The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim.
The book follows Ji-won, a Korean-American university student, and her life following her father walking out on their family.
The story kicks off with a great introduction to the whole eye eating part. It made for a sharp, visceral metaphor for the white gaze, which was both delightfully gross but also pretty effective (although perhaps a little bit one-note).
The novel doesn’t shy away from tackling big themes like racism and racial fetishisation head-on. Monika Kim clearly had something to say however, subtlety was very much amiss. The writing often felt clumsy, and the plot really lacked finesse. Much of the setup was simplistic, and by the time things really got going, I already knew exactly where it was headed, which completely killed the suspense.
The characters, particularly the character of George, a white man who dates Ji-won’s mother, didn’t feel fully developed and veered into stereotype territory more often than not, being totally unredeemable and cartoonishly evil. Don’t even get me started on Geoffrey, a tedious and obvious character, complete with the RBG t-shirt on *sighs with cringe*.
I feel like this book may be better suited to a younger audience, with only some minor tweaks needed. I had to keep reminding myself that Ji-won was in university, not high school, as she felt a bit immature.
Overall, I liked what the book was trying to do, but I wish it had done it with a bit more subtlety and finesse. I loved all the eye eating though, that was definitely were ‘The Best Part’!
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