A unhinged feminist horror about a young woman who becomes obsessed with consuming eyeballs. This was a wild ride with some disturbing scenes but also some great commentary on sexism, fetishism, ageism, immigration, cultural assimilation, and gender roles. I loved this. Highly recommend.

Wow! This book kept popping up and I felt intrigued by the gorgeous cover. I am SO glad to have had the opportunity to read Monika Kim’s must-read horror of 2024! The Eyes Are the Best Part is a beautifully written tale of one family and three challenges they face. Ji-won, our main character, and her sister Ji-hyun are Korean-Americans living in a small apartment with their mom. We first find the family in distress as the patriarch of the family leaves his wife and daughters for a new woman. Kim gives us an intimate portrait of a family struggling. Umma, the mother, is a shell of herself in the wake of the separation, leaving Ji-won struggling with her first semester of college courses. Over time we get to know George, Umma’s new boyfriend, as well as friends that Ji-won makes in classes.

This book is so much more than an entertaining horror story. It’s a beautiful exploration of the challenges of race, class, sex, and family dynamics. The first half is more literary fiction mixed with dread and the second half has more of the horror elements.

I absolutely loved this! There was a slow build up with momentum growing each chapter. The Eyes Are the Best Part was a perfect horror book for me. There was so much character development and I really felt invested in their lives. The chapters were short, which is also something I enjoy when reading. I would highly recommend this to any fan of the horror genre!

Thank you to NetGalley, Kensington Books, Erewhon Books, and the author Monika Kim for an ARC of this gem!

I LOVED this book. The Eyes Are the Best Part is about the unraveling of a woman and her progression into a serial killer. I'd recommend this book to fans of The Vegetarian. It's dark and edgy!

Thank you to Netgalley and Kensington Books for this eARC. This was the ARC I most wanted and was so happy to get.

This book is fucking brilliant. I would apologize for my crass language, but considering the themes and plot in the book, I don't think it's necessary. The only thing I love more than a book about a calculated woman serial killer, is a book about an unhinged woman serial killer. Everything about this book was pretty damn near perfect. The pressure, the pain, the recklessness. The commentary on fetishism and feminism was so brilliantly done. Geoffrey was my favorite character for what he represented.

I can't put together a more logical review because right now I'm going off my instincts and the vibes I got from this book and I'm just so in love. Great storytelling.

Yes, Well. Ji-Won becomes fascinated with eyes because her mother believes eating fish eyes brings luck. That's not why she eats them. George and his blue eyes- I can't even. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Interesting read.

Korean-American serial killer Ji-won is spiraling out of control. Her family split up and her mom is now dating the worst person imaginable. We are reading the perspective of Ji-won. It’s sick, brutal, and fascinating. She is vengeful, just, and obsessive. Her obsessions are intensive. She is also stuck in this weird…triangle I guess you can call it with her friends because Ji-won is also a student at a college.

I honestly don’t know how to summarize this book besides I have not read one like it. It’s the odd ball out in the thriller/horror community and I loved it for that. Great writing and premise!

Thank you to netgallery and the publisher for letting me read the arc!

Finally a 5-star horror! Loved everything about this and will be purchasing my own copy once this is released

Ji-Won's life starts to fall apart when her father leaves for another woman. Her mother becomes a basket case and Ji-Won moves into caretaker role taking care of her mother and sister. Her mother believes eating fish eyes will bring you good luck and the first time she does it freaks me out. Then when Ji-Won eats the eyes and likes it she chances and becomes obsessed with eyes.

Their mother thinks her life will be better if she is with a white man so she starts dating George. She misses all the obvious signs of what a total creep he is. George says so many things that just infuriated me. He is one person you will hate as you read this book.

Ji-Won's grades start failing. She has nightmares about blue eyes and what it would be like to eat them. This is creepy watching her go further and further into her obsession. She is keeping her monster side hidden away from others. She will find a way to protect this family and keep them together.

This book was absolutely riveting. I love a FMC determined to get revenge. I found myself cheering for Ji-Won.

Thank you Net Galley for this e-book.

I have been waiting months to read this, and it was well-worth the wait. The revenge plot was great, and the body horror elements were terrifically visceral.

Oh man, The Eyes Are The Best Part was something else!

Not only do we have exquisite female rage, but it’s tampered with discussions of diaspora, objectification of Asian women, and the overwhelming feeling of being left behind by the world.

The first half of this book is decidedly literary fiction with a growing dread, it focuses a lot on Ji-Won’s life crumbling around her and her attempts to keep her family happy. I thought this was so well done, the descent into madness and ending just blew me away. It gets so visceral and disturbing! Terrific for fans of horror, this is a great and totally different perspective.

Well, this was certainly an interesting read. I did not like any of the characters, at all. I felt like there was no development, and we didn't really get to truly know any of them. The writing was alright It often felt rushed and unfinished. And this honesty wasn't as scary, creepy or exciting as I was hoping. I did however love the premise of it, it had good ideas. Overall, I would recommended it to someone just dipping their toes into the horror world.

Misogyny, racism, patriarchy, infidelity? Don't like them... if you can't fix them, eat their eyeballs out! What an utterly delightful feast of a horror novel that is so much more than just a freak show! Feminism and revenge served cold and hot, by knife and by chopsticks. I loved this in all its squeamish delights! Muwahahahahaha!

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books | Erewhon Books for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

What a gross little book. I really enjoyed it.

Ji-won is a college student living with her mother and sister after her father left to be with his mistress. When Ji-won’s Umma starts dating this horrendous pos George she starts having very vivid nightmares and craving things she never before has.

Genuinely made me queasy many times between the racism and the gore- wow. That being said I really enjoyed the writing and plot of the story. Ji-won is a great messy character that is easy to root for.

Thanks to NetGalley and Kensington books for an eARC

Thank you to Netgalley, Kensington Books, and Erewhon Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. This book officially publishes on 6/25/24!

This book is quite unique than anything that I have read at least recently, if not ever. I didn’t know much about this book when starting it, besides seeing some good reviews on social media. This book didn’t immediately have a “hook” in the first chapter like some mystery/thriller books typically do, but the way the plot was written puts readers on a path that they don’t realize is a bad one until it’s too late. Despite being written from a single POV, I did not find the character development to be lacking in any way. With the twist at the end, this was one where after the reveal you could see the breadcrumbs thinking back, not realizing that’s what they were. Giving this one 4 stars overall and would definitely recommend this. If you do decide to pick it up though, please check any relevant trigger warnings before doing so - the cover is a pretty good depiction of some of the more graphic scenes in the story.

While short and very easy to read quickly, I found some of the pacing questionable (with the frequent flashbacks especially in the beginning, it was rather difficult to follow the passage of time). It also felt like there was a lot happening but we never dug particularly deep into it? Especially the last section - there’s something of a twist that might explain some things but it’s kind of left hanging there. Plus there’s a lot of really convenient things that don’t make a lot of sense in this “real world” setting.

Where the story shines is with the way the various characters interact. Ji-won is a bit of an outlier, but the way other people talk to her and interact with her and each other just really felt very grounded. The lecherous George, the weaponized-tears of her Umma, Ji-hyun’s anxiety, Geoffrey’s red flags, Alexis’s confusion/support.

It felt like it took a little too long to get to the “horror” parts - but man I will probably never think about human eyeballs the same way again.

Read this if you loved Natural Beauty. Read this if you're an Asian woman. Read this if you've experienced yellow fever from a white man. (I'm so glad I turned off comments from non-friends. A lot of you can't handle this.)

The main character is Ji-won. The setting is Los Angeles. This isn't the rich Los Angeles you're used to seeing on shows such as Beverly Hills, 90210. This is the underbelly of the city, a working class Korean American family sharing cramped apartment quarters and just trying to survive.

Ji-won's father has just left her, her mother, and her younger sister in order to start a family with his affair partner. Reddit, this is not, but maybe it is.

Umma, after going through bouts of depression, and not curing any of it, decides Korean men are the problem, and unironically waxes poetic on the glories of white men. She brings one home.

George, the classic conservative middle-aged white man with yellow fever, stares at the girls, condescends to "speak" unintelligible Korean to them, and threatens to leave an American Chinese restaurant when a waitress of Chinese descent feels harassed and sends her white colleague out instead.

"'You know, I learned a lot of Korean when I was back in Seoul, but it's been such a long time...and to tell you the truth, pronunciation isn't my strong suit.'"

George is not the only self-obsessed white man. There are Ji-won's fellow students, one of whom she befriends, named Geoffrey. The longer it takes him to declare his very obvious feelings, the more wrinkles I felt grow on my skin. I will be sending the author my Botox bill.

"'I'm a nice person, okay? I'm not like those other guys you know. Like your mom's boyfriend. I don't have yellow fever if that's what you're worried about. You know how much I read. I've studied pretty much every topic relating to race and gender. Fetishization is a form of oppression. I'm not an oppressor. I'm an ally! My feelings for you—no, my love for you—goes way beyond race. I love you for who you are on the inside.'" 🤮🤮🤮

All the while, we get a little background on how Ji-won lost her high school friends. Her not getting accepted to UC Berkeley is miniscule in the scheme of things, but I felt it was a little overplayed how petty she behaved with people she considered her friends. At this point, I began to believe she was a bit of an unreliable narrator. Is her descent into madness real or imagined?

The ending is a wild ride, and I truly don't want to spoil anything, but we've all seen the cover, yes?

📚 Buddy read with Zana

📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Erewhon Books

Many thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Books for the ARC!

I finished this book and legit sat staring at my Kindle for five minutes. This was a WHOA book for me. I don't even know how else to describe it. It shocked me at times and I was disgusted by Ji-,Won but I also felt so sorry for her as well. I would recommend this book.

If my review could be composed of exclusively quotes, it'd be one of the best review ever because trust me the writing is excellent!! It covers sexism, mother-daughter relationships, racism and race fetichism, each of them covered perfectly. Let me start with a mother-daughter quote which resonated with me isntantly:

"It came up like bile, the need to say something mean and biting, the desire to cut her down for her stupidity. The want to make her feel small. But soon, that feeling gave way to sadness. I felt sorry for her. Sorry that every part of her life had been characterized by misery. Sorry that even now, she was suffering.
There are some things that you can never truly escape. Not really. Maybe that's why, even now, she's stuck in the past, long after everyone else moved on."

I'll let you discover all the racism and fetichism quotes by yourself as it's at the center of the book and the best part (after the eyes... get it?) but let me add a feminist quote real quick, this iconic scene (which is even better in its entirety and followed by practical lifestyle instructions on how to deal with men):

"'What are you, some kind of feminist or something?'
'Yes,' she said, matter-of-factly. 'I am.'
'Bitch,' he muttered before stalking off. She smirked as he walked away."

"Correct him whenever you can. Confuse him. Make him feel foolish. [..] Men like him don't know what to do when that happens. [..] The only power he has is the power you are willing to give him, and you've given him nothing. Not a scrap." 🏆🏆🏆

That's enough of quotes, if you're not convinced already just give it a try for yourself. I would have put 5 stars if it wasn't for the plot which I may have had too high hopes for. That's possibly on me but I expected more horror and gore etc etc, when really the societal / psychological aspect is at the center of the book (which isn't a bad thing in itself, just not what I expected). I wish the ending was more dramatic, I felt a bit underwhelmed but it was still satisfying in its own way.

Live laugh love Monika Kim and pls don't offer chopsticks as gift to your asian friends <3


[review posted on Goodreads and will be later on Instagram and Tiktok]

This was quite a page-turner! This debut novel effectively tackles body horror, being a woman in a male-dominated world, and the Asian immigrant experience through an unhinged unreliable narrator, Ji-won.

There are many stories of the immigrant experience out there, and Monika Kim has managed to make this story anything but cliché. She has managed to cover parent–child, sibling, friendship, and many more relationships through an emotional and gripping story. I’m in awe of her skill.

Looking forward to reading more horror from her.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for the ARC!

#asianamerican #writers #horror #novels

The writing was good it was just not the right book for me at this time. I plan on trying this book again in the future.