Review by pbraue13 - The Eyes Are the Best Part

pbraue13 's review for:

The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim

3.75

dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

“The eyes always watch. They don’t forget. They don’t forgive.”
— Monika Kim, The Eyes are the Best Part

Monika Kim’s The Eyes are the Best Part is a hypnotic, horror-laced descent into familial collapse, grief-fueled rage, and deeply earned revenge. Told through the fractured lens of Ji-won—a Korean American college student unraveling after her father’s betrayal and abandonment—this novel is equal parts nightmare and triumph. It’s a striking debut that pulses with emotional truth and surreal, bloody tension.

Ji-won’s world is spiraling: her Appa has left, her Umma is adrift, and her little sister looks to her for stability she no longer has. On top of that, George—her mother’s smug, racist, grotesquely overfamiliar new boyfriend—has slithered into their home like a parasite. George is, without exaggeration, one of the worst male villains I’ve ever read. He’s a masterclass in insufferable entitlement, a man who thinks charm can disguise lechery, and it’s so satisfying to watch Kim peel back the layers of his toxicity, until all that's left is the rot beneath.

And Ji-won? She becomes something monstrous. Something powerful. Her dreams bleed into reality: rooms filled with eyes, dripping red and hungry blue. The way Kim weaves these surreal dreamscapes into Ji-won’s waking life is mesmerizing, blurring the line between vengeance and becoming. There’s an intoxicating tension throughout—what is real, what is fantasy, and does it even matter when rage is so righteous?

Kim’s prose is sharp, sensual, and brimming with dread. Ji-won is a flawed, complicated protagonist who refuses to play victim, even as she teeters toward something feral. Her hunger is terrifying, but in Kim’s capable hands, it’s also just. The violence here isn’t empty—it’s personal, and necessary.

The Eyes are the Best Part is a haunting meditation on trauma, girlhood, and the intoxicating lure of power when you’ve been powerless too long. It’s a slow-burn scream of a book—and by the end, when justice is finally served with blood and teeth, you’ll want to stand up and cheer.

Content Warnings