"The Eyes Are The Best Part" by Monika Kim is a rollercoaster of family drama and simmering rage. Ji-won's life is a hot mess thanks to her dad's affair and her mom's cringe-worthy new boyfriend. His clueless antics and creepy stares fuel Ji-won's fury, but it's his striking blue eyes that really set her off. Kim serves up a spicy blend of humor and grit as Ji-won's obsession takes a wild turn. With sharp wit and a dash of madness, this novel delivers a satisfying punch that'll have you cheering for Ji-won's bold, if slightly unhinged, quest for redemption.

The Eyes Are The Best Part (they really are) is the story of Ji-won, a college student, residing with her broken mother and her sister. She hits rock bottom and gets obsessed with…eyes.

The novel is told from Ji-won’s POV, and the prose is modern, easy-to-follow, trendy and engaging. Though, I would not call the style particularly fresh or exceptionally groundbreaking. It is plain and a good fit for the story. We get several insights into the MC’s mindset.

I liked the characters. George was incredibly obnoxious, and I found the book witty thanks to its commentary.

The plot is a bit predictable, however, it is the tone and the gradual buildup to the moment, some good genre tropes, that make it work.

The book has a cinematic quality. It also has the feel of a mini TV series, and I say these as a positive note.
Overall, for younger audiences than me, I think this would be a perfect read. I enjoyed it a lot. 3 stars due to my higher expectations about the plot and layering (depth), but a positive experience, nevertheless. I am certainly looking forward to this author’s future work.

The Eyes Are The Best Part really delivered in all areas you would expect.

A really interesting take on separation and divorce impacting the family and the ways people process and deal with it, with a lovely helping of body horror.

I found the characters really easy to get behind and was invested in the story line, but at times it felt like a very extreme escalation and it could have benefitted from some more narrative into the other elements throughout this book.

Generally an enjoyable read and I would recommend. Look forward to seeing more from this author.

*3.5

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This book lived up to everything I though it would be. It is strange, at times a bit graphic and did make me laugh in places.

I do think this book does a really good job of showing the effects of having your parents divorcing, for the parents themselves and the children, and trying to navigate parents dating other people. I also do think that it depicts adolescence/early adulthood well, the way you'd cope with struggles (college/school, friendships, relationships).

My only critique is that it does feel like the story escalates quite suddenly, and I think it did try to do a bit too much which took away from other potentially stronger aspects of the story.

Overall, I would still recommend this book and am excited to read more from this author!

Absolutely loved the premise for this one, and it did not disappoint. Incredibly vivid and engaging, I meant to start it before bed and finish tomorrow but couldn't put it down! The characters felt real and distinct, and the body horror was subtle and well done. The way Ji-Won described George's eyes in contrast to him as a person, the beauty and disgust, it makes me shudder to think about it.

Really not sure how to describe this book but it was a fun and quick ride! Covers a whole host of topics including racism, misogyny, obsession, new friendships/relationships - little bit of everything!

Thank you to netgalley for providing an ecopy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was an absolutely incredible book to read about a young woman's obsession with the eyes of her mother's new boyfriend! It was insightful, creepy and darkly comedic, as well as being downright gross in places - but I'm really grossed out my eyes, so that's probably my problem.

I couldn't put this book down and it definitely got under my skin and made think "good for her!", just like the blurb promised!

This is a perfect example of a weird girl book and I will 100% be recommending it to everyone.

Thank you to netgalley and Octopus books for the chance to read this incredible book.

Ji-Won's life is in disarray, her father's affair has ripped her family into Mouli-like shreds, leaving her to piece her mother, her sister and her crappy lives back together.

This book has everything I love in a book and if you like the following you will love it.

Feminine rage
Revenge
Gore
A flawed and complicated female protagonist.
Slow descent into chaos.

Ji-Won is our narrator and she is a flawed, complex, manipulative, envious and very troubled young lady but there wasn't a moment I wasn't rooting for her..
Ji-Won's life slowly start to fall apart her mum's new boyfriend is a vile, misogynistic racist. And its impossible not to enjoy Ji-Won's initial petty ways of getting to him.
She is also facing friendship issues and school stress and starts having horrible dreams.

This isn't a book for the giant of heart, when the gore starts it's gross. Vivid details and completely disgusting. But if you don't mind that this is a great read.

This book is filled with feminine rage and addresses themes of racism, misogyny and fetishization. The characters are extremely well written, the ending is perfect and if you liked Maeve fly you will love this.

The only very minor criticism would be I found the dream sequences a bit distracting and I'd start every chapter wondering if this was a dream or reality which took me out for the story a bit. A change of font or some way to indicate this was a dream would have helped me to stay more engaged. But it's really minor and overall I loved this book and can't wait to see more from the author.

Both the plot and the horror aspect of this book kept me hooked from the start. This is one of my favourite ‘female rage’ books- the kind where the MC has a reason for her rage, and where even when she’s doing despicable things you feel for her. I can’t wait to see what Monika Kim does next!

Gory and grotesque, this book was incredibly addictive and well written. I found myself almost rooting for Ji-won, despite her lack of empathy and ruthlessness. I understood why she was angry and wanted revenge. The plot was well paced, it moved at just the right speed to keep me interested. The descriptions of the eyeballs, in particular their flavour, was disgusting just as I imagined they’d be. I also liked the supporting characters and what they added to the story. The commentary on race was interesting, albeit a little forced at some points, but still a thrilling read.