The Eyes Are the Best Part: Characters, book review & triggers
The Eyes are the Best Part by Monika Kim synopsis/summary:
After her father suddenly leaves, turning the family upside down, Ji-won is forced to pick up the pieces and keep her grieving mother from falling apart. When her mother tells her that eating fish eyes will bring good luck and hints that it may help her father return home, Ji-won tries one and immediately begins dreaming about eating eyes. Human eyes.
Instead of Ji-won's parents reuniting, however, her mother starts dating George, a Caucasian man with an obvious Asian fetish. Tormented by her dreams, Ji-won becomes obsessed with his beautiful blue eyes and begins noticing blue eyes all around her. No longer able to control her urges, she finds opportunities to feed her hunger, growing more and more reckless each day. And, as her obsession grows, so does her the things that once seemed important to her no longer do, and Ji-won, who has always been hopelessly devoted to her family, decides that she must do the one thing that will end her cravings once and for all.
A brilliantly inventive, subversive novel about a young woman unravelling from feeling for too long - because of race, because of misogyny - completely unseen, THE EYES ARE THE BEST PART is also a story of an immigrant family falling apart and trying to find their way back to each other.
The Eyes are the Best Part characters:
Monika Kim’s The Eyes are the Best Part is narrated by second generation, Korean-American female main character, Ji-won. Here is the full list of The Eyes are the Best Part characters.
Ji-won (Narrator)
Ji-hyun (Ji-won’s sister)
‘Umma’ (Ji-won’s mother)
‘Appa’ (Ji-won’s father)
George
Geoffrey
Alexis
Min-ho
Professor Aldana
Jenny
Melissa
Aaron
Get The Eyes Are the Best Part here.
The Eyes Are the Best Part book review.
My rating: ★★★★★
5 stars.
Firstly, let me preface this review by saying that if you want a rollercoaster of horror, screams and jump scares from page one, you’re not going to find it here. This is without a doubt a graphic revenge psychological horror story, but it's also so much more.
The Eyes Are the Best Part doesn't rush, it simmers slowly until it boils. It starts as a poignant family drama and reflection on the Korean-American immigration experience via 18-year-old FMC protagonist, Ji-won, before morphing into a phantasmagorical slow-burn eyeball horror that seeps into your psyche in a nightmarishly grotesque yet compelling way. Bring a strong stomach.
I dove into this debut expecting unsettling, unhinged and unsavoury thrills, but what I got was a surprising depth that hit closer to home than I anticipated. It’s not just your run-of-the-mill revenge horror gore-fest. Monica Kim’s narrative slices through misogyny, racism, cultural fetishisation, exoticism and hypersexualisation with surgical precision.
Reading Ji-won's narration in navigating her family values and culture, upbringing and identity in a Western world that sometimes exoticises anyone who looks different to the ‘norm’ felt like a bizarrely familiar trip down memory lane for me. (Side note: If you think calling someone exotic is a compliment, or have ever tried to playfully guess a BIPOC’s ethnicity without consent, please stop.)
I don’t want to say too much more because here is another case where it's best to dive in blindfolded. However, I will issue trigger warnings: Cannibalism—obvious, yes? Also racism, misogyny, cheating, depression, grieving, child abandonment, mentions of suicide, paedophilic phrases against young girls, gore & stalking.
My heartfelt thanks to Octopus Publishing | Brazen for the advanced copy and to mr GR friends Jillian, Mai & Zana, who alerted me to this banger. This was a brilliant debut, I can’t wait to see what Monika Kim does next.
View The Eyes Are the Best Part book review on GoodReads here.
FAQs.
🚨 Please be mindful that continuing reading may mildly spoil some of The Eyes Are the Best Part book for you. Continue at your own risk! 🚨
What are the trigger warnings for The Eyes Are The Best Part?
Cannibalism
Eyeball horror
Murder
Racism
Misogyny
Cheating and infidelity
Grieving
Child abandonment
Depression
Mentions of suicide
Hypersexualisation of a teenage girl (mention)
Gore
Stalking
PTSD
What are some of the horror tropes in The Eyes Are the Best Part?
Nightmares and hallucinations
Body horror
Psychological horror
Surreal horror
Spiralling/unravelling