Did our happiness has its own battleground these days?
I first saw this book at the public library, but unfortunately that library doesn’t allow people to borrow books to take home. So I sat there and read 50+ pages in one sitting, which is rarely happen in my case. Then, because I was afraid that I would never find it again, I decided to buy the ebook version. It took me a while to finally pick it up again because I didn’t want to re-read it from the very beginning. However, I had completely forgotten all the name of the characters which meant I indirectly forgotten the entire plot as well. So, I have no choice.
For me, Happiness Battle has one of the most interesting theme to explore as a thriller novel. Thriller is my favorite genre, and I read quite numbers but the problems and conflicts usually revolve around love triangles, sex, affairs, money, property disputes, inheritances, and such. So this book that touches on social media as part of the story feels so refreshing especially in this modern world.
The book starts with a scene of kindergarten event where one of the kids goes missing right before they’re supposed to performancing show. All the teachers and other parents are shocked. They’re all look for this girl named Ji-yool, and even call the police. But one of the teachers who is the homeroom teacher named Jo A-ra, somehow knows where Ji-yool is and manage to find her hiding place. That’s the first scene of the book but the story start with the unexpected death of Oh Yoo-jin, none other than Ji-yool’s mom who is found in a mysterious position in the porch of their apartment with blood all over her body. Her husband, Do-joon is found in the bedroom with a knife in his back. The story begins.
We’re mostly inside the head of a character named Mi-ho, who from the beginning of the story introduced herself as Yoo-jin’s best friend in high school. Mi-ho, Yoo-jin and Se-kyeong had a wonderful friendship until it wasn't anymore. As the story progresses, we will find out how their relationship ended and why Mi-ho and Se-kyeong lost contact with Yoo-jin since then.
Mi-ho who is really curious about the strangeness of Oh Yoo-jin’s death, decides to investigate it. This is where the story gets interesting. Unlike any other thriller novels, this story has several kindergarten moms as the most important characters. They’re the mothers of children who attend at International Heritage Kindergarten in High Prestige, the best apartment in that area.
They’re all a highclass mom who have it all. Successful husband, cute and smart children, also a luxurious and sufficient life. However, all of that creates something else. Ji-ye, one of the characters said something like “they’re all have it all, so wealth is no longer something worth comparing anymore. It makes them start something called the happiness battle”.
A battleground where they can show their happiness so that everyone can see it. There’s no place like that other than social media. Its involve 3 main characters named Song Jeong-ah, Kim Na-yeong, and Oh Yoo-jin herself. At first, they’re just upload the happy moments or show off expensive gifts from their husbands, how smart and cute their childrens are, etc. But as time went by, it creates another tension. They started commenting each other’s posts with something very personal. Some of their posts also implied an intention to bring down the person they were targeting. Mi-ho spends her time to guess their problems that might even make one of them think about killing Oh Yoo-jin.
The writing gives me a mysterious feel as a reader. Its even touches on something like children’s drawing and try to connect them to the story which is interesting for me. Also, the way the story follows Mi-ho connecting the dots between their high school moments with the current events after Oh Yoo-jin’s death is actually makes this book hard to put down. The book also mention Yoo-jin backstory, the naive yet complicated high school friendship, and so on. The story come to its end with all of the puzzles connected. However for me, the last few pages ruined everything. It doesn’t make sense how this book ended, make me question all the hints and spoilers from the beginning, only to end the journey like that.
I had to rewrite almost the entire storyline to make sure that I didn’t miss any details. The story has a lot of important events with Oh Yoo-jin that I found really interesting, like the kindergarten’s catering that affected Yoo-jin and Jiye’s relationship, the mom café (an online community of moms interacting with each other—but more than that) where Yoo-jin has access to see “unhappiness” part of other mom besides what they’ve posted on social media, how Ji-yool hates her grand mother was mentioned—which Mi-ho also remember Yoo-jin once talked about her mom in a strange way, and also about the suspicious affair between the father of one of the children with of Jo A-ra (kindergarten’s homeroom teacher) who has one of the most mysterious scene with Ji-yool early on that I think will contribute a lot to the direction of the story. However, the way this book ends is questionable. [and I also found this review on Goodreads]
It wasn’t about the truth behind Oh Yoo-jin’s death that disappointed me, but the conversation between Mi-ho and Se-kyeong at the end of the book made me wonder why the author twisted the story in such a direction because it made almost everything else has no sense at the end. Nevertheless, I still liked a lot aspects of the book. I liked the writing, the mysterious feeling, and the way the author wrote about past accidents affecting the present moment to show how trauma works in this novel. Overall I enjoyed this book especially the big theme of “Happiness Battle” on social media. I’ve always wanted to write a thriller story with current social media usage in this era as a background. So finding this book is like finding my inspiration as well.
That’s it for Slow Reads this time, hopefully the way I write about this book also has a mysterious nuance without giving spoilers so that you consider reading it😁 oh and if anyone had read this book too, is there anything I missed from this book? Does the ending actually make sense? Or should I pretend I never read the conversation between Mi-ho and Se-kyeong at the end?🤣
Thankyou for reading as always, upvote and reblog is also appreciated! Do you have any thriller book recommendation that touches on social media as the main part? Let me know in the comment section :)
I read quite a few books from Korean author and they tend to have this similar pattern to it. Something like childhood friendship and the idea that the character has met in one way or another. They also have this good story building but tends to flop with their ending and twist, just like their series and movies 😁
Oh really? honestly I've never watch k-dramas or movies and this might be my first book by korean author too😁 it's interesting there are some patterns that people notice, I just wonder if it always a disappointing ending
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STOPI find the mix of thriller with the theme of social media and that "battle of happiness" between upper-class mothers incredibly interesting. And what you describe as how it begins, with the disappearance of the girl and the mysterious death of the mother... wow, it grabs you from the start! It's a shame you found the ending so disconnected from the rest of the story. How frustrating when that happens! Thanks for sharing your insightful review! Best regards!
its so interesting indeed. Maybe I just need to ignore a some part of the ending😁 Thankyou for reading and stopping by :)