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!

Ji-won’s life is turned upside down when her father has an affair and leaves them all behind. Her mother and sister are distraught and Ji-won begins having horrifying, yet delicious dreams about… eating eyeballs. Yes, you read that correctly.

This book starts out slowly, as more of a family drama, with the dissolution of Ji-won’s parents’ marriage. Ji-won and her family are Korean, and her mother begins dating a white man soon after the divorce. This man, George, sets off something inside Ji-won, who has suffered from racism as an Asian-American woman and thinks George’s comments about her and about Asian women in general are hurtful and gross.

Then the book morphs from family drama to slow, suspenseful psychological horror. Ji-won’s nightmares often have real life consequences and her obsession with eyeballs (especially blue ones!) becomes more and more macabre.

I couldn’t put this one down. I appreciated the slow burn of the writing as the author built up the suspense. Ji-won starts out as a sympathetic character and slowly turns to… something else. This isn’t a roller coaster ride, in your face, jump scare kind of horror book. But it is scary nonetheless. If you’ve ever wanted a female revenge story with a gory twist, this is definitely the book for you.

NOTE: Content warning for graphic body horror and cannibalism.

The Eyes Are The Best Part
Monika Kim
4⭐️

Pub Date: 6/25/2024

Reading this book is like watching a Korean-American drama... but a disgusting and severely degenerate one! It starts off already interesting but it initially dove more into the family drama aspect. Seemed very mundane and focused on the day to day life of the characters. But the author drops interesting bits and details that kept me hooked. The person doing the "deed" seemed so inconspicuous. I wouldn't have guessed that person to be unhinged. Warning that this book is gory and disgusting. The descriptions about texture, sound and just overall, the events were all unsettling. Definitely made me queasy.

Plot isn't insane but it's agitating hidden in the normal. But it achieved what it wanted to do. I was very disturbed. I couldn't stop reading. Basically devoured this story (no pun intended).

Thank you Netgalley and Kensington Books for a gifted e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a wild ride! Reading the description alone doesn't make it any justice and the story, even though is more like a slow burn, definitely caught me off guard many times. At times it felt a bit intense for me to continue and I had to take breaks because it can get pretty gory and descriptive, but it was excellently written and I powered through. In the end, the racism, bigotry and misogyny were the true horrors. Definitely recommend this one!

wow, what an incredible debut! the writing was exceptional; i felt it was similar to sayaka murata’s and i’m a fan! there was more depth to this than i anticipated and it’s something i crave in stories. ji-won’s character, although very unhinged and unsettling, grew on me throughout the story. monika kim writes racism, cultural fetishization, bigotry, and misogyny into the story in a way that we all see it but hardly speak about it. although gruesome at times, i think the true horror in this was george. it’s a very slow story but the pacing felt right. love a full circle moment and this book is exactly that. 4.5/5 stars