This was a wild ride. It's a slow burn, but the payoffs are both disturbing and well-deserved. Very "good for her" vibes throughout this whole story.

Ji-won and her family were difficult characters but in a good way. Each was clearly dealing with their trauma in their own, infuriating, ways but in a very realistic manner. Well, aside from the eyeball eating part.
Her mother's boyfriend, George, is one of the most infuriating characters I've read in a while, to the point where I was begging her to kill him on almost every page. But the development of the plot and getting more and more frustrated with the characters was an excellent way to highlight the issues faced by Asian women. The orientalism and fetishisation of Ji-won and her sister and mother by George and other characters was overt at times and subtle at others which helped highlight the 'good guy' narrative that these type of men use to explain themselves.

Reading Ji-won slowly losing her grip on reality and giving in to her violent desires was almost dream-like. It flowed so slowly, and so justifiably, that I was with her 100% of the time. My only critique was that at times it moved a little too slowly for me, and the character of Ji-won's friend Alexis felt a little off at times. I can't fully describe it, but I would have either liked more or less of Alexis.

I read this entire book in less than 24 hours. The writing flows well, the pacing is good and the plot is gripping from the start.

However, this is a story of two halves:

The first 50% of the book is focused more on character set-up, social commentary of race, social economics and Asian fetishisation, and some sporadic horror dreams. I preferred the first half of the book because it felt a lot more fleshed out. Ji-won's emotional and mental manipulation to degrade George (like he degrades Asian women), was in fact the bad-ass part of this book and I would have loved to have seen more of this as female rage revenge than the actual horror that transpires. I felt the bits in the story where Ji-won was able to make George feel small and emasculated showing power imbalance reversal were the more interesting. It showed how smart and cunning Ji-won could be even as her mental state decreased.

The second 50% of the book is where most of the actual body horror, gore and cannibalism occur. But I couldn't help but feel there are so many plot holes to the murder/serial killer plot of this book. To the point where I was constantly rolling my eyes. The ending felt rushed, and the author added something (trying to avoid spoilers) right at the end that I believe is meant to be the reason for Ji-won's murder's / psychological state that was just dumped in with no explanation and felt like a really weak conclusion.

Thank you NetGalley and Brazen for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I have a bit of a weird relationship with extreme horror. In general, I love it in book format but I can’t tolerate it in film and TV. There’s something about reading that means I can control what things look like in my mind better than I can when my eyes are actually confronted. I am fascinated by depraved, violent, psychopathic minds, so I am always interested in reading books like this.

Ji-won’s appa has left the family following the revelation of his affair and the family is torn apart. Her umma has already begun dating a new man named George and it’s not long before he moves in. George is a white man with blue eyes, who often brags about his life and flirts with other Asian women. Ji-won has started having dreams where she is surrounded by bloodsoaked rooms full of blue eyes and she has developed a hunger. As the bodies pile up on her college campus, Ji-won discovers that her hunger and rage must be satisfied.

Ji-won’s umma is actively shunning Korean men, following her husband’s betrayal. Therefore, she is a willing partner for George and his fetish for Asian women. However, she is also a woman who is hurt and desperate to feel desired. Easy prey for a sleazy man.

The scenes in the family home are tinged with sadness, confusion and longing. As Ji-won’s rage develops, there is also anger but it’s clear that Ji-won, her sister Ji-hyun and their umma is distraught by their appa’s departure. It feels like grief and I guess in some ways, it’s potentially heavier because his leaving was down to his own actions. It’s easy to see how a man like George doesn’t have to do much to work his way into their lives.

I won’t go too much further into the plot but I will say that the tone shifts very gradually and it’s terrifying. I could literally feel the motion of Ji-won’s spirals into unspeakable, horrific insanity and it was equal parts fascinating and destabilising. The tension builds so slowly and it’s that subtle creep that differentiates the novel from a senseless gorefest -it’s much scarier than that.

The Eyes Are The Best Part is a very violent, sickening read that successfully comments on misogyny, fetishism and shifting family relationships. You will definitely want to avoid it if you’re squeamish because there is no holding back on descriptions of mutilation and cannibalism. You’ve been warned!

Thank you to Brazen and Octopus Publishing who provided me with a review copy of this wonderfully weird book. I simply ate it up.

Its definitely more on the 'weird girl' lit fic side of horror, and Monika Kim does a great job of using the experience of misogyny, racism and female rage to create a compelling main character for us to watch slowly fall from grace. That's not to say there isn't horror in this book however, some of that body horror had me visibly recoiling (It might just be the Eyes though) and it's certainly not one to read on your lunch break like I did. I loved it!

A must read for anyone who enjoys horror with a bit of body gore. The story was executed brilliantly I was completely emersed in the story loving the direction it went in while being repulsed by the graphic descriptions of eye balls. I need not say more.

Hell hath no fury like the daughter of a woman scorned.

The Eyes Are the Best Part follows Ji-won, the eldest daughter trapped in the forlorn reality of her Appa's infidelity and subsequent abandonment. With Umma inconsolable, her younger sister, Ji-hyun, looks to her for help. After months of waiting despondently by the door, in hopes Appa will return to her, Umma turns to regularly eating fish eyes in her desperation - “Fish eyes are good luck. If I eat one, maybe it will bring your father back”. Eventually, tired of this new routine, Ji-won appeases her and eats a fish eye too. She becomes more and more enticed, compounded by horrifying yet alluring dreams of moreish blue eyes. Umma quickly falls for George, a white man with a fetish for Asian women and girls, blinded by finally being wanted again and a naive belief that "white men [are] the best...have you ever heard of a white man treating his girlfriend or wife badly? Because I haven’t!”. Their relationship gets more serious, as does Ji-won's hunger and rage, with a pile of bodies to show for it.

This book was fantastic. I'm always a fan of female rage, and this book really delivers on that. There's a slow but steady build as Ji-won mental state descends. It's easy to see why; every man in this book is the worst, showcasing a range of misogyny, racism, and entitlement. You may think them caricatures but I assure you I have met each and every one of them. A Mansplaining "feminist" who appears to be a great friend but girlfriend zones you and is a dick about it when you don't feel the same; multiple men with Asian fetishes, including Asian girls; a father who walks out on his wife and children for his mistress, etc. *Spoilers ahead:* I loved the descent into murder, with her obsession overcoming her, though I was willing her to kill George from the off. It was immersive, incredibly descriptive of every disgusting detail. There was just enough gore without risking it becoming repetitive,

I was disappointed when it turned out Ji-won had a brain tumour. It felt like a lazy excuse for her desire to kill men and eat their eyeballs. Though I am glad that she continued to get her revenge. I thought the fish eyes would be some kind of monkeys paw type magic, giving you your desires with undesirable consequences: it gave Umma a "good" white man, who was cheating on her, using her, and noncey with her kids; it gave Ji-won multiple people who cared for her when she was so alone, but not selflessly, and it gave her an outlet for her taste for revenge and eyeballs. Maybe it had some influence, but I hoped that would've been explored more.

The familial relationships were relatable: she had a good relationship with her sister, and I've read countless tales of parents dating someone awful but ignoring their kid in favour of their own rose-tinted happiness. I wish Umma grew a backbone or could see George for who he is, but it was a realistic portrayal of someone in her situation. Appa's absence was glaring and I'm glad he won't be let off the hook. The friendships were again relatively realistic, and Ji-won is desperate not to be left again that she sabotages her relationships, which is probably most evident with her school friends.

This book is brimming with anger; an anger that is very familiar and is pervasive in our lives and in society, building and building until we boil over. I loved to see Ji-won's development, not just into a killer, but in every aspect of their lives. The two sisters symbolise a new generation of girls who won't tolerate intolerance; girls who will fight back. They’re tired and they’re not going to stand for it anymore, in stark contrast to Umma and the history she represents. You could really root for them, especially Ji-won, even without her dreams and the voice urging her towards violence, you could absolutely understand her indulgence (and yes, I was also urging her on). I love a tale of vengeance, especially combined with female rage, chanting 'as she should!' in support, because god it's about time we had stories were we fight back. Not today, men. Today, we have a knife.

Thank you to NetGalley for the arc. I do not wish to discuss the colour of my eyes.

Unlike anything else I have read!

Monika Kim is an exciting new voice to keep your eyes (pun intended) out for. Jiwon, eldest daughter, college student and main character, is spiralling downwards ever since her mam introduced her new boyfriend to them. George is stereotypically white: his character is so well written and irks me so much that my desire to see him face the consequences of his actions is what kept me reading. He is a serial cheater and fetishses every Asian character (no matter how large of a role they play). The first chapter we meet him when Jiwon's mam takes them and Jiwon's younger sister to a Chinese restaurant and oh boy did my blood boil.

I do have some reservations thought. I would have liked to see more of Jihyun's struggle about how the three (or four if you include their absent dad) in her life are spiralling out of control. Her mam is grieving her marriage and is clearly being taking advantage of by George. George is using their mam and has a lot of other evil qualities that I won't spoil. Jiwon is stressed with her studies yet there is something strange with her. My other issue was sometimes I felt there were too many dream sequences and I couldn't always tell whether Jiwon was awake or not (and not in cool creative choice way).

I thoroughly enjoyed this! Would recommend!

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a free advanced reader copy.

This was an enjoyable read. It didn’t wow me like it has a few other people but I was entertained by it and it had plenty of momentum. The narrator, her sister and mother have just been abandoned by their father but soon the mother meets another man. The sisters both hate him and realise he is not being truthful about who he is or staying there for legitimate reasons. Thus begins the slow descent of the narrators sanity as she begins to distance herself from her only school friend and start indulging in her new found tastes for eyes.

It was a really fast paced book and I loved how it showed the journey into madness. There wasn’t too much graphic horror to it but it was definitely creepy and kept you reading.

When Ji-wons father leaves them, Ji-wons life becomes much harder, from struggles at school, her relationship with her sister is cracking at the seams and her mother gets a new racist boyfriend with piercing blue eyes. Ji-wons becomes obsessed.

Absolutely brilliant, loved this novel! An excellent show of decent into madness, and it leave you wondering what was real and what was all part of Ji-wons mind!

Content Warning - Racial fetishisation, eye chomping, murder.

Ji-won's life spirals into chaos after her father's affair and sudden departure. Her mother is shattered, her younger sister is left hurt and confused, and Ji-won's freshman grades are in freefall.

The once-stable foundation of her family and academic life has crumbled, leaving her adrift in a sea of anger and resentment. As her reality disintegrates, her dreams transform into horrifying yet tantalizing visions, providing an unsettling escape from the turmoil.

In these nightmares, Ji-won roams through blood-drenched rooms filled with piercing blue eyes—eyes identical to George's, her mother's obnoxious new boyfriend. George has wormed his way into their cramped apartment, a constant and unwelcome presence. He flaunts his overblown consulting job, ogling Asian waitresses with a disgusting sense of entitlement, and treats Ji-won and her sister with condescension and disrespect.

He revels in her mother's adoration, basking in the glow of attention he neither earns nor deserves. Ji-won knows he is a parasite, feeding off the remnants of her broken family, and she is determined to ensure he gets what he truly deserves.

As Ji-won navigates the chaos of her waking life, her dreams become increasingly vivid and violent. She begins to see the eyes everywhere, haunting her every moment. These eyes are a constant reminder of her growing fury, pushing her closer to the edge. Her grades continue to suffer, and she withdraws further into herself, finding solace only in the dark fantasies that consume her dreams.

On campus, a series of gruesome murders shocks the community. The victims, seemingly unrelated at first, share a common thread that Ji-won cannot ignore. She feels a strange connection to these events, a pull she cannot resist. The more she delves into the details, the more she realizes that her dreams are not just fantasies—they are a blueprint for her revenge.

Ji-won begins to manipulate those around her, weaving a web of deceit and cunning.

The bodies pile up, each death bringing her a twisted sense of satisfaction. She becomes more adept at playing the role of the grieving daughter and concerned sister, all the while feeding her growing appetite for vengeance.

Read this if you like:

👁️Feminist psychological horror
🧿Korean-American perspective
👁️Transformative power of trauma
🧿Serial Killer Narrative

This fell a little bit flat for me and I think it might just be because the plot - disliking mum’s new boyfriend taken to extreme levels - is not really enough for a whole novel and could have made a perfectly weird short story.

While I enjoyed the premise and general vibe of this book, I found the writing style quite slow paced and found that this made the book harder to get through. I definitely understand why people love it but for me the slower pacing wasn't something I wanted from the story. I still found myself leaning towards a positive opinion of this book but the slow pace took my rating down to a 3 star.

This was a weird book (as expected) with some interesting concepts. I would recommend if this genre is new to you, but for me everything wrapped up too nicely/conveniently at the end. It combined two genres of weird/body horror with slight thriller/mystery vibes. I don't know how, but it just read a bit young for me despite the dark themes. If this isn't your usual read, I'd recommend giving it a go, but if you think you'd love this, maybe you wouldn't... somehow.

An excellent, swift read for fans of Eliza Clark. I really enjoyed this. Would absolutely recommended to everyone

"The Eyes Are the Best Part", by Monika Kim, was a thoroughly engaging and entertaining read.
I went into it blindly and was pleasantly surprised.

It's a book about a young Korean female serial killer with a fixation on eyes. I was instantly intrigued!
It's dark, gory, witty and it does a great job exploring themes like misogyny, feminism and cultural identity.

Huge thanks to Netgalley and Octopus Publishing for a free digital advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

A really dark and creepy psychological horror. Messed with my head a lot and successfully made me feel uneasy and nauseous several times.

Thanks for the ARC Netgalley and the publishers!

“As a child, I thought this meant that my mother could read my mind. She knew when I was lying. She knew when I did bad things. But, as I grew older, I came to realize this was one of Umma’s many untruths. She didn’t know what I was thinking or how I was feeling. If she did, she wouldn’t have acted this way. She wouldn’t have done things that hurt me, that made me sad, that made me cry. Most importantly, she wouldn’t have brought George into our house.”

Ji-won’s life is in a downward spiral. Her Appa abandoned their family for another woman, her Umma is a ghost of her former self, her younger sister Ji-hyun feels like no one notices her anymore and Ji-won is in her freshman year of college and failing miserably. During this time her Umma meets George, a disgusting IT consultant with an Asian fetish that Umma cannot see over her desperation at being with someone again. Ji-won and Ji-hyun both hate George and the way he treats Asian women, but Ji-won who recently has finally tried fish eyes, has become obsessed with George’s blue eyes.

Soon it’s all Ji-won can fixate on. Nightmarish dreams of killing and eating eyes, blue eyes specifically, haunt Ji-won. Her slow descent into madness and vengeance makes you feel in tune with her feminine rage and agonize over these sudden headaches that seem to be symptoms of something deeper going on. This is the ultimate good for her story.

4.5 stars!

I absolutely loved this. I often find there's not enough character building in horror novels but this was just a perfect balance of character and horror. It's not particularly fast-paced but the slow-burn was so effective.

Considering the topic, it could very easily have been really gruesome body horror but it wasn't too bad (for me anyway - worth checking trigger warnings).

I recommend going into this one without knowing too much about it!

Boring boring boring!

This book had such promise but I found myself bored to tears through it, I pushed through thinking there must be an incredible twist or something for it to be gaining such high praise but no there was nothing.

Also this was in no way scary

Thank you to NetGalley and Octopus Books for the ARC

The Eyes Are The Best Part was a provocative and original social horror that draws on untapped rage and unleashes it.

There is just something I adore about complex characters that compel you to keep reading their story – drawing you in and making you complicit in their actions. Ji-won is an excellent example of this, with a craving for more than life and to push back against the racist and sexist confines she experiences. There’s the crushing weight of her responsibility for her mother, manifesting in an emotional anxiety and a social expectation to support her new relationship despite its many, many flaws. It’s a intimate portrait of a family collapse as Ji-won tries to carve out her own space. You just connect with her, even as her thoughts turn towards the darker side. I found myself enthralled by her voice and needing to know what she would do next.

I do not consider myself particularly squeamish, but there is something about eye horror that makes me squirm a little. Kim leans into that inherent unease, reating something that intentionally makes you uncomfortable and unsure. You are never entirely sure where the plot may be going next and I adored this. It was a wild ride of a book, but also one that was very character focused. The actual act involved with eyes is blood-curdling and a symbol of a power flip that the entire book has been building too. Eyes are a defining feature of a face and thereby inform our self-identity. Within Kim’s narrative, they also symbolise the exoticisation and festishisation of Asian women - with a hypersexual and racist current running through. They are an undeniable marker of ‘the other’ in a repellant character and their outlook on life. This is explored in depth and makes for interesting reading, particuarly when intersected with the rife sexism.

It makes it very evident that monsters are everywhere and gives the book a constant sense of tension and unease. You can see the threat coming, it is only a matter of time. This is paralled in another character who made my stomach churn with his manipulative control and ‘nice guy’ demeanour. It serves to skewer the patriarchy and its evolved forms within modern day society. You just want to see these slimeballs get their comeuppance, delving into some murky moral territory.

The Eyes Are The Best Part turns inward with stellar character work and some scenes that may make your skin crawl. This is an exquisitely well-done horror.