Monika KimThriller · Psychological Horror
The Eyes Are the Best Part
The Eyes Are the Best Part
- Pages
- 288
- Published
- 2024
- Language
- English
Synopsis
The Eyes Are the Best Part is Monika Kim's 2024 debut, a visceral horror novel about a family unravelling and a young woman's appetite that grows alongside it. Ji-won is a Korean-American college freshman in California, newly cast as the head of her household after her father abandons the family for another woman. Her mother is barely coping, her teenage sister needs looking after, and into this fragile home comes George — her mother's smug new white boyfriend, whose pale blue eyes Ji-won cannot stop thinking about.
What begins as an intrusive fixation deepens into a hunger: vivid, dreamlike, and eventually unstoppable. Kim braids body horror and psychological unease with a razor-edged critique of misogyny, the fetishization of Asian women, and the disorientation of living between two cultures.
Frequently described as a "good for her" revenge story, it is a slim, unsettling, blackly funny book about grief, rage, and the monstrous places a family in crisis can push a person toward. Readers sensitive to graphic violence, gore, and cannibalism should approach with care.
How it reads
- Writing3.0
- Impact2.7
- Characters2.7
- Plot2.7
- Atmosphere3.3
Prose complexity 4/10
Fear level
2.0 avg fear
Content warnings (4)
CannibalismGoreGraphic ViolenceViolence
Readers say (2)Fast · Moderate · Dark · Creepy · Tense · Villain Protagonist · Morally Grey
Readers flagged (6)
CannibalismGoreGraphic ViolenceViolenceStalkingRacism
- I expected this to be a 5 stars... I didn't hate it but also didn't love it 🤷🏻♀️
- WTFThis book is not for the faint of heart. Body horror in capital letters.
- 4.5 I fear this ate (no pun intended). ---- Trigger warnings off the top cause they're pretty important for a book like this Cannibalism Racism / Asian Fetishization Misogyny Sexualization of a Minor Violence Stalking Alright, you're in for a doozey cause I truly believe this is one of the best books I've read in a while. After the disappearance of her father, Ji-Won's life is turned upside down. Her and her younger sister Ji-Hyun are left to deal with the aftermath as their Umma wrestles with this new fact of life. Circling depression, avoidance before she meets a man at her job and she falls head over heels. As for Ji-Won and Ji-Hyun, they simply cannot stand him. And, while all of this is going on, Ji-Won is juggling her first year of college. The tangle of friendship and this sudden hunger for bright, blue eyeballs. Yeah, you read that right. While this is a horror story, and truly the imagery is grotesque and macabre, the family dynamic plot really stole the show for me. Kim does not shy away from pointing the flaws of the American Dream from a first gen Asian American family. The stereotypes on page are so well done they don't feel forced as a plot point. It shows the struggle a lot of Asian Americans face (ie encouraging to date a white man, 'what type of asian are you,' model minority, etc). Honestly, it was refreshing to see aspects that my peers as well as myself have As for Ji-Won as a character - I loved her. Her mind was such an interesting place to be. Her dreams about the eyeballs were so vivid and terrifying. My one MAJOR gripe was I wish there was a bit more world building on how these cannibal cravings came to be. There was a blip that alluded to it, but I wish there was more explanation. Otherwise! A great and horrifying read. Def def def recommend!!
- It was honestly underwhelming. I think the book spent more time trying to show why the antagonist deserved to die instead of developing an interesting protagonist. I hated how long it took Jiwon to listen to her sister about not wanting a creepy dude living with them. She knew he was preying on her; she heard him on the phone talking about them and calling Jihyun a sl*t, and I'm to believe she would rather have their mom be happy than protect her? By the time she takes action against George, I believe it was only about her obsession, and "protecting her family" was just an excuse. About the eye-eating: does the author know the human eye doesn't have cartilage? I got a bit curious about what eating an eye is actually like after the book, and doing some research led me to realize the author did absolutely none. As for the ending... I think it was the worst part. What purpose did Jiwon having a brain tumor serve? In what world would George be put in the room next to her? Okay, Geoffrey takes the fall for George's murder, but aren't Jiwon's fingerprints and DNA all over the other crime scenes? Even if Geoffrey has her backpack, wouldn't the other crimes point to her? It overall felt like a poorly thought-out and rushed ending. I could also go on about the edgy one-liners, but at this point, whatever. It gets some points for capturing what it's like growing up in an immigrant family and what it feels like being a woman preyed on for your race or ethnicity, but that's about it.
- Esse livro não é nada daquilo que eu pensei que fosse... Aqui a gente acompanha uma família que foi destruída depois que o Pai conhece outra pessoa e decide ir embora. Ai a gente começa a acompanhar de perto a rotina da família pelos olhos da irmã mais velha a Ji-won, uma menina que vê as coisas de uma perspectiva diferente, tudo pra ela e fraqueza, e todo mundo deve pagar pelo que fizeram com ela e com a sua família. E a todo momento ela imagina cenários tenebrosos, e a gente cria muita expectativa para saber o que vai acontecer ! E apesar do final entregar tudo, a maneira como a autora resolveu fazer isso foi frustrante demais !
- This was soooo GOOD! It's gripping from the beginning, and it kept getting better.
- ich kann diese good for her s•••••• einfach nicht