I enjoyed this read - Monika has a way of roping you into the story pretty early on. There was also great social commentary told through eyes of a young Korean-American woman, which was very well done. Looking forward to reading more from Monika Kim!

I really enjoyed this book! It was intense and gory, and it kept my attention in the best way. I love being grossed out, and this book gave that to me, as well as an intriguing story line.

The Eyes Are The Best Part by Monika Kim dives deep into the "Good For Her" genre, delivering a satisfying story of revenge with a chilling female lead who reclaims power in terrifying ways. Kim’s writing pulls no punches, offering disgustingly vivid descriptions that sometimes verge on body horror—a style that keeps the horror palpable and intense. The grotesque elements might not be for everyone, but they add a raw edge to the story’s dark themes. Overall, it’s a deeply creepy, engaging read that’s perfect for fans of revenge-driven horror.

this is a quick, absorbing, and really fun read -- with some proper gross moments, as you would expect from the title. but it's also, i think, an interesting take on fetishisation of asian women. mostly it's interesting because of what monika kim chooses to do with it. ji-won very literally turns to consuming others in reaction to and retaliation for a society which predominantly hopes to consume her. i thought this was often very funny and quick. the writing style is sharp and simple and it absolutely drags you along. it's compelling and a real page-turner: i found i continually had to remind myself not to jump ahead and read more down the page.

outside of the commentary associated with cannibalism and fetishisation, i think the way kim dealt with the family unit, with misogyny and fear and the feminine ideal of the "waiting woman" was really fun to read. this was really sharply written and it mostly makes me excited to see what else she does, because i think this had some really great ideas and it was such a good book to read at this moment for me. even though i've read some great stuff lately, i feel like i'm slumping and i think this would tear you from it.

i do have some issues with it, insofar i found that a lot of stuff just veered a little too far into unbelievable. i do think this was deliberate -- there's a grossness to this, a campness, which winks at the reader. but it still wasn't necessarily my favourite. the characterisation wasn't always the strongest and i struggled with much of them. but this was good enough fun that i'll give it a pass. like a 3.5!

Oh i absolutely loved this book! It does take a bit to get going on the action-y and horror, but i loved everything leading up to it. i love the perspective of the narrator being a young Asian american woman, i feel like it really brought a lot to the story. At the end I was rooting for her and her sister, lol. I will definitely recommend this and keep an eye for this author in the future!

3 stars. This was okay for the first half, and pretty good for the second half. The ending was a bit lackluster for me, but I loved the commentary alongside the spiraling of our unhinged main character. Some of the sentences/paragraphs in the book were so poignant and wonderfully stated, and the writing was overall fantastic.

“Eat the eyeballs” = the narrative the entire time in my head while reading this book.

Ji-won’s life takes a turn when her father leaves her, her sister and her mother to fend for themselves. She’s failing her college classes, her sister is hurt and confused and her mother has spiralled into disassociation and depression. When her mother starts dating George, Ji-won can’t help but notice his blue eyes. When he overstays his welcome and his behaviour becomes increasingly disgusting, Ji-won knows she’ll have to take matters into her own hands. No matter how many bodies are piling up on her school campus and how many eyes go missing, Ji-won can’t be satiated.

The Eyes Are The Best Part was such a page flipper, I was devouring it. The writing is excellent and packs a punch. The comps Crying In H Mart and My Sister The Serial Killer is the perfect mashup to describe this title. The ending… *chefs kiss. Highly recommend, 4.5✨!

I feel like this books is the talk of the town these days, and it's with good reason! It;s extremely readable - I didn't even know how I read it all and finished it in what felt like one breath.

I don't often reach for unreliable narrators these days, this was my first run-in with one in a long while, but it was a RIDE.

I, for one, am used to much nastier stuff, so you won't hear me complimenting the gore much - I thought it was so-so, to be honest, some eyes are not going to disturb me much - but I can honestly compliment almost everything else. The main character, the twists and turns the plot takes, the good-for-her nature of it all, the way it talks about racism and how it's really just a coming of age story underneath it all, which I certainly wasn't expecting.

It's written well and I think I would HIGHLY recommend it to people who don't have a lot of experience with mixing horror and general fiction. Because, honestly, THIS is what horror can and should be.

Controversially, I think it could have gone even more unhinged, though. Super satisfying ending, anyway, after all the anger you naturally feel with/for the main character.

We love a good spooky season feminine rage thriller!

This one was fast-paced and kept my interest the entire time. While I wish that some parts of the stories and relationships within were more fleshed out (no pun intended), overall I found this to be a super enjoyable read.

Hauntingly good is the first phrase that came to mind for this bone-chilling horror story. I was equally grossed out and intrigued the entire time! one of my favorite spooky reads of the year!

This was very interesting - I’m not sure what I thought it was going to be but I was very happily surprised altogether. The contained story mixed with the unreliable narration made this fun to try and pick out what was real or not. There were a lot of parallels and references to feminism, sexism, and a lot about the fetishization of Asian women specifically so I think it was fitting that while reading the book almost “gaslit” the reader in a way to try and decipher what’s happening. Ultimately, it’s a coming of age about a young girl growing into her own power and proving she only needs to rely on herself. I will now forever be queasy when thinking about eyeballs.

The Eyes Are the Best Part is one of the weirdest horror books that I have ever read. I would classify this book as more literary horror than actual horror. We follow a girl who becomes obsessed, and I mean obsessed with eyeballs and wanting to eat them. I can see where the author was trying to go with the story but I personally found it slow and it isn't a very long book. I wish we had more of a plot happening in this book. Overall, if you enjoy literary fiction and horror, I think you would enjoy this book. The cover definitely did it's job and it is very unsettling.

Thank you to the publisher & NetGalley for this arc!

I’m flabbergasted at how much I enjoyed this disgusting book. Disgusting is a compliment by the way because these descriptions grossed me out more than any other book I’ve ever read. In the best way.

This is a fascinating read that follows our protagonist as she spirals into madness & obsession while working through some tough emotions and demands placed on her. It was delightfully disturbing and I recommend!

This was meant to be a creepy horror story, okay? That’s what I wanted. Now … I don’t think it was a complete failure in that department but it also didn’t satisfy me in the way I was hoping.
This is definitely more of a character study than a plot-heavy book. We read from the perspective of Ji-won, whose father has abandoned their family for another woman. Soon, Ji-won’s Umma starts to date another man, who turns out to be an Asian-fetishizing asshole.
And in the midst of all of this turmoil, Ji-won starts to become obsessed with eyeballs. Not just any eyeballs, but eyeballs with blue irises.
The complex family dynamics were really well thought out and nuanced. I liked the way the author peeled back Ji-won’s layers, showing how her self-sabotaging tendencies and her own negative traits are what leads to her downfall in many of her interactions. Ji-won as a character really stood out to me, and this is what kept me reading this book until the end.
However, there was absolutely no nuance when it came to any of the other characters. They were caricatures meant to fulfil their one specific role and that’s it. Their lack of depth and dimension made it hard for me to connect with any of them and also made the interactions between Ji-won and these other characters feel surface-level.
The pacing of this novel is another major issue. While the horror elements are gory and creepy and well-written, it is bogged down by boring dialogue, dream sequences that seem to ramble on forever, and repetitive summaries of events that the reader has already witnessed. The fact that most of the horror bits actually take place in the last 30-40% of the story means readers really have to push themselves to get to the “good stuff” – which is itself short-lived.
The story contains some powerful messages on family, grief, and racism but I’m not sure if the themes were conveyed as well as they could have been. Sometimes, less is more.
Overall, this was an interesting take on serial killers, with much of the focus being on character development to the detriment of the plot/pacing and the actual horror. I’m giving this 3 stars because it tried to do something unique and, despite its slow pacing, it kept my interest until the very end.

This is a bit of a slow burn early on but I really enjoyed both the creepy horror elements and the complex family relationships. It does push the boundaries of credulity at the end, but it earned enough suspension of disbelief from me.

The title and cover are somewhat false advertising. Yes, there is some eye-eating and murdering but they're largely relegated to the last 25% of the book. I don't mind a good slow-burn but the first 75% is a slightly above-average family drama with such cartoonish villains that it was almost parodic. It's hard to care about comeuppance when they're so broadly drawn as to not even seem to like real people. An over-reliance on dream sequences also distracts from the flow. It's a quick and sometimes enjoyable read but can't really recommend it. 2.5 rounded down to 2. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!

Slow building dread.

This novel starts out innocently. A mother, two daughters, a father who has recently abandoned the family. The mother can't move on. The eldest daughter Ji-Won starts exhibiting self destructive behavior. It seems every man she meets is some sort of disappointment. Her mother's new boyfriend is a creep - but his eyes - Ji-Won can't stop thinking about them.

The Eyes Are the Best part was fantastic. It made me anxious and angry, it made me squirm, Just when you think things have come to their natural conclusion... you're really thrown for a loop.

I'm not sure the eyes are the best part. Probably the worst. So squishy and slimy. I wanted to be horrified by this but I was just a bit bored and disappointed.

This really hit the spot! The pacing is on point with the narration punctuated just the right amount with scenes of the protagonist's psychosis and violence as both gradually escalate. There are certainly moments of recoil-worthy body horror, but they don't overwhelm the rest of the text. Much of the story is really a character study.

It's also a thematically strong piece, digging into the intersections of racism and misogyny, particularly the fetishization of Asian women. It does a really nice job of illustrating microaggressions - prime show don't tell.

It's a really exciting debut and Kim is an author to watch closely.

Following the sudden departure of her father, college student Ji-won struggles to keep her mother afloat as she sinks into a depression. But when her mother starts dating George, a white man who is frankly the absolute worst, Ji-won begins a descent into madness in a spiral to seek revenge on the man who is plaguing her family. This slow burn, psychological horror reckons with racism and misogyny for young women of color and an extreme response to real evils. I really can’t believe this is a debut work. It’s sharp and smart with such complicated themes handled in such a precise way. This is a narrative that leads to horror, but I wouldn’t classify it as a horror novel. Sure it’s gross, there’s some gore aspects in this, but it’s really a novel about a woman dealing with men that target her and her family’s “otherness” as an Asian family of women and use that as a fetishization and lashing out against that in a particularly violent way. I keep thinking a lot about this novel, and I absolutely recommend it!