"The Eyes Are the Best Part" wasn't really for me - I made it about a third of the way through before I started skimming the book to get through it.

Jiwon's father has left her mother, who, in her fifties, finds herself infatuated with a new boyfriend. Jiwon, feeling the stress of living at home with her little sister, her mother, and her mother's boyfriend, also has to tack on the pressure of slowly failing her way through college and being pretty friendless, having sabotaged her high school friendships. In the midst of this, Jiwon starts to get an interesting appetite for.... eyeballs (I mean, it's in the title of the book).

This book tackles Yellow Fever - the colloqial term for when a Caucasian man is only interested in dating Asian women because of the stereotypical portrayal of Asian women in media - in a very "hit you over the head with a big stick" kind of way. There's no subtlety and no nuance - Jiwon is eventually pursued by a white classmate, who becomes stalker-y and obsessive and has no other interactions or friendships with white people. There's no redeeming qualities about George, her mother's boyfriend, and no depth to him either - or any other character for this matter. I can see this book being shelved as a "satirical horror" except it isn't subtle enough to be satire.

Also, what's up with the brain cancer plot point that's briefly mentioned and immediately dropped at the very end of the book? Was that supposed to be relevant to any other point in the story?

While this had all the right ingredients for my horror loving heart to adore, I think the execution just wasn’t there. Ji Won’s tone of voice led to an air of boredom that I think was supposed to come off as disassociation to her life, but it didn’t read that way. The disaffection turned into boredom for me with the plot, and I never felt connected to any of the side characters. I finished it, and I don’t necessarily regret that, but I feel like this one could have used some more editing.

The cover alone intrigued me, so I started reading this book without knowing what it was about. As the story unfolded, I realized it was about a female serial killer, her family dynamics, and her transformation from a normal girl to a murderer. The narrative became increasingly eerie and triggering, keeping me on the edge of my seat as I tried to guess the ending: would she be caught or not?

While I enjoyed the suspenseful plot, the ending felt average to me. It was left open-ended, which didn't completely satisfy me but didn't ruin the story either. Overall, I found the suspense to be great.

🚩Trigger warnings:
Cannibalism
Stalking
Sexism
Racism
If any of these topics trigger you, please avoid this novel.

Thank you to Netgalley and Erewhon Books for an arc of this novel!

I have a morbid fascination with cannibalism and its utilization in creative works, so you can imagine my excitement when I first caught wind of Monika Kim's <i>The Eyes Are the Best Part</i>. Unfortunately, I had to DNF this.

This feminist psychological horror novel deals with misogyny, the fetishization of Asian women, navigating two cultures, and it does so through familial bonds, cannibalism, and murder.

The use of cannibalism is interesting: Ji-won's world has abruptly changed in the wake of her Appa's infidelity and subsequent departure. Her family is falling apart, and so is everything else. When Umma suddenly introduces her new boyfriend George to her daughters, Ji-won's already tumultuous life takes a gradual turn towards the worse. And in the midst of this, she develops an all-consuming obsession with eyes - blue eyes, in particular. The novel's themes and the obsession with consuming eyes is very intriguing.

<b>So why did I DNF at 73%?</b>

For me, what really disrupts my enjoyment of the novel is the writing. I'm not a huge fan of first person, and even less when it's in the present tense. I find that stories told in this perspective often have a "and now I'm doing this, and now I'm doing that..." quality, which ultimately disrupts the storytelling and plot progression as well.

While I found many aspects of the novel interesting, especially Ji-won's relationships outside her family, I found myself procrastinating every planned reading session and I have spent nearly 2 months trying to finish this fairly short novel. I finally decided to DNF after a week of seriously thinking about it.

This novel was unfortunately not for me, but I think it can bring insight, enjoyment, and perhaps catharsis to many readers. It certainly delivers regarding the ingestion and chewing of piercing blue eyes.

The descent into madness and Ji-won's obsession with eyeballs is a gripping read. The detail in her thoughts and actions are well written. All of the men in this book absolutely suck. While it was a fun read there are many plot holes that can be a bit annoying in parts.

Would recommend.

Fantastic. Ji-won is a college student living at home with her teenaged sister and their mother, who has recently been abandoned by their father. Their mother begins dating a man named George—he’s white, and has a proclivity for Asian women. As things develops, Jo-won finds herself fixating on his blue eyes—then dreaming about eyes, and thinking about eating eyes…This one was REALLY good. It built and built, perfectly layering on itself. Themes around misogyny and fetishization are portrayed in ways that felt both very real to life and also over-the-top horrifying. I will absolutely be reading more from Monika Kim and highly recommend this one for anyone who likes morally gray characters and horror with important social themes—plus a really satisfying ending.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

This book is freaking wild! Theres always something enjoyable about unhinged horror story.
Kim’s writing delves deep into the human experience, exploring emotions and connections. While there were parts that felt a bit slow, the overall narrative was engaging and thought-provoking.

What you’ll find in The Eyes are the Best Part:
- Female Rage
- Family Drama
- Unreliable Narrator
- Unhinged Woman

Quotes I Loves:
- “In the end, everyone leaves.”
- “I’ve always been jealous of the kids who have never had to deal with this crushing pressure. They have no idea how good they have it, how lucky they are. Often, I find myself wondering: What is it like to live freely, to live a life untethered, without having to be responsible for everyone around you?”
- “Yeah, sorry, I ate a homeless guy’s eyeball last night, and I’m really struggling with it, so. . . .”
- “I press my tongue against the white of his sclera. It’s salty. His tears. His sweat. I can taste it all.”

An unflinching and fascinatingly stomach churning look into the life of an Asian American woman who is cracking under the pressures of a misogynistic and racist society. I was captivated by Ji-won's journey from an overworked, stressed young woman to an absolutely unhinged creature being so consumed by her situation that she starts to cross unbelievable boundaries. A brilliant tale of female rage with a spine tingling ending.

Good for her! The unhinged serial killer we didn't know we needed.

Ji-won is stressed, her father has left her family, it's her first year of college, and her mother has a new boyfriend. A man that's misogynistic, and is fetishising her Asian mother as well as being creepy towards Ji-won and her underage sister.
Ji-won can't even escape the gross male attention at college, where she's stalked and harassed by a 'nice guy's who calls himself her 'friend'.

Under immense pressure at home and school, all Ji-won can focus on is eyes, eating fish eyes is meant to bring you good luck, so what comes from eating beautiful blue eyes?

Visceral and honestly gross at times, I couldn't help but urge Ji-won on to succeed her goal.
She's just a young woman trying to do her best for her family in a racist, misogynistic world.

One of my favourite horror books of the year, The Eyes Are The Best Part will have you saying I support women's rights as well as their wrongs, even if they're very, very wrong.

A fantastically written debut, I'm excited to see what this author does next

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this arc, all opinions are my own.

Monika Kim captures the othering and fetishization of minorities eerily well. The tension we experience through Ji-Won's perspective carries the narrative. Were the eyeball scene gross? Yes! But it gave exactly what I signed up for!

Pros:
- I love stories with unhinged characters and Ji-won defiantly meets that qualification
- I enjoyed the body horror. I didn't think it was too much, but I've read some pretty graphic horror books in the past so take that with a pinch of salt.
- The microaggressions Ji-won and her family experienced were well done. There were so many moments where I cringed so hard/felt so much secondhand embarrassment from some of the comments other characters made toward Ji-won and her family.
- The plot was fast-paced

Cons:
- I do wish Ji-won would've descended into her "madness" a bit more gradually, but that's a personal preference.
- Another personal issue I had was the "true crime" aspects of the novel. There were a few points where the crime elements of the story just felt unrealistic. Nothing major just something I noticed and bothered me a bit.

Overall:
I devoured this book. I could've easily finished this in one sitting; I couldn't put it down.

i was enjoying this book until i was not. i am going to put it down for a while because i'm not in the headspace to read something like this.

This was more a study of one young women’s descent into madness than a horror story, at least for the first 50% of the book. Then Ji-won turns extra CRAZY!

This was an ok read. I am not Asian but as a woman I could understand her anger, fears, etc at the world and men in her life even though I didn’t overly like her. I loved the ending.

Though not overly horrific imo there are some squeamish parts involving murder and cannibalism of a definitely twisted variety (clue on the cover).

**Thanks to the author and publisher for the e-ARC I received via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.**

I'll be giving this a neutral rating because of what I felt from what I read, but also from the way I DNF'ed (skipped around 10-15 chapters so stopped around chapter 28, and skipped to around chapter 40 and dnf-ed at ch 48). First, thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I was very excited to have found out about this book for many reasons: the title is amazing I love how the author tied in Korean culture with the thriller aspect she delves into within the story. Also the author is Korean-American and while not necessarily the same experiences, I was excited to read a literary thriller fiction that would delve into experiences that I felt like I would personally relate to at times. And the author nailed it. I might not be an oldest sister, but the struggles and burden that I think a lot of children of immigrant families go through and experience, was portrayed so well in the novel. I think I even teared up a little in some times because of how emotionally the situation and feelings the main character was struggling with resonated with me as well.

However, that being said, I felt like the story ended up falling short for me in terms of the narrative. While I normally love short chapters, the chapters were consistently short and it felt like there was so much we were going through but nothing substantial was happening. To sum up my overall experience and feelings while reading the e-arc, I would have to say extremely intriguing premise, but personally not very engaging. While I was looking forward to our main character's spiral that is triggered by many real and relatable reasons, I think it would have been better if the plot itself was faster-paced. At times, it felt like it was a collage of experiences which could either be relatable to some, or eye-opening (in a sense) to others, but not very well interwoven within the narrative, if that makes sense.

I did enjoy what I read, but the slow-pace and more of a collage of experiences than a downward spiraling narrative, was not for me. However, I do look forward to the author's future works and I'm excited to see what else they will write!

Thank you to both NetGalley & Kensington Books | Erewhon Books for the ARC copy of this one.

Unfortunately, this one did not work for me. I felt so bored in the beginning and truthfully I don't think I ever got super interested in it. This was an incredibly slow story that just never got enough momentum anywhere for me. I enjoyed the eye piece, but it became so repetitive that I was ready to just get through this and be done with it.

The characters were bleh and then very cliche for the males. It was more annoying than enjoyable, so sorry to the author that this one didn't work for me :(

This was incredibly graphic and disgusting, and I loved every second of it. Highly recommend it for genre fans who don't mind the ick.

The Eyes Are the Best Part is an absolutely awesome psychological and body horror novel. The imagery is amazing. There is also important social commentary happening as well. There are plenty of trigger warnings, so anyone wanting to read should do their research. This is a really great debut novel and new voice in horror, and I am looking forward to reading much more by this author!!

Absolutely phenomenal! Unhinged and packs a punch in such little chapters. Will never look at an eyeball the same way again.

Female rage in this book is GOREgeous!
"...the eyes in the pile of rice. The irises, still blue, watch me."
I knew before starting that there would be some uncomfortable scenes with eyes being eaten, fish and human, but it all was so disgusting and beautiful I couldn't stop reading. Right away it starts with a shudder, there's couple scenes that made me uneasy, and I was tearing up and crying by chapter 5. Describing fish eyes as food, and most of the food scenes weren't easy to read. But I was brave, and then it started getting really, really interesting. I was infuriated and sad for her umma, and I wanted to shake her several times when she kept doing things that made her daughters uncomfortable. And the way she was enamoured with that white guy and turned blind eye to everything and he kept being disgusting and a creep and I I wanted his eyes to be on the dinner menu.
"The eye on the plate looked exactly like George’s eyes. Blue. A blazing, luminous blue."
✨female rage✨🤝🏻✨literary cannibalism✨
👁️👄👁️🤌🏻
I was obsessed months ago even before I knew what the book was about, and now that I've read it I know it'll be living rent-free in my brain.
And that ending! Delicious ending! Perfect! No notes! Something in me healed while I was reading the ending.

Following Ji-won’s descent from struggling teen to (minor spoiler, but likely no surprise) eyeball chomping serial killer, Monika Kim’s truly original debut, The Eyes Are the Best Part, takes bloody aim at racism and misogyny.

From Geoffrey’s “nice guy” antics, to George’s vile fetishism, to Ji-won’s father’s sudden, painful absence, men are constantly letting Ji-won, her sister Ji-hyun, and their mother down. And Ji-won, carrying her desperately lonely mother and trying to protect her younger sister, is bearing the brunt of it, pushed devastatingly close to breaking point time and time again. And when she breaks, she BREAKS.

A “good for her” horror will always find its audience, and despite its flaws, The Eyes Are the Best Part is no exception. The gore is rich and, in the best way, often hard to stomach, and it’s satisfying watching horrid men meet horrid ends. But a truly tantalising premise was let down by a certain shallowness to its characters and general proceedings, turning what could have been a genuinely engaging examination of micro-aggressions and feminine rage into a novel that just misses the mark. It’s strong nonetheless, but - as Ji-won herself might attest - sometimes you just want a little taste of something more.