Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim

20 reviews

sapphic_alpaca's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Blood, Cannibalism, Stalking, Murder, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Minor: Vomit and Classism

amaranth_wytch's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Cannibalism, Stalking, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Blood, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Medical content, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

metanav's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

interesting enough book on feminine rage, specifically exacerbated by her experiences as an asian american woman suffering from very real things that i've experienced as a feminine asian american person myself. at times felt a little too on the nose, but that could've been purposeful, with the focus to be more on ji-won's spiral. overall i liked ji-won more than i didn't, but i didn't love her either. 

multiple aspects of the story (ex: failed/sabotaged high school friendships) served a specific purpose but it didn't fully carry it out and as a result felt out of place. unless i'm misremembering as i did read this part at like 1am,

even the event itself felt almost OOC to me? her hiding her friend's ring to try to sabotage the friendship just over jealousy of not getting into the school? it would've been one thing if their friendship was set up to be tumultuous to begin with, but the fact that it was established to be completely cordial up until that point made everything feel off kilter.

even w/ some brushed over history and the events throughout the story, the buildup of everything ji-won was going through felt very sudden and abrupt despite attempts to build it up. the

cancer reveal

was a definitely an eye roll, and the end of the book overall left me dissatisfied. 

wish there was more on ji-won and alexis's relationship though! and umma's character definitely plucked at my heartstrings, even though she is completely different from my own mother, just remembering her own personal struggles as a poor refugee definitely made me emotional over her both her parents' struggles. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Misogyny, Racism, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Cannibalism, Stalking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Infidelity, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Cancer, Kidnapping, and Toxic friendship

trashynucleus's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, Cannibalism, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Vomit, Stalking, and Alcohol

mylordbagofrice's review

dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Racism, Toxic relationship, Blood, Cannibalism, Stalking, Murder, and Cultural appropriation

Moderate: Alcohol

Minor: Physical abuse

clovetra's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

oh jiwon…. i had such high hopes for you. were my expectations unrealistic? yeah probably. did i wish i loved this more? yeah.

did i still have a decent time? yeah!

this book is tagged as adult but reads sooooo much like a YA. which that’s fine! but then tag it that way so my expectations are changed. i was expecting something a bit more insane like maeve fly & instead i got she is a haunting. iykyk

the biggest issue of this book is the first half of this book. it wasn’t great. the first half almost acts like a set-up for all the plot in the second half, but instead it feels repetitive and lacking depth. like ok i get we need some time to give a shit about the characters, but when spending the first half developing characters and they still feel boring…. it’s not good. i only really enjoyed jiwon in the second half of the book. almost everyone else felt like a trope or very formulaic, and had one discernible trait. and the minute almost every character was introduced i could predict where the plot was going to take them. 

this book also made several missteps in my opinion.

first, giving jiwon a brain tumour was stupid. it felt like a hail mary. sure it made sense seeing as she was hallucinating, but it felt like it was almost completely random with no foreshadowing and rhyme or reason to it other than to get jiwon to still be in the hospital & get off scott free from george’s attempted murder. also, her relationship with alexis not going anywhere annoyed me. like seriously what was the point of having a subplot about their will-they-won’t they? the story doesn’t end in a way that has any pay off for this plot point, and instead it felt like it was wasted time that could’ve gone to fleshing out the horror elements earlier, or to explore more of jiwon’s family.

i will say though, i really liked the horror elements (once the book actually got to them). the descriptions of the eyes was sublime to read, and god at some points i almost felt a tad nauseous. i really think that point was well done.

i had such high hopes for this. i was really looking forward to this, and this was easily one of my most looked forward to reads of 2025. instead, i got served a big slice of disappointment pie :(

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Medical content, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Abandonment

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Stalking, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Minor: Pedophilia

irenemarie's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Misogyny, Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Infidelity, Blood, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug use, Vomit, and Alcohol

economydreams's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Stalking, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcohol

kvokolek's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Cannibalism

Moderate: Alcohol

Minor: Vomit

aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition

medium-paced

4.5

WOW okay I liked this a lot. Sort of gave me the ick as someone who has dealt with men who fetishize Asian women. Loved Alexis and Jihyun, hated george and geoffrey, their mom irked me on a lot of levels, and Jiwon made a great unhinged character although at many points she was also unlikeable (but her being unlikeable didn't make me hate her. I was frustrated with how she treated her former friends, but I didn't like her feminine rage).
Will read more from this author whenever they release another book.
Please read content/trigger warnings because there is some gross stuff in this 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Racism, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Infidelity, Medical content, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Alcohol