The Eyes Are the Best Part

by Monika Kim

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

A gruesome (and unconventional) appetite and a family fallen to ruin, Ji-won won't let anything — or anyone — get in the way of finding satisfaction.

“Violent, smart, gruesome and wildly original, this novel pulls readers into a horrific world of murder and cannibalism while also critiquing misogyny, exploring Asian fetishization and stereotypes, sharing what it’s like to navigate two cultures and telling a touching story of a family in turmoil.” —New York Times Book Review

* TIME MAGAZINE 100 MUST-READ BOOKS OF 2024 * BRAM STOKER AWARD FINALIST * SHIRLEY JACKSON AWARD FINALIST *

Crying in H-Mart meets My Sister, the Serial Killer in this feminist psychological horror about the making of a female serial killer from a Korean-American perspective.

Ji-won’s life tumbles into disarray in the wake of her Appa’s extramarital affair and subsequent departure. Her mother, distraught. Her younger sister, hurt and confused. Her college freshman grades, failing. Her dreams, horrifying . . . yet enticing.

In them, Ji-won walks through bloody rooms full of eyes. Succulent blue eyes. Salivatingly blue eyes. Eyes the same shape and shade as George’s, who is Umma’s obnoxious new boyfriend. George has already overstayed his welcome in her family’s claustrophobic apartment. He brags about his puffed-up consulting job, ogles Asian waitresses while dining out, and acts condescending toward Ji-won and her sister as if he deserves all of Umma’s fawning adoration. No, George doesn’t deserve anything from her family. Ji-won will make sure of that.

For no matter how many victims accumulate around her campus or how many people she must deceive and manipulate, Ji-won’s hunger and her rage deserve to be sated.

A brilliantly inventive, subversive novel about a young woman unraveling, Monika Kim’s The Eyes Are the Best Part is a story of a family falling apart and trying to find their way back to each other, marking a bold new voice in horror that will leave readers mesmerized and craving more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781645661238
Publisher:	Kensington
Publication date:	06/25/2024
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Monika Kim is an acclaimed, Sunday Times bestselling author of “violent, smart, gruesome and wildly original” (The New York Times Book Review) horror novels. Her debut, The Eyes Are the Best Part, was a TIME Magazine, New York Times, B&N, and Kobo Best of the Year, as well as a Goodreads Choice Awards finalist and a Bram Stoker Award nominee. A second-generation Korean American, she learned about eating fish eyes and other Korean superstitions from her mother, who immigrated to California from Seoul in 1985. She lives in Los Angeles’s Koreatown and can be found online at monika-kim.com.

Editorial Reviews

04/22/2024

In Kim’s provocative debut horror novel, Ji-won, a Korean American college student, wrestles with her psychological turmoil and the gruesome appetites it arouses. The title comes from a comment Ji-won’s mother makes that eating the eye of a fish is supposed to bring good luck. When Ji-won overcomes her revulsion and finally eats one, she develops an obsessive interest in the eyes of others—especially the blue eyes of George, her mother’s boorish new white boyfriend whom she and her younger sister loathe. Ji-won’s disturbed state of mind is understandable, given that she’s also grappling with her father’s abandonment of the family and with unwanted romantic advances from a college classmate—providing all the catalysts needed to transform her eye obsession into a grisly hunger. Kim’s antagonistic male characters all hail from jerk central casting and are easy targets for reader dislike. By contrast, her depiction of Ji-won’s fond but exasperated relationship with her mother and her sister, Ji-hyun, conveys authentic familial intimacy. Though the finale relies on some credibility-stretching contrivances, Kim’s talent buoys her tale through its rough spots and distinguishes her as a writer to watch. Agent: Nicola Barr, Bent Agency. (June)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for The Eyes Are the Best Part

“Violent, smart, gruesome and wildly original, this novel pulls readers into a horrific world of murder and cannibalism while also critiquing misogyny, exploring Asian fetishization and stereotypes, sharing what it’s like to navigate two cultures and telling a touching story of a family in turmoil.” —New York Times Book Review
 
“[An] inventive… terrifying tale of misogyny, Asian fetishization, and cannibalism.” – TIME magazine, 100 Must-Read Books of 2024

"I was enticed from the first line and entertained throughout. The Eyes Are The Best Part is a quirky, engaging read."—Oyinkan Brainthwaite, bestselling author of My Sister, the Serial Killer
 
“The perfectly executed pacing ensnares readers even as the story’s palpable anxiety evolves into repulsion, daring them to pull their eyes away. Ji-won will stay with readers whether they want her to or not. With obvious nods to the serious issues that underpin Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, and clearly inspired by Gillian Flynn’s seminal Gone Girl, Kim has written a novel that every library needs to own.” —Library Journal, starred review

“A tense, harrowing nightmare of a novel. Monika Kim gives us unraveling sanity, grotesque obsession, and the suffocating ignorance of toxic men. A terrific debut! I can’t wait to see what she does next!” —Christopher Golden, New York Times bestselling author of The House of Last Resort and Road of Bones

“Obsessive, grotesque, and never predictable, this is a horror debut to sink your teeth into.” —Emily M. Danforth, bestselling author of Plain Bad Heroines

“Visceral, disgusting, glorious. I loved this book and every character in it. Monika Kim’s sentences are superb, and I was riveted and nauseated from the very first page. Keep your eyeballs fixed on Kim, she’s without a doubt one to watch!” —CJ Leede, author of Maeve Fly

“The Eyes Are the Best Part is part fever dream, part downwards spiral that masterfully explores the pressures of being an elder sibling, the turbulence and pain of fractured families, race and misogyny, and immigration. It tackles the most difficult parts of trauma and Asian womanhood through a narrative that is messy, complicated, and above all, gut wrenching. Kim has written a character who readers will love, hate, and will want to hug tight and never let go.” —Ai Jiang, Nebula finalist and author of Linghun and I Am AI

“A book that does more than grab hold; this debut will impale you. An obsessive, undefinable wonder, Monika Kim shows that you only taste what you're willing to take. Suspenseful horror that is love at first sight.” —Hailey Piper, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Queen of Teeth
 
“I savored every moment of this suspensefully deranged tale, all the way up to its bloodcurdling conclusion. Monika Kim is an exciting new entrant to the genre, and I am ravenous for what she's planning to serve up next.” —Victor Manibo, author of The Sleepless and Escape Velocity

“A deliciously disturbing dive into a mind warped by pain, anger, and a most unusual craving.” —Johnny Compton, author of The Spite House

“An immersive tumble into darkness. Monika Kim has crafted a terrifying examination of the malevolence of bigotry and misogyny along with an unforgettable heroine. I couldn’t stop reading.” —Kristi DeMeester, author of Such a Pretty Smile

“The Eyes Are the Best Part is a suspenseful ride, cranking up the tension as Ji-won takes ever greater risks to satisfy her cravings. Bloody, angry, and vengeful, it skewers expectations at every turn.” —Kerstin Hall, author of Star Eater
 
“Kim's talent buoys her tale. . . and distinguishes her as a writer to watch.” —Publishers Weekly
“A new voice in horror tells a gripping psychological story about how one woman is driven to do the unthinkable . . . Horror fans will enjoy getting to know this new author, and readers of thrillers will enjoy the unreliable narrator and the pace.” —Booklist
 
“Monika Kim’s bold, brutal novel The Eyes Are the Best Part sears with feminine rage and unflinching body horror . . .[It] bites a chunk out of the horrors of being young and marginalized, licking its lips all the while.” —Foreword Reviews

From the Publisher

★ 04/01/2024

DEBUT Kim has burst onto the psychological horror scene with an expertly constructed, visceral debut that unapologetically attacks a world that has allowed the pervasive fetishization of Asian women not only to persist but to thrive. Ji-won is a lonely Korean American college student who lives in a small apartment with her mother and her younger sister. Their father has recently left them. Her mother is trying to pick up some good luck by eating the best part of their fish dinner—the eyes. Ji-won, both attracted to and disgusted by this act, begins to become obsessed by the blue eyes of the white men around her, especially those of classmate Geoffrey and her mother's new boyfriend, George. Ji-won confidently leads readers through this unsettling story, earning immediate empathy, even as she inserts serious doubt. The perfectly executed pacing ensnares readers even as the story's palpable anxiety evolves into repulsion, daring them to pull their eyes away. Ji-won will stay with readers whether they want her to or not. VERDICT With obvious nods to the serious issues that underpin Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, and clearly inspired by Gillian Flynn's seminal Gone Girl, Kim has written a novel that every library needs to own.

Library Journal

2024-05-17
Men—not the woman who murders them—are the objects of horror in this debut novel.

The story opens with a vivid description of the protagonist’s mother tearing apart a fish she has just cooked and horrifying both her daughters by pulling out an eye, holding it aloft, and eating it with exaggerated relish. It’s an arresting tableau and one that will—as you might guess from the title—take on greater significance as the narrative progresses. This is also a rare moment of pleasure for a woman whose world is falling apart after her husband abruptly left her, and this betrayal by a man will also echo throughout the book. Ji-won, the narrator, is in her first year of college. She’s struggling academically and socially. When a white guy named Geoffrey seems eager to get to know her, she neither discourages him nor encourages him. Her reaction to her mother’s new boyfriend, George—another white guy—is entirely straightforward: She loathes him, and his arrival is something of a psychic turning point. Her loathing turns into nightmares about blue eyes, and Ji-won turns into a murderer with a desperate need to devour human eyeballs. There will no doubt be readers who get a kick out of this book simply because it’s a feminist revenge fantasy. But if the concept alone isn’t enough to hold your attention, there’s not much else on offer here. The pace is leaden—until the final act, which feels rushed and truncated. Geoffrey is straight caricature; a dude who is this emphatic about his feminism has to be a creep. George is also rather broadly depicted. It’s only fair to say that his ignorance, bigotry, and general terribleness are believable but, as a villain, he doesn’t have enough depth to make him interesting. Neither does Ji-won, and that’s probably this book’s greatest weakness. Kim does very little to help us understand why, exactly, this young woman turns murderous. Young women all over the world deal with terrible men every day without going on a cannibalistic killing spree. Her transition from aimless and unhappy college student to devious criminal mastermind is equally perplexing.

Tantalizingly sensationalistic premise, disappointing execution.

Kirkus Reviews