What would you wish for if the socio-economic class was not holding you back?
This is the exact question To the Moon by Jang Ryujin asks through a story focused on wishing for a better life and female friendships. The narrative is unexpected and delightful with the constant undercurrent of existential dread from the perspective of Dahae.

Hi, welcome back to another Korean literature in translation book review. Today we are looking at something mundane, office life. The book highlights the day-to-day realities of working at a job without particularly feeling anything about it and having to share a large part of the day with incompetent people who were out to get you. I read To the Moon by Jang Ryujin, translated by Sean Lin Halbert, on my Kindle app and savoured the feel of the story despite it pushing me to speed up all the way through. This was a good start for August as I kick it off with a women in translation book. Let’s get into it!

Title: To the Moon
Author: Jang Ryujin
Read: eBook – Kindle
ISBN: 9781526685728
Published: Bloomsbury Publishing, 19 June 2025
Page Count: 302

What is ‘To the Moon’ by Jang Ryujin about? Plot of the book explained

Dahae is an office worker in Seoul. She has a stable, good job that she feels nothing about at a popular confectionary company in the Snacks product team. She absolutely hates her boss, Team Leader Koh. He is incompetent, conservative in his work ethics and constantly giving her “mid” ratings in performance reviews.
Her solace at her workplace is her two friends. She cribs about work and her colleagues to them and relate to them at a core level. They have bonded over their shared experiences and background. These three women come from similar blue-collar families and are trying to make their own fortune in the big city. But they are all stuck in their economic class, no matter how hard they run, they are making miniscule progress — from a one-room apartment to a 1.2 room apartment, from pinching penny to setting up an illegal mart in the office to make bare-minimum profit that is not even worth the effort.

So, when a new cryptocurrency drops in the market and Eun-Sang is seeing exponential profits, Dahae and Jisong are drawn in eventually, emptying their savings to bet big on the red and green bars on which their fates hang. But not all of them join in the anxiety of making more money with money all at once. When the 3 friends end up on Jeju Island, enjoying a vacation they had not even dreamed of, the economic disparities, the promise of future, start haunting them.
Is this too good to be true? Why are people conditioned to fear money they did not “earn”? The false moralities surrounding money and villainising people who want it are interesting concepts being debated that take the readers by surprise in this seemingly light-hearted book.

My Verdict: Is ‘To the Moon’ worth reading?

I like books that make me think, I like books that take me by surprise. To the Moon by Jang Ryujin was both — so on those parameters, this book definitely wins.
But I like the characterisation of the three main characters more. The way their own personalities shine through in the interactions between the three friends and how they respond to similar situations in life are nothing short of incredible writing. The amazing part is that the author does not even make the readers feel like they might be experiencing a profound tale about life, the narrative style is very simple and easy-going. The whole story is told from Dahae’s perspective as she gives us glimpses of other people in her life.
The writing style is extremely detail-oriented — it made me ponder smaller aspects of life when Dahae’s chief complaint in her daily life was that she could sense the toilets from everywhere else in the small apartments and “gosiwons” she had lived in all her life. There is no escaping the scathing critique of modern South Korean society that is succumbing to the lure of capitalism and the macrocosm of the global society on the same journey. But again, the book is very focused on the story and does not deviate from Dahae’s life to be didactic — I think, this aspect of the narrative made me enjoy the read better, at no point in the story is the reader being lectured.

Everything from the social critique to the emotional turmoil of earning money through unconventional means are told as Dahae is experiencing the different aspects of life she had not even considered before. This plot is also very much about ambitions the society tells us is too big for us, the story subverts the dread of waiting for the other shoe to drop and asks the reader why can’t things work out in the end?
In that sense, it felt like reading a coming-of-age story even though the protagonists were well into their twenties. I keep considering all three of the friends as protagonists of the book despite only having Dahae’s perspective in the story since their characters were drawn in excruciating detail through their actions and words and they impacted each other’s lives profoundly. It is so rare to read about female friendship and nod along while no woman backstabs the other. I think, just for the very real representation of female friendships, I could rate this book 5-stars.
If you like reading about people who reach for the stars and succeed despite their own apprehensions about the path chosen, if you are feeling down and would like a little pick-me-up in the form of a book, if you are someone who enjoys being surprised by books — this book is for you.

If you are looking for a book set in the workplace that takes you to unexpected emotions and leads to an unconventional ending, To the Moon by Jang Ryujin is for you. I recently put together a list of my favourite Korean Healing Fiction books, while this book does not quite fit into that list or readers’ expectations of the genre, the plot healed something in my weary soul.

Are you ready to go to the Moon?

---

Pick up a copy of the book here: buy book.

Request book reviews and get updates on latest reads here: connect with me.