Leanne Olson

by Monika Kim

published June 25, 2024 by Kensington Books / Erewhon Books

The Eyes are the Best Part is one of my favourite horror novels of 2024 so far.  

Ji-won is a Korean-American girl in her first year of college when her father abandons her family and her mother begins dating George, an awful white man with tantalizingly blue eyes.

Ji-won feels so much pressure: to be an excellent student and find a job to support her family, to be a good daughter and pretend to respect her mother’s awful boyfriend, and to be a nurturing presence for her younger sister.  Ji-won is also dealing with friendships complicated by race and economic standing.

Everything changes when her mother has her try eating fish eyes for the first time, and Ji-won begins to have dreams about George’s blue eyes.

The Eyes are the Best Part combined my favourite bits of Maeve Fly by C.J. Leede and Chlorine by Jade Song, exploring a female serial killer and the fetishization of Asian women through a coming of age novel.

Ji-won is such a wonderful, believable mess of a character.  She and her family and classmates are so well-developed that I kept forgetting I was reading a horror novel — I just wanted the best for her.

🌟🌟🌟🌟1/2

Thank you to Netgalley and Erewhon Books for my review copy of this book.