Monika Kim did an incredible job at giving us an unhinged main character whose downward spiral into becoming a serial killer felt like a natural occurrence. Ji-won is the perfect unreliable narrator and you'll find yourself questioning the reality of the situation or whether it's another of Ji-won's bizarre dreams.

The story focuses on Ji-won's experience as a Korean American college student while dealing with the aftermath of her Appa abandoning their family, generational trauma and racism. Her Umma's misogynistic new boyfriend, George, has a fetish for Asian women and the fake woke creep in her class may or may not be stalking her. As her personal life unravels so to does she and she gains an obsession for eyes. What they taste like, what they'd feel like to eat, the bluer the better.

For a debut, it's amazingly well written. I loved how descriptive the writing was and it was easily to feel completely immersed in the story. By the time I read the last line I knew I wanted more.

I am a lover of weird fiction so I was very intrigued by this and I've gotta say, it lives up! Unhinged main character goes on an absolute rage bender and it was so fun to watch unravel. Not for everyone, but those that know, KNOW!

I am HERE for the female rage, the rage against the patriarchal systems, rage against Caucasian favoritism, and rage against Asian fetishes'. This body horror was such a masterpiece and gave everything that I could possibly need in a book. I'm honestly so shocked this is a debut novel, because this was incredible. I cannot wait to see what she writes next!

This is one of my most anticipated books of the year and I was lucky enough to be granted an e-arc through Netgalley.

This book is... a Lot™! Kim manages to deal with many a heavy subject - racism, cultural fetishism, feminism and misogyny, rape culture, Asian identity... I could go on! It's not dealt with what I would necessarily call 'deftly' but that was okay. I really liked the story for what it was and it offered a lot of gore, a lot of horror, as well as some difficult topics to ponder.

I felt the writing could be a bit awkward at times, and I felt in general the target audience is probably not me (30+ yr old white boy)... maybe a combination of the young protagonist, coming of age vibes, and the dialogue I felt was somewhat stilted. But all this being said, I flew through this (thank you short chapters, we are forever grateful) and would highly recommend!

An unraveling young woman.
Toxic men.
A grotesque obsession: eating eyes.
Vengeance.

I don't even know where to start with this.
I enjoyed it, as much as one can "enjoy" this. I read it over two days-- I needed to know where it was going and questioned if I should be rooting for Ji-won as much as I was (smash the patriarchy!)

This was an interesting character study-- a young woman making sense of her life and the less than perfect men in her life-- abandoned by her father, her mother's new, white, Asian-fetishizing boyfriend, and a racist classmate with romantic interests. As her grades slip and her family, and these men weigh on her mind, Ji-won begins to slide into madness, a morbid curiosity taking hold: removing and eating men's blue eyes.

It wild, it's well-paced.
It speaks to the Korean-American experience, family, relationships and is full of 🫣🤢😬 moments. The violence may be a bit much for the non-horror lovers, so if chomping on eyes in graphic details is too much for you (or the cover didn't already deter you), steer clear?

(I'd love to see this as a film, too!
The novel moves like an Asian horror film, slow build tension to an explosion of violence in the end.)

The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim offers a chilling initiation into the world of horror fiction. With its accessible prose and vivid descriptions of gore, the book sets a compellingly eerie mood from the start. Though I found the book to be bit disappointing, it is ideal for readers dipping their toes into the genre.

One of the glaring issues with the novel lies in its shallow writing. While i mentioned the prose is easy to comprehend, it was also superficial, with unnuanced characters. There was little to no character development, which resulted in me struggling to empathize with the characters and understand their actions. Instead of evoking a sense of unease, the narrative unfolds in a predictable manner, lacking the chilling twists and turns that keep one on the edge of their seats.

Additionally, the novel delves into a tapestry of themes ranging from fetishization and misogyny to loss and grief, which is commendable for a debut novel. However, it treads on familiar ground (the dialogue resembles a poorly executed Netflix show) without offering nuanced commentary. I believe readers who are well-versed in such matters may find the portrayal of these issues to be somewhat simplistic.

While “The Eyes Are The Best Part” wasn’t my cup of tea, i can see how others might enjoy its portrayal of a young female serial killer intriguing.

Thank you to NetGalley and Erewhon Books for the ARC

Feast your eyes on this…a young woman with an insatiable hunger for human eyeballs. Truly revolting and captivating in equal measure.

Not for the squeamish nor the faint of heart, The Eyes are the Best Part draws us into Ji-Won’s downward spiral from a floundering student with family troubles to a full-on psychotic murderous madwoman by journey’s end. It’s very satisfying, and I found myself rooting for Ji-Won even as her psyche unravels. The more she indulges in her worst impulses, the stronger her will becomes.

The abrupt ending left me wanting more, though. There was more meat on the bone here to explore, and it felt like things were tidied up too quickly and without enough fanfare. Perhaps a sequel is in the offing?

I love an unhinged female mc, and Monika Kim absolutely gave us that in Ji-won as she mentally spirals in The Eyes Are The Best Part. After her father walks out on her family, Ji-won’s mother starts dating George, a white, blue eyed man with a fetish for Asian women. Ji-won becomes obsessed with George’s blue eyes and often wonders what they would taste like.
I really enjoyed this book and the character of Ji-won, she is the perfect unreliable main character, and as the book is written for her 1st person POV, the reader doesn’t really know what is real and what is Ji-won’s madness.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of The Eyes Are The Best Part in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital arc.

This book was great, I think it hits the mark really well on the American-Korean experience. For a debut, Monika Kim delivers extraordinarily, it’s a very well written story.

I did find the first 50% of the novel to be quite slow, but the last half really delivers with violence, gore and cannibalism.

Cant wait to see what Kim writes next!

This is a weird book for weird girls for sure. This touches on life as a child of immigrant parents, the struggles as a woman in society that is prone to being fetishized by men, and the pressure to reach parental expectations when their hopes rest on you just to name a few things. This is super dark, very gory, and honestly a gripping read. I devoured this one within a few hours. Lots of trigger warnings on this read but really good if you're not too squeamish and love a feminine rage story.

As someone that reads a lot from the horror/thriller genre, I found the synopsis of this book so intriguing. It’s not often that I see a book written from the view of a female serial killer who solely likes killing.

While this book has great commentary, I found that the beginning of this book was quite slow. It does set the stage for why things happen later on, however it wasn’t until about 60% into the book that we finally saw Jin-won’s mental spiraling turn to horror. The book is just under 300 pages but I think it could have easily been a great novella. I also found the ending to be lack luster. For as much detail as Monika Kim put into the first half of the book, I wish the ending wasn’t so rushed. For those reasons I’ve rated this book 3 stars.

We follow Ji-won at a very difficult time in her life. Her father left her, her sister, and her mom, and her mom quickly fell prey to an opportunistic, lying, manipulative, gross white man. She has no friends, her grades are falling, and she starts having weird dreams, slowly becoming obsessed with the idea of consuming eyeballs.

This was gross, enraging, unhinged, quick to read, and full of great commentary about racism, racial fetishization, abandonment, and generational trauma. I feel like the ending was maybe a tad bit convenient, but overall, it's an unsettling read that makes you think.

We follow Ji-won at a very difficult time in her life. Her father left her, her sister, and her mom, and her mom quickly fell prey to an opportunistic, lying, manipulative, gross white man. She has no friends, her grades are falling, and she starts having weird dreams, slowly becoming obsessed with the idea of consuming eyeballs.

This was gross, enraging, unhinged, quick to read, and full of great commentary about racism, racial fetishization, abandonment, and generational trauma. I feel like the ending was maybe a tad bit convenient, but overall, it's an unsettling read that makes you think.

This book felt like it was written for me, I loved it! The commentary, the visceral descriptions, the unhingedness… I just felt like every page turned we were falling deeper into madness.

It did take me a little while to fully get into the book but once I was in, I was HOOKED. I can’t wait to pick up a physical copy of this!

A psychological horror book about a small Korean family who comes to shambles when Appa’s affair results in a divorce and makes the whole family living in despair. Ji Won, as the oldest daughter, barely managed to keep her grades from falling. Ji Hyun wants everything back to being okay. Umma’s crying all night makes Ji Won in rage to her father, to her mother. All added with Umma came home with a new boyfriend, George. Disgustingly George with his blue eyes, ogle over Asian women, Ji Won and Ji Hyun.

Females rage, woman’s wrong, feminist horror, mixed in one fast-paced story, telling you that this actually happened with our humanity. How patriarchal discrimination destroys a family, the horror of being asians living in ‘white’ countries, asian women being fetishized.

I love Monika’s writing so much. She can do it as if she’s stabbing the readers with her beautiful words, stating the painful facts over our humanity. I like how it’s written in a form of horror that can not stop me from turning the pages, and each chapter is short. You won’t get bored and keep being enticed. As you know it’s a horror book, you might also wanna know it contains cannibalism. I felt a bit queasy when I read this even though I love this kind of book. So please check trigger warnings and probably don’t read it while you eat :)

Thank you, NetGalley, Kensington Books, and Monika Kim, for this amazing e-ARC.

Pub date: 25/06/2024

3.5 stars.

The Eyes Are the Best Part follows Ji-Won as the changes & pressures within her life build up, causing her to eventually break and descend into an eyeball craving madness.

Ji-Won is in her freshman year of college and her father has just left - leaving the family in shambles. She must navigate this sensitive time in her life while also looking out for her younger sister and trying to assure her mother is not left broken hearted yet again by her new racist & misogynistic boyfriend.

This is most definitely a slow burn type of horror and although I enjoyed the slow build up of the story, I can't help but feel a little let down by the ending. After the slow pacing of the first 80% of the book, the end just felt sort of rushed. I also feel like there may have been some teensy little plot holes in here 🤏🏼

I loved the scenes where we get a glimpse at the dark & violent side of Ji-Won and I just wish there was more of that featured. The few scenes that did feature eyeball eating were *exceptional* and I loooveeedd the descriptiveness in the writing.

One thing that I did enjoy was the depth given to the characters and the story of the family as a whole. The three women each have their own load of trauma and I appreciated the time spent on that - in addition to the commentary on racism, fetishization, and sexism.

I believe this is a book that many people will enjoy and I can definitely see myself picking up more from Monika Kim in the future. 👁️

This book is incredibly written. Immediately the story is so immersive with the imagery and the prose was just perfection. I felt I could relate to Jiwon in many aspects of life. I love how the story flowed very naturally into madness. I read this in one sitting and couldn’t put it down. I loved the feminine rage and the imagery best of all. Definitely recommend

At first I wasn't sure if I was going to like this that much, but it turned out to be really good. The main character was interesting to say the least.

I loved this book! I drew me in and I read it all in one day! I couldn’t pull myself away! Ji-won is the epitome of female rage!

e psychological body horror was no joke and the story had a fresh take on the making of a serial killer, but the pacing wasn’t always perfect for me. Some sections seemed to drag on, while others were too rushed. I needed just a bit more character development to truly feel the organic fall of our MC

Im hungry.