I started reading the first few chapters of this book at my first ever platelet donation– I didn’t get too far in before I put it down, deciding the uneasiness I was feeling might be lessened at home on my couch under the safety of a blanket. I also probably saved the people around me from having to watch my horrified expression as the novel unfolded before my eyes (no pun intended).

But seriously this book was fantastic! It’s a horror/thriller novel of course, but you have contemporary fiction aspects as you get to know Ji-won, her family and their motivations throughout the story. I can’t say I’ve read a lot of horror novels before, but I know this one was good because there were scenes that made me want to look away or that had me wanting to close my eyes and skip ahead. The short chapters also help the story keep pace as Ji-won digs herself deeper into her obsessions and acts on her impulse to kill. I’d also like to say that I don’t condone female serial killers, but in fiction, there is no greater feeling than women wielding power over men and giving them a taste of ultimate fear. :) Looking forward to a possible sequel for this novel!!

*Thanks to NetGalley for exchanging an e-ARC of this book for an unbiased review!

Wow, I can NOT stop thinking about what I just read. If body horror is not your thing, don't read this. However, if you are looking for an eerie, haunting novel, pick this one up. It was incredible and I will absolutely be looking for Monika Kim's future work too.

ARC Book Review | THE EYES ARE THE BEST PART by MONIKA KIM

4.5/5 ⭐’s | ARC Review | PUB DATE: 25 June 2024

Read if you're looking for:
- A young, Korean-American woman who starts feeling disturbing urges around blue eyes
- Major body horror & stomach churning imagery (a lot of eyeball stuff)
- Condescending men getting their comeuppance
- Themes of misogyny, racism, fetishization, & feeling like you don’t fit in
- A “good for her” ending

This book was right up my alley, and was a quick, short read. Our main character, Ji-Won, is a young Korean-American woman in her first year of college, when her father leaves her family for another woman, leaving Ji-Won, her mother, and her sister behind. Ji-won’s mother seems inconsolable until she meets a new man, a white man name George who fetishizes Asian women and expects them to be meek and submissive. George proceeds to be gross, while Ji-Won starts to have disturbing fantasies about his mesmerizing blue eyes. Ji-won starts to unravel, and begins on a journey of violence, concluding in a satisfying ending.

This book was very well-written and the characters were very realistic and relatable. Ji-won’s mother is painted perfectly as a woman who doesn’t know who she is without a man in her life, and Ji-won is angry and frustrated. I loved how the author mirrored the fetishization of asian women by the male characters with Ji-won’s fetishization of blue eyes. This was super gory, so if eyeball stuff grosses you out, this is not the book for you. Kim also includes a lot of dark humor, especially around the character of Geoffrey, who is another white man who becomes obsessed with Ji-Won while continuously attempting to convince everyone he’s a “nice guy” and that “he’s not like those other men.” This book is outstanding for a debut, and I would enthusiastically recommend it for lovers of body horror and revenge.

CW: Cannibalism, Body horror, Gore, Racism, Stalking, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Cancer, Pedophilia

New unhinged girlie book alert!!!!! I devoured this book as Ji-won devours blue eyes.

I loved how this book started off with me asking myself 'huh, this is not horror? where is the story i expected to get?' and it unraveled and spiraled quickly (but not too quickly!) into the most bonkers of stories. The Eyes Are The Best Part is a story of grief, complicated family dynamics, obsession, the fetishization of Asian women, immigration trauma, cultural differences, and of course: body horror!!!

George, and everything he stands for, was such a hilarious addition to the story. Both his misogyistic and fetishizing tendendies, but also his relationship to Ji-won's mom and the confusing relationship she has with him, made him such a great side character and clear cause (the catalyst really) of her descent into madness. I think this summarizes their rapport pretty well: <i>"Oriental? What am I, a rug?"</i>

God, I loved this book! Exactly my kind of weird, unsettling, far-fetched and gory story. If you loved books like Chlorine, A Certain Hunger and those written by Mariana Enriquez, get this on your tbr now!!!!

Honestly this was so good! Put a little generational trauma, we hate the patriarchy, and some good ole fashion gore into a blender and you get this bad boy. Perfect balance of social critique and horror that allowed for an interesting and thought provoking story that never compromised the pacing. This was so compulsively readable. I think it would make a great book club pick and would be a good rec for people who like books like A Certain Hunger or Natural Beauty but want a slightly more traditionally horror premise. The only part of this book I’m not sure I loved was the ending, but it wasn’t a bad ending I’m just not sure if it’s the direction I was hoping for? Would definitely recommend!

Ji-won is going through a crazy time in her life. Ji-won is going to college while consoling her mother and younger sister through their absentee father issues. Her plate is full. Her mother starts falling for this man who clearly has an Asian fetish. As tensions rise, Ji-won finds herself with a hyperfixation to eyeballs. The way this story unfolds is disturbing yet captivating. I will certainly never look at a cherry tomato the same ever again. I often find myself thinking about this book. The ick levels were off the charts, but in a good way. The kind you want your horror book to deliver on.

The madness. The gore. It was all so good. I am so squeamish when it comes to eyeballs so this really did it for me. I audibly gagged at some parts. If that’s not something you’ll be grossed out by it’s still such a good story of a girl absolutely losing her mind but rightfully so.

Thank you, NetGalley and Kensington Books for the advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review!

In this feminist psychological thriller, our story follows Ji-won, a college student whose life falls into disarray after her father’s affair. The Eyes are the Best Part can be visceral and brutal at times. Still, the author does a fantastic job creating complex characters and a story that deals with misogyny, racism, fetishization, and false allyship. I think one of the things I enjoyed so much about the story is that so often in tales of revenge, female characters are left taking the moral high ground or having to be the example of the better person, but Ji-won is allowed her revenge and it is skewering. Yet, Ji-won is intensely layered and we feel for her as much as we root for her and maybe are a little afraid of her. Monika Kim did an amazing job of bringing this deeply complex character to life on the page.

My only small critique of the book is its pacing. The first 50% of the story was a very slow burn that eventually picks up with a lot happening within the last few chapters. It felt like everything was wrapped up maybe a little too neatly.

Overall, it's a fantastic read, and I can’t recommend it enough!

The anticipation of the things in this book will jump from 0 to 100! I absolutely loved this book, breezing through it and wincing through it. The characters and the storyline were written so well, and wohhh, the horror and gory aspect were just absolutely amazing to read. The author did it so so well and I can't recommend this enough.

Now, of course, trigger warning through and through. It was gory, it was disturbing, and the unraveling of the main character was so entertaining. She was an absolute sociopath and the more you read, the more things happened that were so bone chilling and jaw dropping. Her lack of empathy for others versus her care for her mom and sister were laid out so well that somehow I didn't dismiss her character. Weirdly I found myself wanting to read more and more about her. Like I said, I can't recommend this enough!

Thank you to NetGalley, Monika Kim, and the publisher for the eARC of this amazing horror book. All opinions are my own.

I DNF'd this at 54% due to the body horror being more prominent and drawn-out than I was expecting. Overall, this moved along fast enough but the writing was disjointed at times and the writing was a bit shallow for the topic matters discussed within. Fetishization through the lens of horror deserved so much more than this, in my opinion. The lack of depth to the characters made them completely lack nuance, which meant gray areas didn't exist. This might have been resolved by the end of the story, but I have a feeling it wasn't.

Kensington Books, Erewhon Books, and NetGalley for providing an ARC!

This was fun!

Really interesting coming-of-age story about a college student who is grappling with her father leaving, her mother's new boyfriend, and a lurking craving for eyeballs......

I read this in 2 sittings - it was really hard to put down! Ultimately I enjoyed the story and the twists and turns, but something didn't quite connect for me. I still really recommend it - it's unique, gross, and worth your time.

weird, entertaining, stomach-turning, got me cheering for someone's cannibalistic desires lmao thank you so much to netgalley and the publisher!

Ji-won is a first generation college student of Korean immigrants and having been rejected by her first choice school and alienated by friends, she is left picking up the pieces after her parents sudden divorce. When her mother meets someone new - George - she is left scrambling to get her act together to protect herself and her sister. When she attempts to appease and entertain her mother by consuming the eyes of a fish, ‘the best part,’ she developes a sudden ravenous hunger for the unspeakable - human eyes.

Throughout this book all I could think was GOOD FOR HER and I truly would not have had this written any other way. Through the lense of horror and cannibalism Monika Kim examines the fetishization of Asian women in American culture and she does an exquisite job of displaying the ‘nice guy’ trope for us to examine & explore. This being Kim’s first work of horror is astounding and I absolutely have to get my hands on more.

“In Korean, the word for ‘fortune’ is paljua.”

The Eyes Are The Best Part by Monika Kim follows Ji-Won as she navigates relationships, family, and………her appetite.

I enjoyed reading this book. It is DEFINITELY within the body horror genre so be prepared diving in. You may want to check trigger warnings beforehand. I enjoyed the descriptiveness of certain scenes in the story (LOL) and this is the first book to actually make me have a physical reaction.

In addition to the shock value of the story, I really liked how the topics around fetishism, self-proclaimed allyship, family dynamics, and “I’m a good guy” are explored and the effects these things can have on women, especially women of color.

My favorite thing about this book is that Ji-Won isn’t as “innocent” as one may think. Her character is VERY complex in how I understood 100% where she was coming from and have very well felt the same in some situations BUT she also did some messed up things herself……BUUUUUT I still understood what her actions were rooted in LOL. I was going through a constant back-and-forth with her character.

If you want a fast-paced, horror/body horror story with a complex character and interesting societal topics, then this book is for you! If you’ve ever had a white man say “I’ve never been with a [insert minority identity] before” OR “I heard [insert minority identity] enjoy XYZ” OR “I’m not like those other guys you’ve dated”, then you will find camaraderie within Ji-Won’s story.

Thank you to Kensington Books and NetGalley for the ARC!!

Thank you NetGalley and Kensington Books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I was THRILLED when I saw that I was given an ARC of The Eyes Are the Best Part. This is my first book like this and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I love an unhinged female character & watching Ji-Won's 'descent' was terrifying, yet fascinating. The ending was very fast compared to the rest of the book, but I still liked it.

I will 1000% be picking up any of Monika Kim's future works!

👁️ 🔪 🩸 Review🐟🥢💍

Title: The Eyes Are The Best Part
Author: Monika Kim

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/5

Thoughts: I had zero expectations going in and I really loved every bit of this. There were moments that turned my stomach which I can't help but love 😅.
We get to follow a young adult become a women full of carefully crafted rage and wrath. As Ji-won is navigating betrayal from her father, she's also trying to keep her mother's life together while assuring her younger sister.
We see this young woman get a taste for 👁️ and 🩸 as she comes into her own.
I loved the little spin at end that really brought everything together. My only gripe is I think this one could have been a little shorter but that's knit picking. All and all, this was a delicious read 😈.

Thank you to the publisher for the ARC of this book.

This is a story about a young woman who has lost control of her life and eventually loses control over herself.
Jiwon is a college student who's father has had an affair and left them, sending the household, made up of herself, her mother, and younger sister, into turmoil.
When her mother introduces them to her new boyfriend Jiwon is disgusted by him and his fetish for Asian women, but can't stop thinking about his blue eyes. She starts dreaming of rooms filled with blue eyes and begins to develop an insatiable hunger for them, kicking off her descent into serial murder.
Eventually Jiwon, and the reader, start to struggle to differentiate between what's real and what isn't as she descends into madness and struggles to hold her family together.
There's some good commentary on asian fetishism and performative femanism within these pages, and I found the lighter moments between Jiwon and the one friend she's made at college to be really nice.
I really enjoyed the slower more descriptive style of the first two thirds or so and felt that the conclusion read a little fast and a little convenient, but as a whole I really enjoyed this book and it's an excellent debut.

I loved the atmosphere and the set up. I like Ji-Won’s character development/spiral and at times I really felt her and her mum and her sister in me. I loved the psychological horror aspect of the story - by which I mean Ji-Won’s misery and torment leading up to the eyeballs, and her predeliction for tomatoes and eggs and her other spherical crutches. (It was less eerie than I expected and more trauma.)

Annoyingly I didn’t love it, which was a huge shame, because I really wanted to love it. I think the length plays a part: either too little time devoted to the development of the plot towards the end or too much time at the beginning setting it all up. It feels unevenly measured. Some resolution points feel a little bit cheap. The hospital scene towards the end feels very expensive, for there to be no commentary from a not-wealthy American family. I’m not American, but I’m East Asian, and I find it difficult to believe the characters (those specific characters with those specific financial circumstances) wouldn’t have a single reaction to being in a hospital, the potential bill or have any notion of blame. I’m not asking for a caricature, but subtle hints and unspoken flinching could really slow the rush of the plot at this point of the story. Hands lose their heft when evenly distributed.

Whilst I found her relationship with her mother quite believable, her relationship with her sister, Ji-Hyun, starts off with an incredible dynamic, but loses its roundedness along the way. If the angry, dismissive exchanges with Ji-Hyun is charged with tension, the actual conversation with her feels a little bit stilted. Maybe that’s the point, but I wanted there to be more than a devoted sister taking her elder sister’s shit.

This is a bit persnickety but I found this jarring - I’m not particularly convinced by cherry tomatoes as a stand in for eyes. I get that it’s an emotional crutch, as Ji-Won starts to crave eyes, but whilst I think it’s a great visual symbol, it doesn’t read particularly gorily.

The other thing that throws me out of the narrative is the plausibility. Isn’t LA one of the most surveilled cities? I find it difficult to believe how the plot plays out without more characters seeing through the resolution. I think more time should have been spent on this? I don’t know.

Overall, I liked the book but I felt that it wasn’t as developed as it could have been and therefore did not love it the way I thought I would. Lots of mixed feelings, and ultimately I enjoyed it, but think it could have gone a lot further.

The premise of this book sounded incredibly interesting and I dove into this book with lots of anticipation. Unfortunately, I thought the 'action' started way too far into the book and ended way too soon for my liking. Of course, you need to establish your character(s) and give them some background, but the first half of the story dragged on a bit because of that imo. Will still recommend this book for people who want to read a good horror, but it wasn't my favourite unfortunately.

Add another incredible character to the Unhinged Women Literary Universe!

Ji-won is a first-year college student living at home with her parents and younger sister. When her father suddenly leaves the family, they are all set on a path none of them expected. Ji-won's mother meets George, a disgusting white man with an insidious Asian fetish and Ji-won does everything she can to hold what remains of her family together. Unfortunately the hardest person to keep in check is herself.
Add another incredible character to the Unhinged Women Literary Universe!

Ji-won is a first-year college student living at home with her parents and younger sister. When her father suddenly leaves the family, they are all set on a path none of them expected. Ji-won's mother meets George, a disgusting white man with an insidious Asian fetish and Ji-won does everything she can to hold what remains of her family together. Unfortunately the hardest person to keep in check is herself.

I loved every second of this book. The path to destruction Ji-won walks feels at once sudden and gradual. Her obsession with blue eyeballs rockets her into actions she would never have thought possible, but somehow I was rooting for her the entire way.

I support women's wrongs, especially Ji-won's wrongs!

Thanks to NetGalley and Kengsington Books for providing an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
I loved every second of this book. The path to destruction Ji-won walks feels at once sudden and gradual. Her obsession with blue eyeballs rockets her into actions she would never have thought possible, but somehow I was rooting for her the entire way.

I support women's wrongs, especially Ji-won's wrongs!