I’ve eaten fish eyes in Japan (would not recommend) but I don’t think I could ever do so again after reading this subtle family drama / horror novel THE EYES ARE THE BEST PART (Hachette 2024) by Monika Kim.
The story begins in a chaotic but harmlessly pleasant enough way – Ji-won and her younger sister are stuck living in a tiny flat with their mother after their father has deserted the family for another woman. Their mother is heartbroken; the girls are at a loss as to how to help her. As if their lives aren’t awful enough, a new man finagles his way into their house and their mother’s heart: George, a middle-aged white man who seems to get his kicks from ogling Asian women, bragging about his Asian travels and talking at length about his experience of Asian food (of course, he knows much more about EVERYTHING culturally Asian than Korean Ji-won or her family possibly could … he is, in short, insufferable).
As George continues to mansplain Korea to actual Koreans, and to manspread his way into their tiny apartment, Ji-won becomes more and more mesmerised by his piercing blue eyes, which she can imagine crunching between her teeth. She knows this is weird, horrific, outrageous, and yet she can’t seem to stop the pervasive thoughts.
This book is not only a comment on racism, misogyny and coercive control, but also a portrait of the slow unravelling of a person’s thoughts, personality and conduct when they feel backed into a corner and unable to tell truth from reality. Ji-won’s disturbing dreams become darker until the point where she can’t tell if her loyalties and revenge theories are done under the cover of sleep or in fact in her waking hours.
This debut female vengeance novel is unnervingly innocuous, leading us gradually into a twisty, many-faceted crime story that is part nightmare, part revenge, part waking reality and part horror story.