A review by thereadingrambler
The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim

4.0

What an absolute trip of a book with so much female rage. Where do you even start with something like this? Ji-won’s father has just abandoned her family—her mother and little sister Ji-hun. Ji-won is a freshman in college, her little sister is still in high school, and her mother works at a Korean grocery store; in other words, they are not exactly capable of really caring for themselves after this abandonment. To help with their expenses and security, as well as her own emotional distress, the mother soon gets a boyfriend, a white man named George, who is extremely creepy and pretty quickly reveals his fetishization of Asian women. Meanwhile, Ji-won is trying to deal with being at a new school and the aftermath of her high school friend group falling apart. Oh, and also her new found desire for eyes. This is a book gender, class, race, and immigration and how all of those things intersect and can fuel a burning and deep rage for all the injustices, traumas, and betrayals of a cultural system designed to exclude. This is gory and visceral with cold, brutal language reflecting the cold brutality of our main character. I would definitely recommend to people who are interested in the horror of the immigrant experience and the accompanying racism.