Information

• Ratings: 4.18 from average of 685 Ratings
• Genre: Horror, Contemporary Horror
• Series: None
• Age Range: Adult

Summary + NonSpoiler Review

Ji-Won has been having a rough time lately. She’s Korean American and dealing with both being in college and having typical dudes fetishizing that fact that she is Asian. On top of that, her dad has just up and left her mom, who spends the time afterwards moping, contemplating suicide, eating fish eyes every night for good luck, and dating a new white guy. The fish eyes started off okay – gross, as far as Ji-Won and her sister were concerned, but okay. When her mother starts dating George, though, with his piercing blue eyes, eyes become a bit of an obsession for Ji-Won. I was pitched this book as a female serial killer who eats her victims eyes. While that is what I got, it took a while to get there. Mostly, the story is about these two sisters dealing the death of their parents’ marriage, no longer seeing their father anymore, and living through the constant fetishization of asian women. What white guy wouldn’t want to date one of them, right? Everyone knows all asian women are docile and submissive, sweet and calm. That’s definitely what George thinks as he comes waltzing into their lives, ogling every young asian woman that passes him. George is gross. All of the men within this book are gross. This book has a lot of commentary on that, as well as having parents who moved to America and what that can look like for them and their children. There’s discussion on how race and gender can effect one’s standing in this system we have. The horror of the book is Ji-Won’s intense mental decline. It was weird and gross, but so well-written. It’s definitely unhinged woman on a path of revenge and is thoroughly enjoyable. A 3.5 star. I did like it and I do think it was well-done, there were just some moments that felt too slow for me and I think different marketing would have worked in this book’s benefit. It is not purely jumping into murder, there’s a slow build so that you can understand and sympathize with the character by the end of it.

Review W/ Spoilers

We do get quite a bit of imagery of Ji-Won eating eyeballs, both fish and human. Ji-Won is becoming consumed by this obsession with George’s piercing blue eyes. The reasoning behind this is not necessarily mentioned. They do talk about how eating fish eyes is for good luck in Korean culture, but I don’t know if Ji-Won feels as if eating George’s eyes is for good luck or if she simply just wants to eat them because she hates him. I do find it so interesting that a lot of cannibalistic books have the characters consuming humans either because of intense love, lust, or hatred. In this case, it’s hatred.

I do think Ji-Won starts everything as a way of trying to protect her family. She mentions multiple times that it is up to her to look after the mother and sister. She’s the older sister, so the younger is definitely her responsibility and everyone know her mother can’t pick herself up off the floor. I think Monica Kim did a great job at showing what loss of a relationship can look like. This family is grieving their father, even though he didn’t die. He just left. And everyone is handling it in their own ways, but it’s also worth mentioning that none of those ways are necessarily healthy.

The discussion about Asian woman stereotypes was interesting and I could a lot of these people relating to it. I am not asian, but I have seen these stereotypes talked about and even joked about during my childhood- I was not raised around the most caring or intelligent people. There is not a single character during this story that is likable. Ji-Won is purposefully a nuisance on those around her. Her sister acts a lot younger than her age. Their mother is vain and needs a man in her life to feel any sort of contentedness or safety. George is a gross old white man who thinks serving in the military and being in China and Korea for a while makes him a lovely person – it doesn’t. He does not understand or care about their culture and thinks Chinese take out from a place with pretty Asian waitresses makes for good and authentic cuisine. There is genuinely a scene where he says that the take out food is better than the food he ate in China. Then there’s Geoffrey. He’s a stalker who spews out fake feminism to make women like him more, even though he does not know what he’s talking about. I have to admit, I was pretty happy when Ji-Won framed him.

I will also admit that it feels too convenient that Ji-Won seemingly does not get caught for everything she did. Because she’s the main character and we grow to understand her (a smidge) throughout the story, we do eventually come to root for her and it would make sense that she is able to go on without consequences. I could argue that there are some consequences, like her mother being devastated that the man who attempted to kill her daughter is dead. Even the mother’s need for a man in her life, while incredibly frustrating, does make sense. I just wish more was done to explore the concepts and discussions within the book. I wanted to see more unhinged killing, but I did enjoy watching the decent in madness and the obsession forming and building around this man’s eyes. Now that he’s gone and she’s consumed what she wanted, will she be able to stop? I think the tumor she had on her brain was supposed to say that everything was the tumor’s fault, but she does cut out and eat George’s eyes after the tumor is removed, so I don’t really know. If you enjoy unhinged women and weird reads, this is definitely the book for you.