Genuinly obsessed with this book!! This is what I wanted for Maeve Fly. Kim plunges us into a riveting blend of horror and psychological thrill, presenting a narrative that is as compelling as it is chilling.

The protagonist, Ji-won, a Korean-American college freshman, grapples with the upheaval of her family dynamics after her father's departure due to an affair. This trauma coincides with a precipitous decline in her academic performance and the emergence of disturbing, yet strangely alluring dreams focused on consuming blue eyes—the same eyes as her mother's new, objectionable boyfriend.

Kim masterfully crafts a story that resonates with real-world issues such as misogyny, racism, and toxic relationships, all while maintaining a gripping narrative pace. The descent into cannibalism adds a visceral layer to the horror, making it a tale not for the faint of heart. The book's title, a recurring thematic element, ties beautifully into Ji-won's disturbing fascinations, enhancing the story's cohesiveness and depth.

The horror elements are balanced with social commentary, particularly concerning racism and the fetishization of Asian women, giving the narrative a profound relevance. Kim's depiction of Ji-won's struggles and her volatile reaction to the societal pressures and personal betrayals she faces adds a layer of depth to her character, making her both sympathetic and terrifying.

Stylistically, Kim's prose is tight and evocative, with no word wasted. The short chapters and fast pacing ensure the reader's engagement from start to finish, with a building tension that culminates in a satisfyingly grim conclusion. While the explicitness of the horror might not be for everyone, it serves the thematic purpose well, underscoring the raw, unapologetic exploration of female rage and empowerment.

This book had a very compelling aura in the beginning, and it intrigued me as to how the story will progress. However, the narration started to feel repetitive as the story went on. I don’t leave books half way usually, so I tried to go forward with reading it and I expected to see my opinion change. But it didn’t. This was just losing my interest as I read more and maybe I was also not willing to understand the hidden messages. I can see why some people are enjoying the book though. DNF (Read 95 pages in)
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC to share my honest review.

We follow Ji-Won during a chaotic time in her life and down through her subsequent spiral where she becomes fixated on the consumption of eyes.
I found the beginning to take a few chapters to get into, but after that it was pretty nonstop and hard to put down. The overall message of the novel was compelling and despite the horrible actions of our main character it was hard to not root for her.

The Eyes are the Best Part is one of the BEST coming of age stories I've read in a long time. I really enjoyed the evolution of this main character and THE ENDING is amazing! One of my all-time favorite horror tropes ever is done haha. 4.5 stars

Thank you, Netgalley for this arc!

Ji-won is a college student who lives with her mother and younger sister, dealing with the emotional aftermath of her father leaving only a few short weeks beforehand. The trauma that comes from this leads to her having intrusive thoughts of a pretty violent variety.
I’m unsure how to say this without sounding concerning, but I saw a lot of myself in Ji-won, as well as Umma, her mother, in a very complicated way.
When I was a teenager, around 15 years old, my mom and dad separated before eventually divorcing. I have an amazing relationship with both of them, but as a teenager my relationship with my mother became heavily skewed. My mother, who had me at 21 years old, now had her first opportunity to live that young adult lifestyle. Her daughter could take care of herself, and she was single for the first time in over a decade. She was never home, and when she was, I was there to listen to the difficulties of dating and console her, and even worse, hear her crying through my bedroom wall at night. Like Ji-won, I felt like I became less of a daughter, and more of a mother.
Yet on the other side, when I was 23 I experienced the first heartbreak of my life. I was just dumped by the woman I had been with for eight years. I was destroyed, and I truly felt the world passing me by.
While I read this book, in Ji-won’s moments of frustration with her mother, I felt my own past experiences with mine. But worse, when I read Umma’s sickening pain at her loss, I felt brought back to the bed in my old apartment, and how I didn’t have the strength to get out of it and live when I thought the world crumbled around me.
Life, and love, isn’t perfect. But, the aftermath of heartbreak is only a small part of this book’s contents. Another major difficult topic this book deals with is the fetishization of Asian women. While this is a struggle I’ll never experience, and therefore never truly understand, it felt sickening being in the shoes of Ji-won as she experienced this. Through Ji-won’s eyes, I saw the extreme side, and the side hidden in plain sight. Extreme fetishization, appropriation, microaggressions, and more are some of the devastating reality that this book shows.
I have met characters in this book. I have met George, Umma’s new boyfriend. I have met Geoffrey, Ji-won’s new friend in her college. I have met them, and felt the same way toward them as Ji-won. I mean… Maybe not exactly the same, I’ve certainly lacked some of her more extreme thoughts, but I won’t deny that seeing the way her relationships with them played out felt satisfying to read. I am, and always will be, a sucker for seeing fictional women play out the rageful fantasies brought on by their trauma.
If you think you can handle gore and body horror, absolutely read this book, please. It’s a book I think will stick with me forever. I absolutely can’t wait to buy a copy of this when it hits shelves, and I sincerely hope everyone who enjoyed the book HALF as much as I did does the same!

The Eyes are the Best Part is an eerie, compelling, and poignant story of the making of a Korean-American serial killer.

Kim has managed to write a book that’s both thoughtful and propulsive. I read it all in nearly one sitting. It’s gory at times, funny at others, and intensely stressful throughout. The book is almost a drama or literary fiction–but for Ji-Won’s unhealthy mental deterioration that is depicted by her growing obsession with eating eyeballs. Yummm…


There is quite a bit of effective social commentary interwoven into the plotline. It doesn’t feel over the top, though there’s clearly a satirical element that highlights the author’s intended message. Many of the characters and the subplots reinforce how racism and sexism is ingrained in our society, from the way that her mother’s new boyfriend fetishizes Asian cultures to the performative behaviour she observes in her “feminist” friend in her college class. Even the way that Ji-won becomes obsessed with the idea of eating blue human eyes ties back into these themes quite beautifully (and grotesquely).

I highly recommend this addictive read, and I can’t wait to see what wild story idea the author plucks out for us next!

Ji-won is really going through it and the only way to cope is eyeballs! Lots and lots of eyeballs described in lovingly descriptive prose. This was a fun and consistently creepy throughout. I already hated eyes and now hate them even more. I did take a few breaks reading the story but overall, a fun vengeful time.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

This was a very slow-burn, interesting read. I do wish a little more would have been explored but regardless it was a quick read.
3.5/5

Thank you so much to #Netgalley and #Kensingtonbooks for the ARC in exchanged for my honest review.

Ji-won is going through a lot of changes. Her father just moved out of their apartment leaving behind her devastated mom and her little sister. She’s already struggling in college and having wild nightmares in the bed she sleeps in with her sister. Then her mom’s creepy boyfriend, George, moves into their already small place with them. He’s inappropriate to the girls and not even nice to their mom who is too distracted by having a new man that she doesn’t even notice. Ji-won is overcome with a passionate fury that moves her to do things she never would have imagined before. This book was a wild ride in all the best ways. If you like weird books, you will love this. Check the content warnings as there are some graphic depictions in some scenes. Thank you Kensington for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

There have been quite a few unhinged female serial killer books published in the past few years but this one was unique. Such a fresh take on female rage, grief, loss, and dismantling the patriarchy. I really enjoyed this one!! Thanks so much for the opportunity!!

Thanks to NetGalley for my ARC

I've never been so happy to have brown eyes.

This book brought out so many emotions from me. It started with a lifechanging event for the family and became something completely wild. The characters were all dealing with such huge emotions in their own ways. I loved all of that development. It felt very real. I also loved the creeping feeling of dread building up...little by little. When I discovered the direction this was going, it was so much fun to just hold on tight and take the ride. It was so much more than a horror novel.

*I will add that this is a violent/gory book and deals heavily with racism and fetishizing of Asian women.*

This book was a gruesome fever dream that had me absolutely mesmerized from start to finish. Because of the trigger warnings at the beginning of the book, I knew exactly where this story was headed and was dreading it from the very first page. I'll never look at eyes again without feeling that same sense of dread. The pacing and build-up were perfect. I was so thoroughly absorbed in finding out what happened next that I devoured this book in a single sitting. I read a lot of horror and much of it ends up blending together, but this truly original work stands alone in my mind and will likely linger there, haunting me forever. All in all, an absolutely fantastic debut from Monika Kim and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.

Thanks so much to Netgalley & Kensington Publishing for the ARC!

This was such a strange read! I really enjoyed it and couldn't stop reading. It was a quick read that really held my attention. Though the body horror was pretty gross, I found the deeper themes of the story compelling and the relationships interesting.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

3.5 stars: I went into this book thinking it would be much more intense than it was, more like an extreme thriller. The first half feels like a fiction novel, which I actually really liked! I loved reading about Ji-won and her family as they deal with their mother’s new boyfriend. Some of the food imagery near the beginning was particularly good. As the story progresses you really feel for the character and side with her in her actions.

The action really picks up in the last third of the book, and it was pretty fun. I especially liked the last little bit and the thoughtfulness behind it.

I didn’t care for all the dream (well, nightmare) scenes that took place. As we got closer to the end there were more and more, and they kind of took me out of the story and left me a little confused on if it was really happening.

The writing is really good and immersive, I’m excited to read more from this author!

I feel very privileged to have been able to read this early. What a book! I really loved the build up. The writing was excellent and I didn’t want to put it down. I ended up reading it in a day.

I love feminine rage and spiraling, out of control women, and boy was Ji-Won PERFECT. She was manipulative, intelligent and cunning. Her rage was palpable and I was on the edge of my seat waiting for her to snap. This one deserves all the early hype it’s getting, I really enjoyed it!

“The Eyes Are the Best Part" is a contemporary horror novel that delves into the dark psyche of a Korean-American woman who harbors a gruesome secret – she is becoming a serial killer who consumes the eyeballs of her victims. Written by Monika Kim, this novel pushes the boundaries of horror and psychological suspense, while giving commentary on Korean-American household dynamics and Asian fetishization.

While I read this book back in January, it creeps back into my thoughts regularly. Kim’s writing style is amazing. She crafts scenes that are so descriptive I couldn’t tear my eyes from the page, despite cringing as I read about the taste of eyeballs. This novel is fast paced, and as Ji-won spirals and loses her grip on reality, I found myself flying through the pages alongside her.

"The Eyes Are the Best Part" is recommended for fans of psychological horror and female rage who are looking for a truly unsettling read. It is not for the faint of heart, but those who dare to venture into its dark depths will be rewarded with a chilling and unforgettable experience.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Huge thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

I couldn’t put this down! This was such a great horror novel. I love following an unhinged main character, but this story was especially satisfying because you get to feel what she feels as she’s driven further and further past the point of no return.

Ji-Won and her family have faced blow after blow and, for better or for worse, she decides it’s up to her to step up and make things…right? She was such a strong lead to follow but the thing that really took it over the top for me was the context offered on her family. Her mother’s heartbreaking backstory really helps you understand how Ji-Won could take things so far.

This wasn’t a horror story that had violence and gore just for the sake of violence and gore. The story was there, the characters were there and it all served the story very well.

I can’t believe this was a debut. I can’t wait to read more from Monika Kim!

Well-written slow burn horror illustrating a young woman’s gradual unraveling into madness and murder, as reality shifts under her fingers, and stress fuels obsession. This novel has a keen angle on the Korean American experience, and a feminist tone that I appreciated very much. I particularly enjoyed the depth of detail in place and character, the overall intimate feel of the narrative.

I sadly did not enjoy this book very much, but I am glad to have been given the opportunity to review it. It wasn't horrific enough for me, and I thought it tread a lot of territory I've read in other books, and the treatment of some of the content wasn't the best or most cohesive when set against the rest.

Thanks again for letting me read it, greatly appreciate it.

Ji-Won, the protagonist of Monika Kim’s upcoming The Eyes are the Best Part, joins a slew of recent horror protagonists who push the boundaries of the “good for her” trope and rely more on just the absolute unhinged spectacle of a woman come undone, slipping into madness and violence (I’m looking at you, Maeve Fly). And, honestly, I’m here for it.

Ji-Won is a freshman college student living with her mother and her younger sister, just after their father’s sudden abandonment. He has, of course, met another woman, and the family his instantly forgotten.

This inciting event starts Ji-Won’s descent into a murderous rampage that looks less like rage than a terrifying compulsion. She kills a homeless man and, yes, eats his eyeballs. These descriptions are rendered in ways that are simultaneously grotesque and semi-erotic, and maybe it’s that feeling, or maybe it’s Ji-Won’s barely repressed romantic feelings for her female classmate, or maybe it’s George, her mother’s new boyfriend, or maybe it’s the blinding headaches, but now Ji-Won is driven by a near addictive need for eyes.

Almost without noticing, Ji-Won has become L.A.’s latest serial killer, but it’s a testament to the power of the novel’s first person POV that as readers we’re less concerned with Ji-Won’s mounting body count than we are with what’s going on with George. The new man in the family is a ridiculous caricature of the Ugly American with an Asian fetish and a self-professed knowledge of Asian food culture. George is so cartoonishly lecherous and awful, that we’re more than ready for Ji-Won to give him what he deserves, a payoff the book withholds masterfully.

The other key male character, is similarly ludicrous: a loose satire of the proverbial “nice guy,” who proclaims not only his niceness but his feminist bonafides every chance he gets, all the while refusing to take the hint from Ji-Won that she’s just not into him.

What works in The Eyes are the Best Part has everything to do with Ji-Won’s unique perspective, and the scenes with her mother and sister are fun, sad, and harrowing by turn. There’s also a brief fake out near the end that lands remarkably well.

There is a slight confusion of tone here, always edging toward satire, but not quite crossing over, so we’re still left to view the events through something like a realistic lens, and I’d almost prefer to see the book break free of that constraint.

In the end, the plot kind of gets away from itself, with a few too many holes to ignore, but we’re not here for plot. We’re here for a portrait of an unhinged woman who just might get revenge, get the girl, and get away with it all.