a really great horror novel! so creepy and well worth the read. i am very excited to read her next works and where her stories go

I absolutely love a horror novel like The Eyes Are the Best Part that inventively tackles the casual racism and misogyny so many people face every day. It’s rare to find stories that not only confront these pervasive issues but do so with the nuance and creativity this book brings to the table. These experiences are too often erased or overlooked in media, so when a novel like this emerges, it feels like a breath of fresh air. It’s a testament to the author’s courage and the publisher’s commitment to amplifying these essential voices. While we still have a long way to go in achieving true diversity and inclusion in media, it’s exciting to live in a time when stories like this are gaining more visibility, offering an honest reflection of the world and pushing the boundaries of the genre.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

I read the eyes are the best part and it was weird and I liked it. This is considered a horror book but I would more so classify this as literary fiction with slight horror aspects. The eyes are the best part follows a young Korean American woman Ji-won who’s father up a left her family for another woman. This creates conflict in the family but her mom meets a new man George who Ji-won and her sister hate. Ji-won starts to have this obsession with eating eyeballs after her mother offered her a fish eyeball. This is the story of the making of a serial killer and much more. I highly enjoyed the authors writing it really kept me wanting to keep reading and she wrote some extremely unlikable men though like I wanted to just scream at them. It was slightly gross at times though as you can imagine so if you don’t want to read anything about cannibalism I don’t think this is for you.

The Eyes are the Best Part
by Monika Kim
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Wow. Get ready for a wild ride - into the mind of Ji-won, a Korean American college student/ serial killer. Ji-won, her younger sister and mom’s life get turned upside down when her father abandons them. When her mom starts dating and brings home her new boyfriend who has an Asian fetish, Jin-won struggles with schoolwork, her friendships, family and her horrific desires to kill. This is a horror story but much more. We get a glimpse of life as a Korean American family, struggles of a college student, encounters of racism, sexism, and misogyny and the rage that develops. Even with Ji-won’s killer thoughts and urges, you can’t help but want to root for her and her fight against misogyny. Some parts are descriptively gory and not for the faint of heart. Great job for this debut author! Thank you @netgalley and @kensingtonbooks for the advanced e-ARC of this brilliant book! Also currently on KindleUnlimited.
#theeyesarethebestpart #monikakim @monikakimauthor #thrillerbooks #horror #books #bookstagram #bookrecommendations #bookreview #netgalley

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.