This week I have a number of horror books to share with you all that I've been reading throughout the month of October! Ideally, I would've had horror reviews for you throughout the month of October, but I think Halloween week is just as fitting. Today, I have mini reviews up for Monika Kim's The Eyes are the Best Part and Stephanie Sanders-Jacob's Pyramidia.
Publication: June 25th, 2024
In them, Ji-won walks through bloody rooms full of eyes. Succulent blue eyes. Salivatingly blue eyes. Eyes the same shape and shade as George’s, who is Umma’s obnoxious new boyfriend. George has already overstayed his welcome in her family’s claustrophobic apartment. He brags about his puffed-up consulting job, ogles Asian waitresses while dining out, and acts condescending toward Ji-won and her sister as if he deserves all of Umma’s fawning adoration. No, George doesn’t deserve anything from her family. Ji-won will make sure of that.
For no matter how many victims accumulate around her campus or how many people she must deceive and manipulate, Ji-won’s hunger and her rage deserve to be sated."
I wanted creepy and shocking from this book and I may have wished too hard, because it completely delivered on being incredibly disturbing and flat out gross at times–but I still loved every second of it. This story follows Ji-won as she struggles to adapt to life after her appa leaves and her mother is left heartbroken and clinging to a new, abhorrent boyfriend. This book tackles some difficult topics and I really admired how the author approached them; things like Asian stereotypes and fetishization, racism, misogyny, and more are tackled head-on and with some intense consequences. This book isn't super scary so much as fueled by dread and some strong gore-tastic elements, most of which involve eyeballs in one form or another (which you could probably guess at based on the title).
The Eyes are the Best Part is a slow burn and does not rush through any part of the story it wants to tell. It's extremely unhinged in ways that were both predictable and also entirely unpredictable, which I really appreciated. I had suspicions of where this book may go, but it really took those ideas and flipped them on their heads. The ending is one that I think will be a bit hit or miss for some, but honestly fit the story perfectly and will leave a large impact. This book is raw and unfiltered and admittedly a bit bizarre, but I think it's certainly worth the read. Obviously huge warnings for gore involving eyes–which was rough because I hate gore with eyes–but the experience is worth it. Overall, I've given The Eyes are the Best Part four stars.
Publication: February 15th, 2024
Well, that, and the town’s Multi-Level Marketing (MLM)—or pyramid—scheme.
The enigmatic group of women selling wellness in the form of Serenitea, with their perfect hair, flawless skin, and piercing eyes. She is drawn to the tea, the wellness, the tranquility… So what if she has to sell a few bags of tea?
You have a new descendant.
Sinking deeper into Serenitea, Harriet can’t stop drinking the tea. She keeps getting emails about new descendants—whatever the hell that means—and the gym teacher, Harold, is giving serious pervy vibes. Even Lucy joins the MLM despite claiming the women are vampires. None of that matters, though, because Serenitea makes her feel…well. Tranquil.
Are you well?"
Just in case you didn't already think MLMs were a bad thing, Pyramidia is here to turn them into a whole new level of horrifying. Harriet moves to the town of Bentwood (which certainly makes me think of similar-sounding city...) for a teaching position, and once there she finds that the town seems to have a high number of MLM schemes. Harriet is very much not into pyramid schemes, but after trying some Serenitea, she finds she just can't get enough and in order to get more, she may need to start selling some tea.
I just loved this concept of taking a pyramid scheme and suburbia and adding horror/thriller elements to it, turning this into an entirely new and fun concept–I mean, what's a better fit for some extra horror and supernatural than the horrors of MLMs and suburbia? There are some great little twists in here and a really colorful array of unique characters to meet along the way–some a bit crazier than others. This book was so witty and had so many relatable moments of humor and commentary that made it a really enjoyable experience. It's one of those premises and plots that feels a bit outlandish and absurd, but completely works and ends up making the perfect mix of genres and ideas. I do think this could have been slightly shorter and suffered a bit from being dragged on just a little too long to where the novelty aspects began to wear off, and the ending itself felt slightly off to me, but overall it was a really entertaining read. I've given Pyramidia four stars!
