I love a horror book that is unashamed in its gross imagery. I love one that revels in disgusting, gory, squelching imagery that turns the stomach and creates skin-crawling, vivid imagery that lingers long after the book binding is closed. Kim’s greatest triumph in The Eyes Are The Best Part is how the images of violence, nightmares, body horror and revenge are rendered in such meticulous, bold detail. 

The story of Ji-Won as she navigates a downward spiral starting with her father walking out is fascinating. Her character did have some passing similarities to Gone Girl’s Amy; scheming, calculating, murderous, and completely under estimated. Ji-Won is however compelled by the rage and disgust that comes with being fetishized, racially profiled, and disrespected. The anger that she feels is so palpable to the reader that despite all of the unspeakable things she’s willing to do, there’s still something that is sympathie about her. 

The thing that kept this from being a 5 for me was that the author seems not to trust the reader to pick out the misogyny and sexism and fetishization of the men in the story. Characters other than the protagonist, Ji-Won, are cartoonishly evil and so heavy handed. At times it just felt like with all of the other finesse the author uses that it just felt out of place to have the male chapters like glaring ‘I AM BAD’ signs. 

The beginning of the story was somewhat slow, but it built to a fever pitch by the end of the story. I felt like it had a very classic horror story pacing, which creates a normal scenario and then slowly edges it towards the uncanny and terrifying until it reaches a point of no return. I would just want other readers to know that despite a more slow pace in the beginning, the pacing does pick up. 

For me this was a great 4/5. I love a gruesome female rage centered horror story, and this is a great addition.