he doubted she could see much more than the reflection of their apartment in the glass pane.
“Happiness is subtraction. It’s getting rid of the possibility of unhappiness until life becomes perfect.”

“행복한 순간을 하나씩 더해가면, 그 인생은 결국 행복한 거 아닌가.”
“아니, 행복은 덧셈이 아니야.”
그녀는 베란다 유리문을 물끄러미 바라봤다. 마치 먼 지평선을 넘어다보는 듯한 시선이었다. 실제로 보이는 건 유리문에 반사된 실내풍경뿐일 텐데.
“행복은 뺄셈이야. 완전해질 때까지, 불행의 가능성을 없애가는 거.”

Perfect Happiness (2025) is Sean Lin Halbert's translation of 완전한 행복 (2021) by 정유정 (Romanized here as You-Jeong Jeong).

This the third of the author's books to be translated into English after The Good Son (종의 기원 - which directly translates as The Origin of Species) and Seven Years of Darkness (7 년의 밤) both translated by Chi-Young Kim.

On my review of both books I noted that author is "known as South Korea’s Stephen King, is an award-winning and bestselling author of psychological thrillers and crime fiction" (this per the publisher of this novel). I'm a fan of Korean literary fiction (Bae Suah, Han Kang or Hwang Sok-yong say) and culture, but would not read Stephen King novels, and as the novel feel neither particularly Korean nor particularly literary, I'm not really the target audience.

That said I did find this more successful than the previous two novels. As with those this is not a whodunnit more whydidtheydoit, i.e. focused on the psychological motivations of the characters. Switching from the first to the close third person perspective, and at no point from that of the 'villian', helps I think here, as the novel's main strength is to see the impact of the narcassistic (nad murderous) Yuna on the behaviour of those around her, such as her elder sister who was terrified of the younger Yuna from a young age:

'Yuna didn’t call Jane unnie like she was supposed to. In some ways, it was thanks to Yuna that Jane learned so many alternatives for the phrase “big sister.” Her favorites, were Hey, You, Idiot, That Thing, It, and Bitch.'

And which leave Jane, despite her affection for her niece, far from an entirely sympathetic character - two examples of her initial reaction to others who are also trying to unravel Yuna's web of deceit:

'She was so enraged by the shameless look on his face that she almost took the hot frying pan and hit him across the face with it, omelet and all. If only she had screamed out in anger and told him to fuck off, she might have felt less resentment to him in the future.'
and
'She shouldn’t have run out of the café like that yesterday. She should have broken Min-young’s fingers. That way she wouldn’t have been able to send Jane such an infuriating email.'

And Yuna's manipulation causes those around her to exhibit not just mistrust in each other, but also unconscious obedience to Yuna, and a refusal to believe what is increasingly clear, as it might destroy their world view:

There are moments in life when everything suddenly comes into focus, when it feels like you can see the entire universe. This was one of those moments. The curtain of unconsciousness that had been covering Jane’s eyes had been torn down in one swift motion. The wall of resistance had been toppled in one blow. The imagination that had been locked away burst like a dam. Jane was terrified of her own imagination for being able to accept such a possibility.

Against that, the monstrous Yuna could come across as a rather extreme character, although the author has said this is based on someone who marred her own life (hopefully not to the extent of multiple murder/manslaughter though). And the novel can sag a bit as the characters carefully reconstruct movements and facts to piece together the jigsaw.

2.5 stars rounded to 3

I knew well into going in requesting for this author’s work, that it would not be an easy read. Having read two of their previous works, and knowing their style, it was expected to be this way. What I did not expect was for the author to reveal that they were also manipulated by a narcissist.
The story unfolds around Yuna, a narcissist whose actions stem from a hurt that ran deep since childhood. But what follows is her “search” for happiness, but entirely on her terms. The narration never went in with Yuna’s POV. It was told in through the eyes of her daughter, her ex-husband, her husband and her sister. Each having their own harrowing details to add, and each trying to grapple with the extend of Yuna’s cruelty.
This was not an easy read. And I don’t mean to say this about the writing, but about the story and premise as a whole. It leaves behind a lot of scars, ones that most certainly cannot be erased with time.

This book offers an intricate character study of one person through the eyes of several people close to her. Though, I don't know if it's the translation or the original writing style, I had a hard time getting into the story and staying engaged.

This book was great I liked it my first from this author won’t be my last thank you for this book I will recommend

'La felicità completa si raggiunge per sottrazione', afferma ineffabile la protagonista del romanzo. 'Elimino qualsiasi cosa la minacci'.
Niente e nessuno è al riparo da Yuna e dalla sua lotta per ottenere una vita perfetta; se solo non continuasse a incontrare persone che vogliono sabotarla...!
Storia di una narcisista e della distruzione che lascia sulla sua scia, raccontata (con grande efficacia) da tre punti di vista diversi (tre vittime del suo ego: figlia, sorella, marito); mai dal suo, scelta che rende la vicenda ancora più efficace, e permette di vedere anche i meccanismi che inducono chi la circonda a scelte incomprensibili, se non si tengono in considerazione le trappole che vengono tese all'interno della psiche delle sue prede.
Appassionante e inquietante.

Perfect Happiness is a haunting portrayal of the extremes someone might go to preserve an ideal—and what happens when that ideal starts to crack. If you’re drawn to psychologically complex characters and dark domestic noir with a sharp edge, this novel will stay with you long after the final page

The struggle with perfection is a moral implication that society has forced you to perform behaviors instead of truly living for yourself. This is a story about a narcissist who destroys everyone around her for personal gain and temporary pleasures. The way this has resonated with me was how impactful narcissists can be with an intent to harm and weigh down my sense of self – this hit hard. The façade of perfection being achievable is what creates the horror in this novel. This is a slow paced read through that really earns the eerie trophy through a reprehensible action of just one narcissist.
The third person was difficult for me to get into the narrative in the first three chapters but it grew on me. Because even with this third perspective we are experiencing the dreams with the protagonist and feeling like we are losing our minds with them. We are losing the sense of reality and how to be able to rely on the narration with how well it is written. The monotony of playing the behavior handbook of domesticity is loud in the pacing of the narrative.
I love the themes these narrative presents and it really makes me question, how do we measure luck? If happiness is a measure then how does that perspective change from person to person? Sometimes the transitions between chapters felt abrupt and I needed to reread the last few lines to fully gather my thoughts in the current setting – but this was a delightful but dark read. What completely factored into my rating was the combination of pacing and the thriller aspects being nearly too subtle. Thank you Net Galley and Creature Publishing for the opportunity to read this digital arc in advance and then provide an honest review!