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A review by fanni_ambr_
The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
👁 ARC REVIEW 👁
10/10 concept, the execution is ify tho. It's good enough, but you can tell that this is a debut novel.
There were more hard-hitting themes than I expected. The mother is such a deeply sad character. She sometimes felt more like folklore than a human for some reason. I struggled to see her as a real person. Her decisions and reactions are very much believable but there's just something cartoonish about her.
I related to Ji-wons academic failures more than I care to admit. Also, this might just be my opinion, because I didn't pick up on the author confirming or denying it, but her relationship with Alexis has undertones of a crush. Maybe in a next book we'll see (I assume by the ending that a book 2 is planned).
Ji-won's other uni friend however... The wayyyyyy Geoffrey irked me from his very first appearance is incredible.. Later the book makes it clear that his pretentiousness and surface level feminism are intentional, and he's meant to be a loser like that, but still.
George was also incredibly infuriating but I kinda skipped over some of his bullshittery because I figured that he's probably gonna die. And that brings peace into the reading experience ngl. Most of my annotations about him were simple like "JAIL" and "HELL NAH".
On the topic of disappointing men, it's ironic that the root of all troubles is the father and yet we never see him.
Ji-won's unreliable narration takes us on trips sometimes, made me question what's real and what isn't a few times. I enjoy lucid dreams in fiction, they have lots of potential.
The events that did happen were.. a choice. The rest of the book is so woven through with serious subjects that I can't not take the serial killing part also seriously. There's no way in hell that this girl got away with all that. The first kill is later in the book than I thought it would be, and sometimes Ji-won's violence is quite out of the blue. But that's all fine, the unrealistic thing is that on every scene there is her DNA, she pays no attention to hiding what she's done, and all bodies are found near to where she's been last seen. I get the part that the police is looking for a man and she probably won't be charged because they underestimate her. But even the book acknowledges that she could very easily be caught based on all the evidence she left behind.
In the end I think it's supposed to be a girlboss moment the way she ties everything together and pulls it off, but dude it was mere luck. If you wanna read her as a girlboss that's fine, but I just don't buy it.
It was still better than A Certain Hunger, this one has a lot more value and important themes, would recommend this one over that.
10/10 concept, the execution is ify tho. It's good enough, but you can tell that this is a debut novel.
There were more hard-hitting themes than I expected. The mother is such a deeply sad character. She sometimes felt more like folklore than a human for some reason. I struggled to see her as a real person. Her decisions and reactions are very much believable but there's just something cartoonish about her.
I related to Ji-wons academic failures more than I care to admit. Also, this might just be my opinion, because I didn't pick up on the author confirming or denying it, but her relationship with Alexis has undertones of a crush. Maybe in a next book we'll see (I assume by the ending that a book 2 is planned).
Ji-won's other uni friend however... The wayyyyyy Geoffrey irked me from his very first appearance is incredible.. Later the book makes it clear that his pretentiousness and surface level feminism are intentional, and he's meant to be a loser like that, but still.
George was also incredibly infuriating but I kinda skipped over some of his bullshittery because I figured that he's probably gonna die. And that brings peace into the reading experience ngl. Most of my annotations about him were simple like "JAIL" and "HELL NAH".
On the topic of disappointing men, it's ironic that the root of all troubles is the father and yet we never see him.
Ji-won's unreliable narration takes us on trips sometimes, made me question what's real and what isn't a few times. I enjoy lucid dreams in fiction, they have lots of potential.
The events that did happen were.. a choice. The rest of the book is so woven through with serious subjects that I can't not take the serial killing part also seriously. There's no way in hell that this girl got away with all that. The first kill is later in the book than I thought it would be, and sometimes Ji-won's violence is quite out of the blue. But that's all fine, the unrealistic thing is that on every scene there is her DNA, she pays no attention to hiding what she's done, and all bodies are found near to where she's been last seen. I get the part that the police is looking for a man and she probably won't be charged because they underestimate her. But even the book acknowledges that she could very easily be caught based on all the evidence she left behind.
In the end I think it's supposed to be a girlboss moment the way she ties everything together and pulls it off, but dude it was mere luck. If you wanna read her as a girlboss that's fine, but I just don't buy it.
It was still better than A Certain Hunger, this one has a lot more value and important themes, would recommend this one over that.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cannibalism and Body horror
Moderate: Racism, Misogyny, and Stalking