The Eyes are the Best Part

The Eyes are the Best Part

By Monika Kim
Erewhon Books, 2024. 277 pages. Horror.

With her life in disarray after her Appa's extramarital affair and subsequent departure, Ji-won, plagued by horrifying yet enticing dreams of bloody rooms full of eyes, is overcome by hunger and rage that can only be sated by deceit, manipulation and murder as victims accumulate around her college campus.

The epitome of "I support women's rights and wrongs!" This book does a fantastic job of mixing relatable feminine rage with just enough body horror and cannibalism that you'll still be horrified throughout.  I also felt that despite being inside Ji-won's mind with her, there was still an element of mystery to the story that made it hard to put down. If you want to be justifiably angry, a bit disgusted, slightly worried, and ultimately satisfied, definitely give this book a chance.

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The Lamb

By Lucy Rose

Harper, 2025. 328 pages. Horror.

From an incendiary new talent, a contemporary folktale in which a mother and daughter take in passersby and eat them, exploring queerness, first loves, and tense mother-daughter relationships. Margot and Mama have lived by the forest ever since Margot can remember. They spend quiet days together in their cottage, waiting for strangers to knock on their door. Strays, Mama calls them. People who have strayed too far from the road. Mama loves the strays. She feeds them wine, keeps them warm. Then she picks apart their bodies and toasts them off with some vegetable oil. But Mama's want is stronger than her hunger sometimes, and when a beautiful, white-toothed stray named Eden turns up in the heart of a snowstorm, Margot must face the possibility that her life is changing for good. The Lamb is a folktale, a horror story, a love story, an enchantment. With this teeming, gothic debut, Lucy Rose wrings the relationship between mother and daughter until blood drips from it.

Victorian Psycho

By Virginia Feito
W.W. Norton & Company, 2025. 195 pages. Horror.

Grim Wolds, England: Winifred Notty arrives at Ensor House prepared to play the perfect governess--she'll dutifully tutor her charges, Drusilla and Andrew, tell them bedtime stories, and only joke about eating children. But long, listless days spent within the estate's dreary confines come with an intimate knowledge of the perversions and pathetic preoccupations of the Pounds family--Mr. Pounds can't keep his eyes off Winifred's chest, and Mrs. Pounds takes a sickly pleasure in punishing Winifred for her husband's wandering gaze. Compounded with her disdain for the entitled Pounds children, Winifred finds herself struggling at every turn to stifle the violent compulsions of her past. French tutoring and needlework are one way to pass the time, as is admiring the ugly portraits in the gallery . . . and creeping across the moonlit lawns. . . Patience. Winifred must have patience, for Christmas is coming, and she has very special gifts planned for the dear souls of Ensor House. Brimming with sardonic wit and culminating in a shocking conclusion, Victorian Psycho plunges readers into the chilling mind of an iconic new literary psychopath.

KJ