Reviews with content warning for Death - The Eyes Are the Best Part

Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim

9 reviews

hayliosreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

Monika Kim’s debut novel consists of an unravelling story of female rage, racism and the loss of sanity; all while adapting to new changes in family and education. The Eyes Are the Best Part follows Ji-Won – the older sister – navigating and adjusting to the collapse of her mother’s marriage and the emptiness her father has left.

While her mother and sister try not to spiral from the abandonment, Ji-Won starts college. However, it isn’t her dream college where all her friends have gone to and this results in jealousy, manipulation and the loss of said friends. Due to this, Ji-Won struggles with her first semester, which isn’t helped with the worry of her mother and her sister.

This is all bad enough, so luckily Ji-Won befriends Alexis and Geoffery. However, there’s more to Geoffrey then it seems. But there’s also more to Ji-Won so wouldn’t this be the perfect pairing?

Ji-Wons’ mother now has a new boyfriend – George – who is a misogynistic and racist middle-aged white man. His fetishism of Asian women seeps through as predatory behaviour as the story develops. The only good thing about George are his mesmerising blue eyes.

This issue is just the tip of the iceberg Ji-Won needed in order to spiral into a state of insanity. When her dreams turn into nightmares and hallucinations, Ji-Won decides to act on them. But has she gone too far?

Monika Kims’ writing is somewhat of a masterpiece to me. Although I thought the spiral into madness started off a bit too slow, it almost made sense as it was the story itself followed the slow turn into madness that Ji-Won goes through in the novel. I do feel like the ending was somehow rushed as the readers to have a lot of information thrown at them all at once; but again this could be interpreted as the speed of how someones’ mind gathers information.

I loved this book which is why I gave it 5 stars. It was such a rollercoaster of emotions that once it started picking up after the first couple of chapters, I couldn’t put it down. While the ending does make you question some things, this also gives the opportunity of a follow up book if Monika Kim decided to do one, but it also is a perfect stand alone book if you love slow release horror.

I know it’s not even out yet, but I’m excited to see what Kim comes up with next.

Content Warnings

lochnessvhs's review against another edition

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dark funny tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Add another incredible character to the Unhinged Women Literary Universe!

Ji-won is a first-year college student living at home with her parents and younger sister. When her father suddenly leaves the family, they are all set on a path none of them expected. Ji-won's mother meets George, a disgusting white man with an insidious Asian fetish and Ji-won does everything she can to hold what remains of her family together. Unfortunately the hardest person to keep in check is herself.

I loved every second of this book. The path to destruction Ji-won walks feels at once sudden and gradual. Her obsession with blue eyeballs rockets her into actions she would never have thought possible, but somehow I was rooting for her the entire way.

I support women's wrongs, especially Ji-won's wrongs!

Thanks to NetGalley and Kengsington Books for providing an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Content Warnings

orasmis's review

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challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

lauren_reads_outside's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

This book was hard to read, not because it wasn't good but because the characters and the imagery were so clear it was difficult to get through without flinching. In high school we dissected sheep's eyes and I've never wished more that I didn't know what it feels like to hold and cut into an eyeball as I did while reading this book.
I do wish the queer coded scenes with Ji-won and Alexis went a little bit further as they just sort of end up as an aside to the main story. The main story though really tells of a woman who simply has reached the edge and snapped and honestly who can blame her.

Content Warnings

woodsybookworm's review

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Received as an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher Kensington Books (thank you, both) in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

A deep dive into the hardships of a second generation woman struggling to keep herself and her family together as her mind unravels and begins to hunger not only for her own autonomy, but for eyeballs.

Ji-won’s life is crumbling around her - she's self sabotaged her relationship with her childhood friends, she can barely keep her grades up let alone forge new friendship or partnerships, her father abandoned the family for another woman, and now her mother is dating a man with an Asian fetish. Nothing could be worse, until she starts dreaming of eyeballs, hungering for eyeballs.

The gore wasn't overly descriptive, but it worked just enough to keep me squirming whenever it came up. I will most definitely be having nightmares about eyeballs after reading this book.

The first half of the book was a slow build up in which we learned about the characters, their background, how the family ended up in the position they're in now - and then it ramps up with Ji-won spiraling out of control until the end. But it ended rather abruptly and it left me wanting more!

Overall, it was a great read and a wonderful debut. I look forward to reading more from the author in the future.

Content Warnings

devynreadsnovels's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

madelinereadsbooks's review

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dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

When her father leaves her mother for another woman, Ji-won’s life is left in shambles. Her mother is inconsolable, until she meets the awful George. Ji-won fixates on his blue eyes as her life falls apart around her.

Ji-won was a wonderfully complicated main character, whom I couldn’t help but side with, even as she began spiralling. Kim did an incredible job of ensuring the reader felt for Ji-won throughout the entire novel. Additionally, the way she touches on race issues, particularly demonstrating how damaging the fetishisation of Asian women is, ensured the novel worked below the surface level. I especially loved the ending - it was perfect.

4/5 stars

Content Warnings

aedoran08's review

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dark emotional tense slow-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

5.0

Content Warnings

macaronoui's review

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adventurous challenging dark funny informative tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

We follow the protagonist, 18 year old Ji-won Lim, her sister Ji-hyun, her mom “umma” (Korean for mom).
After her dad (appa) suddenly leaves the family, things start falling apart.
Ji-won starts losing grip on reality and the difference between waking and dreaming when her mom starts to date George.
She befriends “nice guy” Geoffrey and Alexis. Just note to all people in general, when a person says they are “nice” they are not. If a person is nice they will show it through their actions.
Alexis is delightful and I kept hoping there would be some romance between her and Ji-won.
The overt racism she experiences as well as well intended micro aggressions, Kim writes really well. I’m getting angry just reading it.
The chapters are super short, which constantly makes you think “well just another one” and poof you’ve finished already. I don’t really read horror that much, but this was absolutely fantastic. It has a gripping story, morally grey characters and great pacing. Will definitely be reading more of her work.
I could see this working as a limited series.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC

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