Reviews with content warning for Abandonment - Das Beste sind die Augen

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Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Das Beste sind die Augen by Monika Kim

140 reviews

callme_tippy's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book was disgusting in all the best ways.

I enjoy books with unhinged women so I had high hopes for this one and it did not disappoint.

This was a light exploration of misogyny, anger, hatred, responsibility, and family dynamics.

Does this book have some cliches that I normally roll my eyes at? Yes.
Is it the most amazing writing ever? No.
Did I still every second of this weird ride? Absolutely!

Would recommend!

Content Warnings

metanav's review against another edition

3.5

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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.

Content Warnings

danimacuk's review against another edition

4.25

dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

kalilah's review against another edition

3.5

dark tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

woodsant's review against another edition

3.75

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

hydrothermal_vent13's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

akira_outofthegravity's review against another edition

3.75

dark tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

My partner knows I love eye horror so they got me this ehehehe!!

AND I GOT WHAT I WANTED!

I love that you can just tell that Geoffrry is slimy but also that Ji Won is also just a fucking psycho and I Love Her

Also I love that they gave her a brain tumour to explain her weird behaviour and then just made her crazy anyway Girl Boss

Content Warnings

clovetra's review against another edition

3.0

dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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 :(

Content Warnings