Queen Ji-won in another era would have had to return some videotapes.

108. The Eyes are the Best Part – Monika Kim

Ji-won and her sister Ji-hyuhn live with their mother and her grief and tragic past of abandonment in an apartment while Ji-won is attending college on a scholarship. Their father has left their mother for another woman and so now she’s falling apart…until she meets George, a gross dude who fetishizes Asian women (which of course her mother doesn’t realize). George, like Ji-won’s mom, is all in on eating the fish eyes, which are the luckiest part of the fish. Ji-won only recently tried one and found it to be a bit of a revelation for her.

Ji-won also only recently tried making friends at college in the form of Geoffrey, who seems to be everywhere and wearing feminist t-shirts for some reason, and Alexis, who Ji-won really likes. At first, she can stand Geoffrey and needs a shoulder for her George-based woes and so they get along well. Ji-won, you see, has had trouble with friends and manipulative behavior in the past and so it’s all a little tentative with her. However, she definitely hates George and his leering glares and obvious deceptions about his apartment being under maintenance.

Then come all the blue eyes reaching out to Ji-won and essentially asking her to delve into delusions to be satisfied. I really liked this book. It read very quickly and the themes were really working well once they got going. I was wondering where the horror was going to come from and it kind of snuck in like a fog, or like some creep following you around campus.

 

Dagmar says that for escarole, all of it is the best part.