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Bat Eater: Sharp, witty, GORY: The addictive Sunday Times bestselling social horror-thriller
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite Horror (2025)Cora Zeng is a crime scene cleaner, washing away the remains of brutal murders and suicides in Chinatown. The bloody messes don't bother her, not when she's already witnessed the most horrific thing possible: her sister being pushed in front of a train.
Before fleeing the scene, the murderer whispered two words: bat eater.
Months pass, the killer is never caught, and Cora can barely keep herself together. She pushes away all feelings, disregards the bite marks that appear on her coffee table, and won't take her aunt's advice to prepare for the Hungry Ghost Festival, when the gates of hell open.
Cora tries to ignore the rising dread in her stomach, even when she and her weird co-workers begin finding bat carcasses at their crime scene clean-ups. But Cora can't ignore the fact that all their recent clean-ups have been the bodies of East Asian women.
Soon Cora will learn: you can't just ignore hungry ghosts.
Before fleeing the scene, the murderer whispered two words: bat eater.
Months pass, the killer is never caught, and Cora can barely keep herself together. She pushes away all feelings, disregards the bite marks that appear on her coffee table, and won't take her aunt's advice to prepare for the Hungry Ghost Festival, when the gates of hell open.
Cora tries to ignore the rising dread in her stomach, even when she and her weird co-workers begin finding bat carcasses at their crime scene clean-ups. But Cora can't ignore the fact that all their recent clean-ups have been the bodies of East Asian women.
Soon Cora will learn: you can't just ignore hungry ghosts.
9 pages, Audible Audio
First published January 7, 2025
About the author
Kylie Lee Baker
17 books2,421 followersKylie Lee Baker grew up in Boston and has since lived in Atlanta, Salamanca, and Seoul. Her work is informed by her heritage (Japanese, Chinese, & Irish) as well as her experiences living abroad as both a student and teacher. She has a BA in creative writing and Spanish from Emory University and is pursuing a master of library and information science degree at Simmons University. In her free time, she plays the cello, watches horror movies, and bakes too many cookies. The Keeper of Night is her debut novel.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 8,655 reviews
January 5, 2026
I usually avoid pandemic-themed novels like I avoid the plague group chats with 47 unread messages, but Bat Eater is the rare exception. It uses that time as a lens to explore how fear metastasises into bigotry, laying bare the ugliest parts of humanity that fester beneath the surface, waiting for a moment of collective vulnerability to erupt.
As a brown girl born in Australia to South Asian immigrant parents, my lived experience isn’t quite the same as the Asian-American context Baker delves into. Still, racism wears many faces and has an exhausting universal familiarity. But my friend Mai, who lives in the U.S., penned a review that’s a must-read.
Now, let’s get to the blood, guts and ghosts. Bat Eater kinda gives if The Ring or The Grudge had a love child with a blood-soaked thriller and it’s as haunting as it is gory. From page one, where Cora Zeng's sister, Delilah’s head meets a train (yep, we’re starting strong), the story ramps up with spine-tingling intensity and literal viscera. Cora Zeng’s job as a dry cleaner-turned-corpse-cleaner has her scraping Asian-American women off surfaces, and it’s only Wednesday. Workplace woes, am I right? But also, there seems to be a serial killer targeting a specific racial group and leaving bat corpses as their grotesque calling card.
It’s not just gore, either. We've got supernatural horror that’ll have you peeking through your fingers and rethinking that creak you heard in the next room. It's steeped in Chinese cultural lore, drawing on Zhong Yuan Jie (中元节), or the Hungry Ghost Festival. I made the mistake of reading it at night, and let’s just say my advice is to read this in the sunlight, preferably surrounded by people who can confirm nothing supernatural is crawling out of your TV or the shadows.
What truly sets Bat Eater apart is how deftly it balances its many layers. Cora’s battles extend beyond hungry ghosts and cleaning brain goo. She also grapples with trauma, abandonment issues courtesy of absentee parents, grief, her mental health and a relentless struggle with her identity. However, there was also lightness to balance the darkness, with found family vibes and zippy banter which added a layer of warmth and dark humour.
But perhaps Bat Eater’s most remarkable achievement is its seamless weaving of horror with incisive social commentary. It's full of uncomfortable truths: the fetishisation of Asian women, the sharp sting of systemic racism, racially motivated hate crimes, police brutality, media manipulation and copaganda. It will shock, entertain, provoke, creep you out, make you squirm and possibly make you feel the need to wear a jade bangle and burn a small mountain of joss paper.
It might be premature to crown Bat Eater my favourite book of 2025 (ask me again in December 2025), but the bar has been set high.
Five gory, blood-spattered stars. Thank you to NetGalley & Hachette AU & NZ for fuelling my nightmares in exchange for an honest review. I'll be thinking about this one for a long time.
PS. Mind your triggers! Besides the obvious ones, another one to be mindful of is animal cruelty and animal corpses. Full list of trigger warnings and other FAQ here.
♦️♦️♦️
Gore, ghosts, and bats—Kylie Lee Baker's adult horror debut, reminiscent of Mexican Gothic meets She is a Haunting.
As a brown girl born in Australia to South Asian immigrant parents, my lived experience isn’t quite the same as the Asian-American context Baker delves into. Still, racism wears many faces and has an exhausting universal familiarity. But my friend Mai, who lives in the U.S., penned a review that’s a must-read.
Now, let’s get to the blood, guts and ghosts. Bat Eater kinda gives if The Ring or The Grudge had a love child with a blood-soaked thriller and it’s as haunting as it is gory. From page one, where Cora Zeng's sister, Delilah’s head meets a train (yep, we’re starting strong), the story ramps up with spine-tingling intensity and literal viscera. Cora Zeng’s job as a dry cleaner-turned-corpse-cleaner has her scraping Asian-American women off surfaces, and it’s only Wednesday. Workplace woes, am I right? But also, there seems to be a serial killer targeting a specific racial group and leaving bat corpses as their grotesque calling card.
It’s not just gore, either. We've got supernatural horror that’ll have you peeking through your fingers and rethinking that creak you heard in the next room. It's steeped in Chinese cultural lore, drawing on Zhong Yuan Jie (中元节), or the Hungry Ghost Festival. I made the mistake of reading it at night, and let’s just say my advice is to read this in the sunlight, preferably surrounded by people who can confirm nothing supernatural is crawling out of your TV or the shadows.
What truly sets Bat Eater apart is how deftly it balances its many layers. Cora’s battles extend beyond hungry ghosts and cleaning brain goo. She also grapples with trauma, abandonment issues courtesy of absentee parents, grief, her mental health and a relentless struggle with her identity. However, there was also lightness to balance the darkness, with found family vibes and zippy banter which added a layer of warmth and dark humour.
But perhaps Bat Eater’s most remarkable achievement is its seamless weaving of horror with incisive social commentary. It's full of uncomfortable truths: the fetishisation of Asian women, the sharp sting of systemic racism, racially motivated hate crimes, police brutality, media manipulation and copaganda. It will shock, entertain, provoke, creep you out, make you squirm and possibly make you feel the need to wear a jade bangle and burn a small mountain of joss paper.
It might be premature to crown Bat Eater my favourite book of 2025 (ask me again in December 2025), but the bar has been set high.
Five gory, blood-spattered stars. Thank you to NetGalley & Hachette AU & NZ for fuelling my nightmares in exchange for an honest review. I'll be thinking about this one for a long time.
PS. Mind your triggers! Besides the obvious ones, another one to be mindful of is animal cruelty and animal corpses. Full list of trigger warnings and other FAQ here.
♦️♦️♦️
Gore, ghosts, and bats—Kylie Lee Baker's adult horror debut, reminiscent of Mexican Gothic meets She is a Haunting.
December 30, 2025
Genuinely terrifying, rage inducing, depressing, incredibly gory- this was WAYYY crazier than I was expecting. One scene (where we first meet Officer Wong) gave me an actual nightmare. Like, when I fully realized the implications of what was actually happening, it disturbed me more than anything I’ve read recently.
It’s about Cora Zeng, who’s struggling to find her identity after the brutal death of her sister in the height of Asian hate during COVID, as she works in corpse disposal/cleaning, as she starts to experience a series of hauntings, and as finds herself on the trail of a potential serial killer.
This story elicited so many visceral reactions from me, to the point where I had to read it in sections because it was upsetting me so much. The violence + gore is so *wet* and meaty, the racism so infuriating, and it was all just so shocking and brutal I was flinching and cringing frequently.
This book was absolutely insane. I was not prepared. But, I’ll be recommending this frequently and can safely say this will be one of my top fav reads of the year!
It’s about Cora Zeng, who’s struggling to find her identity after the brutal death of her sister in the height of Asian hate during COVID, as she works in corpse disposal/cleaning, as she starts to experience a series of hauntings, and as finds herself on the trail of a potential serial killer.
This story elicited so many visceral reactions from me, to the point where I had to read it in sections because it was upsetting me so much. The violence + gore is so *wet* and meaty, the racism so infuriating, and it was all just so shocking and brutal I was flinching and cringing frequently.
This book was absolutely insane. I was not prepared. But, I’ll be recommending this frequently and can safely say this will be one of my top fav reads of the year!
December 14, 2025
ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley
before i type anything - please know that this is a dark story, and i do believe that if you are asian this book is going to be even more difficult to read. this book (and review) discusses hate crimes against asian people during the peak of covid here in the states. just please use caution going into this book and make sure you are in an okay headspace to read about that. and i hope you are able to pick this one up, because it is for sure a favorite of 2025 for me.
this story is about a biracial girl named cora zeng, who has always felt not “chinese enough”, yet people have always shown her that she also isn’t white enough. and in april 2020, on a subway platform, when the world is feeling already empty, her sister is murdered right in front of her. then the story jumps to august of 2020, where cora is trying to learn how to live without her sister and how to carry her grief when she feels so extra alone. she does get a job to be part of a crime scene cleanup crew in chinatown, and soon starts to see a pattern with asian women being brutally murdered, and wonders if there is potentially a serial killer doing this. and on top of it all, she thinks she could potentially be seeing her sister’s ghost, who seems very hungry for something.
the hungry ghost festival / ghost month is celebrated sometime between july, august, and september, and it is the first day of the festival when she sees this ghost. with the help of her friends, and her amazing aunt, she tries to figure out what is going on in nyc and what is going on inside her mind, too. and hopefully she can before the last day of the hungry ghost festival.
again, this is a really hard book to read at times, but i really loved it. i think it’s powerful, i think it’s so beautifully written, i think it’s going to help a lot of people see what it can feel like to be a child of immigrants, especially when you’re trapped in a country that will never let you forget it, during a pandemic they blame on you to excuse their racism and hate. to me, this book is ultimately a story about a girl who is just trying to find peace. peace with her grief, peace with her family + identity, peace for her sister and all these other asian women who never deserved what happened to them.
cora’s identity meant a lot to me, because my dad is asian and my mom is white, and that really is a rare asian american biracial experience for me to read about, even in 2025. also, it has gotten a lot better as of 2025, but i was really struggling with health anxiety induced ocd after 2020. the scene with cora going to the optometrist? that was truly me the last couple of years, with so many different kinds of doctors, and i would never wish it on anyone. so i just really wanted to write a little extra paragraph saying that i loved this book for so many reasons, but i also felt seen in many different ways that i was not anticipating.
in 2021 the world read about (and watched) a filipino elder being brutally beaten in new york while she was just trying to get to church. and i know that’s just one heartbreaking real story among so many during this time of a surge in these racially charged hate crimes, but i read that story over and over, while feeling so nauseous, with so much fear, for my devout grandma, who is also an immigrant from the philippines. and while being across the country from her, and the rest of my family, unable to do anything, unable to even pretend i could protect them. and i know so many asian americans have stories like this, some that have stories like cora’s and yuxi’s. and i wish i had better words to use here, but i don’t. especially with the racially charged escalation from our leaders, because of the protests going on in la right now, that are terrorizing and breaking apart more immigrant families and communities. but some people would rather close a glass door, look out, and pretend not to see the blood right in front of them. and then also pretend that their hands are now not covered in blood, too.
trigger + content warnings: graphic and detailed descriptions of violent hate crimes against asian women, racism, slurs, fetishization of asian women, grief, loss of loved ones, covid, the pandemic, murder, death, gore, unwanted touching, assault, health anxiety / ocd, intrusive thoughts, spider imagery, abandonment, cult mentions, drinking, talk of zionists, talk of nazis (in a negative light // of of these things in a negative light!), police brutality mentions, gun violence, talk of institutionalization, snuff videos and pictures of really graphic and disturbing crimes against asians, car crash, talk of child abuse and death, fire - this book gets really dark, please use caution and make sure you’re in a okay headspace
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“Everyone wants Asian girls to look pretty. No one wants them to talk.”
before i type anything - please know that this is a dark story, and i do believe that if you are asian this book is going to be even more difficult to read. this book (and review) discusses hate crimes against asian people during the peak of covid here in the states. just please use caution going into this book and make sure you are in an okay headspace to read about that. and i hope you are able to pick this one up, because it is for sure a favorite of 2025 for me.
this story is about a biracial girl named cora zeng, who has always felt not “chinese enough”, yet people have always shown her that she also isn’t white enough. and in april 2020, on a subway platform, when the world is feeling already empty, her sister is murdered right in front of her. then the story jumps to august of 2020, where cora is trying to learn how to live without her sister and how to carry her grief when she feels so extra alone. she does get a job to be part of a crime scene cleanup crew in chinatown, and soon starts to see a pattern with asian women being brutally murdered, and wonders if there is potentially a serial killer doing this. and on top of it all, she thinks she could potentially be seeing her sister’s ghost, who seems very hungry for something.
the hungry ghost festival / ghost month is celebrated sometime between july, august, and september, and it is the first day of the festival when she sees this ghost. with the help of her friends, and her amazing aunt, she tries to figure out what is going on in nyc and what is going on inside her mind, too. and hopefully she can before the last day of the hungry ghost festival.
again, this is a really hard book to read at times, but i really loved it. i think it’s powerful, i think it’s so beautifully written, i think it’s going to help a lot of people see what it can feel like to be a child of immigrants, especially when you’re trapped in a country that will never let you forget it, during a pandemic they blame on you to excuse their racism and hate. to me, this book is ultimately a story about a girl who is just trying to find peace. peace with her grief, peace with her family + identity, peace for her sister and all these other asian women who never deserved what happened to them.
cora’s identity meant a lot to me, because my dad is asian and my mom is white, and that really is a rare asian american biracial experience for me to read about, even in 2025. also, it has gotten a lot better as of 2025, but i was really struggling with health anxiety induced ocd after 2020. the scene with cora going to the optometrist? that was truly me the last couple of years, with so many different kinds of doctors, and i would never wish it on anyone. so i just really wanted to write a little extra paragraph saying that i loved this book for so many reasons, but i also felt seen in many different ways that i was not anticipating.
in 2021 the world read about (and watched) a filipino elder being brutally beaten in new york while she was just trying to get to church. and i know that’s just one heartbreaking real story among so many during this time of a surge in these racially charged hate crimes, but i read that story over and over, while feeling so nauseous, with so much fear, for my devout grandma, who is also an immigrant from the philippines. and while being across the country from her, and the rest of my family, unable to do anything, unable to even pretend i could protect them. and i know so many asian americans have stories like this, some that have stories like cora’s and yuxi’s. and i wish i had better words to use here, but i don’t. especially with the racially charged escalation from our leaders, because of the protests going on in la right now, that are terrorizing and breaking apart more immigrant families and communities. but some people would rather close a glass door, look out, and pretend not to see the blood right in front of them. and then also pretend that their hands are now not covered in blood, too.
trigger + content warnings: graphic and detailed descriptions of violent hate crimes against asian women, racism, slurs, fetishization of asian women, grief, loss of loved ones, covid, the pandemic, murder, death, gore, unwanted touching, assault, health anxiety / ocd, intrusive thoughts, spider imagery, abandonment, cult mentions, drinking, talk of zionists, talk of nazis (in a negative light // of of these things in a negative light!), police brutality mentions, gun violence, talk of institutionalization, snuff videos and pictures of really graphic and disturbing crimes against asians, car crash, talk of child abuse and death, fire - this book gets really dark, please use caution and make sure you’re in a okay headspace
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April 29, 2025
Title/Author: Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker
Page Count: 304
Publisher: MIRA BOOKS
Format: NetGalley/eBook
Other Books I Enjoyed by This Author: First time reading
Affiliate Link: https://bookshop.org/a/7576/978077836...
Release Date: April 29th, 2025
General Genre: Horror, Suspense & Thriller, Crime
Sub-Genre/Themes: Dark Comedy, Crime Scene Cleanup, COVID-19 Pandemic, Asian Hate, Serial Killer, Grief/Death of a Sister, Gory & Violent, Ghost/Paranormal, Chinese Folklore, Friendship, Feeling Like an Outsider, Sibling Rivalry, Murder, Mental Illness, OCD, NYC
Writing Style: Character-Driven, Compelling, High-Stakes, Gruesome
What You Need to Know: Cora Zeng, a crime scene cleaner, is haunted by her sister Delilah's murder - she was pushed in front of a train by a killer who yelled "bat eater." Crime scenes don't faze her, but germs and hidden viruses do. Since the murder, reality blurs for Cora, and she ignores her aunt's advice to prepare for the Hungry Ghost Festival. Despite her efforts, she can't shake the dread as bat carcasses appear at crime scenes, and all her recent cleanups involve East Asian women. Cora will soon learn you can't ignore hungry ghosts.
My Reading Experience: This book surprised me. Set during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng captures that strange, anxious, isolating time by introducing us to Cora Zeng who is really struggling. The more I read, the more I fell in love with her, which horror readers know is dangerous territory for your feelings.
The way Kylie Lee Baker writes about grief, loneliness, racial tension, and the rise in anti-Asian hate feels incredibly grounded and honest—never heavy-handed, just real. Real and painful, and perfectly attuned to a very specific time in history. Cora Zeng is one of the most compelling characters I’ve read in a while. I genuinely wanted to be her friend. She's smart, sharp, a little messed up (in a very human way), and you root for her immediately. Her emotional arc is handled so well that when things get intense, you feel it. The stakes felt personal, and I was fully invested.
The crime scene cleanup crew she works with, who are also sorta-kinda her friends, are my favorite aspect of this story. I would read a spin-off just about them. Their banter, their weird humor, and the way they support each other offset all the dark, gruesome events that unfold around them. They’re hilarious and weird in a way that feels authentic—not quirky for the sake of it. What worked for me was the blend of genres. You’ve got ghosts, Chinese folklore, a serial killer plot, and a genuinely scary atmosphere, but it never feels out of balance. Everything ties together naturally, and the pacing is super tight. I didn’t want to put it down, and honestly, I didn't.
Final Recommendation: I wasn’t expecting this book to hit me on so many levels—there are moments that made me laugh out loud, others that made me emotional, and at least one or two scenes that straight-up freaked me out. It’s rare to find a story that can do all of that without losing its voice, but this one pulls it off. By the end of it, and after I read the author's note, I was a wreck. This book pulled so many emotions out of me like only horror can
In my top 10 horror novels of 2025 for sure
Comps: The Fervor by Alma Katsu, The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones, A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher
April 11th, 2025:
This is a serious emotional rollercoaster. It made me laugh, it scared me so bad, but mostly--
Listen,
After I finished (just now) I looked out the kitchen window at this wild rabbit eating clover in my yard and bawled my eyes out. I don't understand why people are so full of hate and malice and do such terrible things to other people.
It hurts my heart so badly.
This book is set during the COVID pandemic of 2020 --the tide of Asian hate and the BLM protests for the injustices committed against Black lives by authorities put in place to protect all of us And now look where we are.
I fucking hate it here. It never ends.
This is a good book. My favorite so far this year. A full review when I can get my shit together.
Page Count: 304
Publisher: MIRA BOOKS
Format: NetGalley/eBook
Other Books I Enjoyed by This Author: First time reading
Affiliate Link: https://bookshop.org/a/7576/978077836...
Release Date: April 29th, 2025
General Genre: Horror, Suspense & Thriller, Crime
Sub-Genre/Themes: Dark Comedy, Crime Scene Cleanup, COVID-19 Pandemic, Asian Hate, Serial Killer, Grief/Death of a Sister, Gory & Violent, Ghost/Paranormal, Chinese Folklore, Friendship, Feeling Like an Outsider, Sibling Rivalry, Murder, Mental Illness, OCD, NYC
Writing Style: Character-Driven, Compelling, High-Stakes, Gruesome
What You Need to Know: Cora Zeng, a crime scene cleaner, is haunted by her sister Delilah's murder - she was pushed in front of a train by a killer who yelled "bat eater." Crime scenes don't faze her, but germs and hidden viruses do. Since the murder, reality blurs for Cora, and she ignores her aunt's advice to prepare for the Hungry Ghost Festival. Despite her efforts, she can't shake the dread as bat carcasses appear at crime scenes, and all her recent cleanups involve East Asian women. Cora will soon learn you can't ignore hungry ghosts.
My Reading Experience: This book surprised me. Set during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng captures that strange, anxious, isolating time by introducing us to Cora Zeng who is really struggling. The more I read, the more I fell in love with her, which horror readers know is dangerous territory for your feelings.
The way Kylie Lee Baker writes about grief, loneliness, racial tension, and the rise in anti-Asian hate feels incredibly grounded and honest—never heavy-handed, just real. Real and painful, and perfectly attuned to a very specific time in history. Cora Zeng is one of the most compelling characters I’ve read in a while. I genuinely wanted to be her friend. She's smart, sharp, a little messed up (in a very human way), and you root for her immediately. Her emotional arc is handled so well that when things get intense, you feel it. The stakes felt personal, and I was fully invested.
The crime scene cleanup crew she works with, who are also sorta-kinda her friends, are my favorite aspect of this story. I would read a spin-off just about them. Their banter, their weird humor, and the way they support each other offset all the dark, gruesome events that unfold around them. They’re hilarious and weird in a way that feels authentic—not quirky for the sake of it. What worked for me was the blend of genres. You’ve got ghosts, Chinese folklore, a serial killer plot, and a genuinely scary atmosphere, but it never feels out of balance. Everything ties together naturally, and the pacing is super tight. I didn’t want to put it down, and honestly, I didn't.
Final Recommendation: I wasn’t expecting this book to hit me on so many levels—there are moments that made me laugh out loud, others that made me emotional, and at least one or two scenes that straight-up freaked me out. It’s rare to find a story that can do all of that without losing its voice, but this one pulls it off. By the end of it, and after I read the author's note, I was a wreck. This book pulled so many emotions out of me like only horror can
In my top 10 horror novels of 2025 for sure
Comps: The Fervor by Alma Katsu, The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones, A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher
April 11th, 2025:
This is a serious emotional rollercoaster. It made me laugh, it scared me so bad, but mostly--
Listen,
After I finished (just now) I looked out the kitchen window at this wild rabbit eating clover in my yard and bawled my eyes out. I don't understand why people are so full of hate and malice and do such terrible things to other people.
It hurts my heart so badly.
This book is set during the COVID pandemic of 2020 --the tide of Asian hate and the BLM protests for the injustices committed against Black lives by authorities put in place to protect all of us And now look where we are.
I fucking hate it here. It never ends.
This is a good book. My favorite so far this year. A full review when I can get my shit together.
November 3, 2025
Wow!!! What a read 🥹 Anna Jane, you were so right!
I was hooked from the very beginning. Even though I knew this would happen to Delilah 😭, reading that scene still wasn’t easy at all.
‼️ If anyone’s planning to read this, pleaseeee check the trigger warnings first! It has lots of heavy stuff and gore. ‼️
I’m honestly so impressed by how Miss Author portrayed everything 🥹🫶 This was not an easy read. There are some fun moments and jokes between friends, but overall it’s a really heavy story, still, it’s so interesting that I just couldn’t put it down 🙂↕️
Idc, but Cora Zeng is literally the BEST!!! She’s so strong, even though she doesn’t always believe it herself. She’s fearless and can handle things on her own, she doesn’t need anyone to fight her battles. Her emotions toward Delilah are completely understandable 🥹🫂 I get my girl!!!
Harvey 😭 I’ll never get over him and Yifei 😭 I was NOT expecting that!!! Okay, little story time: while I was reading, Harvey made me laugh so much. He’s such a fun character 🥹 even after everything he’s been through. So I posted an annotation on my Insta story that said, “😭😭😭 istg Harvey is the best character.” Then I went back to reading… and the very next chapter BOOM 💥. I’m not gonna spoil anything 😭 but I was NOT READY!!! NOOOOOO 😭😭😭😭 And Yifei 😭😭 NOOOO!!! She’s literally the savior baddie 😝 and I loved every single argument between Yifei and Harvey 🤭🙂↕️ MY GIRL DID NOT DESERVE THAT 😭😭
Also, that one scene where Cora was on the phone with Auntie Zeng, and Auntie Zeng said, “Run. Right now.” AHHHHHHH literal goosebumps and chills 👀 One of the best scenes!! 🤭
This was such a good read — perfect for spooky season and creepy vibes 🦇 The title might sound scary at first, but once you start reading, you’ll totally understand why it’s called that 🫠 Those people really pissed me off with how they treated my girl Cora 😠 And the emotional parts… my heart broke 💔
I just want to say thank youuuu to to my cutie Anna Jane for recommending this amazing book 🥹 I loved every single second of it. ILYSMMM!!! 🫶
That’s it, guys. Love y’all 🫶🦇
———————————————
🦇༉‧₊˚. pre-read 🦇༉‧₊˚.
The blurb sounds so intriguing 👀 I’m sooo excited to dive in 🦇 Thankyouuuu so much to my cutie Anna Jane for recommending this to me. I’m so readyyy 🤭
I was hooked from the very beginning. Even though I knew this would happen to Delilah 😭, reading that scene still wasn’t easy at all.
‼️ If anyone’s planning to read this, pleaseeee check the trigger warnings first! It has lots of heavy stuff and gore. ‼️
I’m honestly so impressed by how Miss Author portrayed everything 🥹🫶 This was not an easy read. There are some fun moments and jokes between friends, but overall it’s a really heavy story, still, it’s so interesting that I just couldn’t put it down 🙂↕️
Idc, but Cora Zeng is literally the BEST!!! She’s so strong, even though she doesn’t always believe it herself. She’s fearless and can handle things on her own, she doesn’t need anyone to fight her battles. Her emotions toward Delilah are completely understandable 🥹🫂 I get my girl!!!
Harvey 😭 I’ll never get over him and Yifei 😭 I was NOT expecting that!!! Okay, little story time: while I was reading, Harvey made me laugh so much. He’s such a fun character 🥹 even after everything he’s been through. So I posted an annotation on my Insta story that said, “😭😭😭 istg Harvey is the best character.” Then I went back to reading… and the very next chapter BOOM 💥. I’m not gonna spoil anything 😭 but I was NOT READY!!! NOOOOOO 😭😭😭😭 And Yifei 😭😭 NOOOO!!! She’s literally the savior baddie 😝 and I loved every single argument between Yifei and Harvey 🤭🙂↕️ MY GIRL DID NOT DESERVE THAT 😭😭
Also, that one scene where Cora was on the phone with Auntie Zeng, and Auntie Zeng said, “Run. Right now.” AHHHHHHH literal goosebumps and chills 👀 One of the best scenes!! 🤭
This was such a good read — perfect for spooky season and creepy vibes 🦇 The title might sound scary at first, but once you start reading, you’ll totally understand why it’s called that 🫠 Those people really pissed me off with how they treated my girl Cora 😠 And the emotional parts… my heart broke 💔
I just want to say thank youuuu to to my cutie Anna Jane for recommending this amazing book 🥹 I loved every single second of it. ILYSMMM!!! 🫶
That’s it, guys. Love y’all 🫶🦇
———————————————
🦇༉‧₊˚. pre-read 🦇༉‧₊˚.
The blurb sounds so intriguing 👀 I’m sooo excited to dive in 🦇 Thankyouuuu so much to my cutie Anna Jane for recommending this to me. I’m so readyyy 🤭
August 31, 2025
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
I’m pretty sure I’ll be a hungry ghost after I die. Not because of an untimely, gruesome death that leaves my spirit restless and seeking closure, but because I’m just always hungry. Even when I’m not hungry, I’m hungry. I stress eat, and I’m guessing dying will be stressful.
Anyway, about this book… it was good. It was really good. It was beautifully written, chock-full of highlightable prose. It went to unexpected places, with vivid imagery and haunting ambience leading the way. The characters felt knowable, never too far outside of arms reach.
It was a Covid novel without relying upon Covid to do the heavy lifting. It only buttressed an already captivating tale. The New York setting felt necessary but not cliche.
All in all, this book surprised me in nothing but good ways. I’ll definitely be looking out for writhing hands reaching out from the darkest crevices in my house.
I’m pretty sure I’ll be a hungry ghost after I die. Not because of an untimely, gruesome death that leaves my spirit restless and seeking closure, but because I’m just always hungry. Even when I’m not hungry, I’m hungry. I stress eat, and I’m guessing dying will be stressful.
Anyway, about this book… it was good. It was really good. It was beautifully written, chock-full of highlightable prose. It went to unexpected places, with vivid imagery and haunting ambience leading the way. The characters felt knowable, never too far outside of arms reach.
It was a Covid novel without relying upon Covid to do the heavy lifting. It only buttressed an already captivating tale. The New York setting felt necessary but not cliche.
All in all, this book surprised me in nothing but good ways. I’ll definitely be looking out for writhing hands reaching out from the darkest crevices in my house.
December 11, 2025
Kylie Lee Baker’s best work yet!
I fear if I do not get my hands on a physical arc I will die, and then come back as a hungry ghost.
I don’t even know what to write for this review, I’m still speechless days after reading. This was utter perfection. How do you describe perfection?
This was EVERYTHING!
I fear so many of the 5⭐️ reviewers before me have done such an amazing job detailing the merits and nuances of this book, that anything I have to say with pale in comparison. Please go check out a few of my favorites if you need additional information to help convince you to pick up this book…
Mai's Review | Esta's Review | AM's Review
Here goes nothing…
If you read this book and feel nothing, I must assume you have no soul.
KLB writes absolutely stunning prose that is full of so much emotion and imagery. The juxtaposition of aforementioned beautiful prose combined with detailed gore elicits visceral reactions to both body and mind.
The paranormal aspects (ghosts) and murder mystery had my heart pounding and my mind questioning the sanity of the narrator - often I found myself wondering if the ghosts were real. The portrayal of the Asian experience was raw and heart-breaking. Grief, family, friendships, and self-discovery are just some of the themes KLB tackles with unmatched skill.
This book is dark, yet there is light at the end. Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng is like nothing I have ever read - I feel privileged to have experienced it.
Audiobook Narration: Natalie Naudus might be my new favorite audiobook narrator! She brought this book to life! I read this via ebook on 12/31/24 - as soon as I got the audiobook I started it again and devoured it in a day! I was obsessed with this book before and now, on audio, I'm full FERAL for this book. 10/10 would recommend!
5⭐️ | IG | TikTok |
Thank you NetGalley and HTP for sending this book (eARC & ALC) for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
I fear if I do not get my hands on a physical arc I will die, and then come back as a hungry ghost.
I don’t even know what to write for this review, I’m still speechless days after reading. This was utter perfection. How do you describe perfection?
This was EVERYTHING!
I fear so many of the 5⭐️ reviewers before me have done such an amazing job detailing the merits and nuances of this book, that anything I have to say with pale in comparison. Please go check out a few of my favorites if you need additional information to help convince you to pick up this book…
Mai's Review | Esta's Review | AM's Review
Here goes nothing…
If you read this book and feel nothing, I must assume you have no soul.
KLB writes absolutely stunning prose that is full of so much emotion and imagery. The juxtaposition of aforementioned beautiful prose combined with detailed gore elicits visceral reactions to both body and mind.
The paranormal aspects (ghosts) and murder mystery had my heart pounding and my mind questioning the sanity of the narrator - often I found myself wondering if the ghosts were real. The portrayal of the Asian experience was raw and heart-breaking. Grief, family, friendships, and self-discovery are just some of the themes KLB tackles with unmatched skill.
This book is dark, yet there is light at the end. Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng is like nothing I have ever read - I feel privileged to have experienced it.
Audiobook Narration: Natalie Naudus might be my new favorite audiobook narrator! She brought this book to life! I read this via ebook on 12/31/24 - as soon as I got the audiobook I started it again and devoured it in a day! I was obsessed with this book before and now, on audio, I'm full FERAL for this book. 10/10 would recommend!
5⭐️ | IG | TikTok |
Thank you NetGalley and HTP for sending this book (eARC & ALC) for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
April 29, 2025
There is a moment near the closing of Bat Eater And Other Names For Cora Zeng where the title character stands on a New York City subway platform wearing two face masks. As Cora waits for her train, a man in a Yankees cap briskly brushes past her, sneers at her with distaste and calls her a “sheep”, presumably for “masking up” in the post-vaccine era of the Covid-19 pandemic. For anyone that followed any semblance of safety measures when the pandemic was the most pressing concern on most everyone’s mind, these kinds of interactions began to feel inevitable at a certain point as a growing population began to see the virus as more of a conspiracy to control citizens rather than a rampant worldwide health issue.
But at the point in Bat Eater when this specific interaction occurs, being called a “sheep” was almost a relief in comparison to the vile rhetoric that had been spewed at Cora and the violence that had been aimed at her since the beginning of 2020 as a young Chinese-American woman living in a version of New York City that is firmly planted in the early stages of the virus.
Bat Eater focuses on the story of Cora Zeng, a 24 year old woman born from a Chinese father and a white mother, both who abandon her at a young age to the care of various aunts and occasionally to the mother of her older sister, Delilah. Cora’s father snuck back to China after fathering two daughters in the States with two different women, leaving them to fend for themselves with monthly stipends that he sends each month from the warmth of his new home with his new family. Cora’s mother took off to join a cult disguised as a self-sufficient farming commune after declaring that being a mother to Cora was too difficult and too time-consuming.
After witnessing the death of her older sister at the dawn of the pandemic in a brutal hate crime in which she is shoved in front of a moving subway train after being needled by a strange man as a “bat eater”, Cora falls into the steady rhythm of a life in which she attempts to push away the memories of her connection and of her near blind devotion to her older sister. Her new apartment is small, empty of furniture and belongings and only serves to function as a place to sleep and to take scalding hot showers. While her new job working with a small crew doing crime scene clean-up in Chinatown both tantalizes and horrifies her germaphobic OCD nature.
With Delilah having previously been the north star that unwillingly guided her younger sister, Cora is now attempting to go through this new life purposely without having much of a life to show for it. She is propped up financially by both her Auntie Lois in exchange for visits to her aunt’s Christian-based church, as well as her Auntie Zeng who endlessly dabbles in what Cora writes off as ancient Chinese mysticism and only makes the effort to listen to as her aunt is the only one willing to call upon her older brother, Cora’s father, to remind him to transfer money to support the daughter that he willingly abandoned. Having always been at the whims of everyone that was charged to raise her and either failed or hounded by them, Cora is left with no sense of who she really is or even who she wants to be.
She begins to notice little inconsistencies starting to occur, such as small food items missing from her apartment, fraying on the couch where there previously was none, even bite marks on the corner of her kitchen table that she knows are fresh. Having previously kept her two co-workers - the sarcastic, practical kleptomaniac Yifei and the gore-obsessed goofball Harvey - at arms-length, she hesitantly makes them aware of the sheer amount of recent, almost supernatural occurrences that are making her feel as if she is losing her mind. Half-expecting them to laugh off everything that she says, Cora is shocked when both Yifei and Harvey spring into action and rally around her without thinking twice.
In this midst of this thrown-together trio of friends working together to “fix” Cora, a disturbing trend begins to occur at their crime scene cleanups as all of the victims turn out to be young women of Asian descent that are all presented with some sort of bat motif - whether it be a live bat found shoved inside of a bathtub drain or a blood mural painted on the wall in the shape of a large bat. Paired with the earlier death of Cora’s sister, these bat-based coincidences become far too much to ignore and Cora and her co-workers descend into a mystery that is mired in spiritual folklore, racism and serial killers.
My only gripe with Kylie Lee Baker’s wonderful novel is that I would have loved to spend even more time with Cora, Yifei and Harvey as a trio. Their burgeoning friendship is one of the most enjoyable elements of this story as it brings to mind those sorts of circumstantial friendships that are only possible when you are thrown together into the muck of working with one another at a young age; a unique type of friendship that is often allowed to go deeper as it isn’t held back by the constraints of these new acquaintances knowing every sordid detail of your past. As the three friends begin to trust each other, their own horrifying, trauma-filled backgrounds open up wide and they all begin to understand that they might be more connected than they previously thought.
With Bat Eater, Kylie Lee Baker has accomplished a rare thing in modern writing as she has found a way to combine a deeply creepy mystical horror tale with a taut suspense thriller and lay those distinct pieces over the top of very real and very poignant commentary about the state of racism, prejudice and hate that continues to be rampant in the United States. It’s vitally important that we all learn to approach situations like a worldwide pandemic with open minds and are able to view them through the lenses of people whose experiences are far different and often far more dangerous than our own. Without that sense of being able to understand each other, we are doomed to keep repeating the same mistakes that continue to divide us.
Thank you to MIRA Books, HarperCollins Publishers and NetGalley for the incredible opportunity to receive and review an advanced copy of a book that I will have on my mind for quite a while.
But at the point in Bat Eater when this specific interaction occurs, being called a “sheep” was almost a relief in comparison to the vile rhetoric that had been spewed at Cora and the violence that had been aimed at her since the beginning of 2020 as a young Chinese-American woman living in a version of New York City that is firmly planted in the early stages of the virus.
Bat Eater focuses on the story of Cora Zeng, a 24 year old woman born from a Chinese father and a white mother, both who abandon her at a young age to the care of various aunts and occasionally to the mother of her older sister, Delilah. Cora’s father snuck back to China after fathering two daughters in the States with two different women, leaving them to fend for themselves with monthly stipends that he sends each month from the warmth of his new home with his new family. Cora’s mother took off to join a cult disguised as a self-sufficient farming commune after declaring that being a mother to Cora was too difficult and too time-consuming.
After witnessing the death of her older sister at the dawn of the pandemic in a brutal hate crime in which she is shoved in front of a moving subway train after being needled by a strange man as a “bat eater”, Cora falls into the steady rhythm of a life in which she attempts to push away the memories of her connection and of her near blind devotion to her older sister. Her new apartment is small, empty of furniture and belongings and only serves to function as a place to sleep and to take scalding hot showers. While her new job working with a small crew doing crime scene clean-up in Chinatown both tantalizes and horrifies her germaphobic OCD nature.
With Delilah having previously been the north star that unwillingly guided her younger sister, Cora is now attempting to go through this new life purposely without having much of a life to show for it. She is propped up financially by both her Auntie Lois in exchange for visits to her aunt’s Christian-based church, as well as her Auntie Zeng who endlessly dabbles in what Cora writes off as ancient Chinese mysticism and only makes the effort to listen to as her aunt is the only one willing to call upon her older brother, Cora’s father, to remind him to transfer money to support the daughter that he willingly abandoned. Having always been at the whims of everyone that was charged to raise her and either failed or hounded by them, Cora is left with no sense of who she really is or even who she wants to be.
She begins to notice little inconsistencies starting to occur, such as small food items missing from her apartment, fraying on the couch where there previously was none, even bite marks on the corner of her kitchen table that she knows are fresh. Having previously kept her two co-workers - the sarcastic, practical kleptomaniac Yifei and the gore-obsessed goofball Harvey - at arms-length, she hesitantly makes them aware of the sheer amount of recent, almost supernatural occurrences that are making her feel as if she is losing her mind. Half-expecting them to laugh off everything that she says, Cora is shocked when both Yifei and Harvey spring into action and rally around her without thinking twice.
In this midst of this thrown-together trio of friends working together to “fix” Cora, a disturbing trend begins to occur at their crime scene cleanups as all of the victims turn out to be young women of Asian descent that are all presented with some sort of bat motif - whether it be a live bat found shoved inside of a bathtub drain or a blood mural painted on the wall in the shape of a large bat. Paired with the earlier death of Cora’s sister, these bat-based coincidences become far too much to ignore and Cora and her co-workers descend into a mystery that is mired in spiritual folklore, racism and serial killers.
My only gripe with Kylie Lee Baker’s wonderful novel is that I would have loved to spend even more time with Cora, Yifei and Harvey as a trio. Their burgeoning friendship is one of the most enjoyable elements of this story as it brings to mind those sorts of circumstantial friendships that are only possible when you are thrown together into the muck of working with one another at a young age; a unique type of friendship that is often allowed to go deeper as it isn’t held back by the constraints of these new acquaintances knowing every sordid detail of your past. As the three friends begin to trust each other, their own horrifying, trauma-filled backgrounds open up wide and they all begin to understand that they might be more connected than they previously thought.
With Bat Eater, Kylie Lee Baker has accomplished a rare thing in modern writing as she has found a way to combine a deeply creepy mystical horror tale with a taut suspense thriller and lay those distinct pieces over the top of very real and very poignant commentary about the state of racism, prejudice and hate that continues to be rampant in the United States. It’s vitally important that we all learn to approach situations like a worldwide pandemic with open minds and are able to view them through the lenses of people whose experiences are far different and often far more dangerous than our own. Without that sense of being able to understand each other, we are doomed to keep repeating the same mistakes that continue to divide us.
Thank you to MIRA Books, HarperCollins Publishers and NetGalley for the incredible opportunity to receive and review an advanced copy of a book that I will have on my mind for quite a while.
November 11, 2025
I’m not ok 😭
Read for my Halloween Horror reading vlog: https://youtu.be/Lgu4XOoLWGk
Written review to come!
You can find me on...
Youtube | Instagram | TikTok
You can join our book club over on Patreon...
PBB Book Club
Read for my Halloween Horror reading vlog: https://youtu.be/Lgu4XOoLWGk
Written review to come!
You can find me on...
Youtube | Instagram | TikTok
You can join our book club over on Patreon...
PBB Book Club
October 23, 2024
This started off strong. Very interesting and intense but around 30% it just starts to drag and never recovers. Cora has no personality and her friends/co-workers are far more fascinating. This book will depress you for sure. The cover art is the best thing about this book. I should have DNFd this one. Not for me. Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC
April 15, 2026
Holy shit. What a ride.
I notoriously don't like horror films, because I'm a big baby that hides behind my hands, but leaves just enough space between my fingers to see, thus furthering the problem. This doesn't span formats. I enjoy the genre in books. Asian horror is particularly gruesome, and I love what Kylie did with it. This is my first book by her, and certainly won't be the last.
I can talk about COVID and Asian racism all day. I imagine some of you are tired of that. This book isn't for you. I won't say Asians have it worse than other minorities, but there is a particular brand of racism that exists for us. I read once that some people don't even consider us POC, because our skin is light. First of all, not all Asians have light skin. The continent spans many countries, of which most are not East Asia. Second of all, fuck you.
Cora Zeng is a biracial Chinese American crime scene cleaner and a germaphobe. She excessively washes her hands, uses sanitizer until her hands bleed, and takes more precautions than the average person. The casual racism she is dealt feels very familiar.
Cora grew up with her half sister Delilah. Delilah's mother is Chinese and she grew up speaking several dialects. Cora struggles with Mandarin, as her mother is white.
The book starts off during March 2020. The scene is New York City. The sisters are at a train station. As they hover ever closer to the edge, a white man pushes Delilah into an oncoming train. Cora spends the entirety of the book dealing with the repercussions of this. This is where her job as a crime scene cleaner comes into play. Most of the crime scenes she is called in to clean are young Asian American women. A serial killer is on the loose.
What else is on the loose? Delilah's hungry ghost. I didn't grow up with this mythos, but hungry ghosts are very prevalent in East Asian, in particular, Chinese culture. The story is beautifully intertwined between family, horror, and racism, and I loved every second.
📱 Thank you to NetGalley and MIRA
I notoriously don't like horror films, because I'm a big baby that hides behind my hands, but leaves just enough space between my fingers to see, thus furthering the problem. This doesn't span formats. I enjoy the genre in books. Asian horror is particularly gruesome, and I love what Kylie did with it. This is my first book by her, and certainly won't be the last.
I can talk about COVID and Asian racism all day. I imagine some of you are tired of that. This book isn't for you. I won't say Asians have it worse than other minorities, but there is a particular brand of racism that exists for us. I read once that some people don't even consider us POC, because our skin is light. First of all, not all Asians have light skin. The continent spans many countries, of which most are not East Asia. Second of all, fuck you.
Cora Zeng is a biracial Chinese American crime scene cleaner and a germaphobe. She excessively washes her hands, uses sanitizer until her hands bleed, and takes more precautions than the average person. The casual racism she is dealt feels very familiar.
Cora grew up with her half sister Delilah. Delilah's mother is Chinese and she grew up speaking several dialects. Cora struggles with Mandarin, as her mother is white.
The book starts off during March 2020. The scene is New York City. The sisters are at a train station. As they hover ever closer to the edge, a white man pushes Delilah into an oncoming train. Cora spends the entirety of the book dealing with the repercussions of this. This is where her job as a crime scene cleaner comes into play. Most of the crime scenes she is called in to clean are young Asian American women. A serial killer is on the loose.
What else is on the loose? Delilah's hungry ghost. I didn't grow up with this mythos, but hungry ghosts are very prevalent in East Asian, in particular, Chinese culture. The story is beautifully intertwined between family, horror, and racism, and I loved every second.
📱 Thank you to NetGalley and MIRA
October 13, 2024
The first few chapters of this were so completely and totally knock-out beautiful, that I didn’t want to do anything else but keep reading.
Unfortunately, it unraveled more and more as the story went on.
The premise, as well as the reflection from a devastating period in our recent history is timely, powerful and necessary. There were also some truly terrifying horror moments in here.
But I think it just dragged a little bit too much in places for me to have been immersed, from start to finish.
Unfortunately, it unraveled more and more as the story went on.
The premise, as well as the reflection from a devastating period in our recent history is timely, powerful and necessary. There were also some truly terrifying horror moments in here.
But I think it just dragged a little bit too much in places for me to have been immersed, from start to finish.
March 3, 2025
4.25 stars! 🌟 Huge thanks to Harlequin Audio & NetGalley for the ALC! 💌
Wow. Where do I even start?! This book absolutely wrecked me in the BEST way! Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker is everything you didn’t know you needed in a horror novel—gory, eerie, and uncomfortably . Seriously, if you’re into dark, twisted stories, this one is for you. 💀🔥
Cora Zeng is a crime scene cleaner in the thick of the COVID pandemic, and she's living with trauma, ghosts, and a whole lot of germs (I felt that in my bones!). 🦠 After witnessing her sister’s brutal murder, Cora’s life spirals into a nightmare of superstition, racism, and a serial killer targeting Asian women. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg—enter the Hungry Ghost Festival and a mysterious connection to dead bats, and you’ve got yourself a seriously spooky ride. 🦇👻
What I LOVED:
✅ The tension and atmosphere: Seriously, I felt like I was suffocating right alongside Cora. The claustrophobic feeling of being trapped in her own head and the dark corners of Chinatown had me on edge the whole time.
✅ The social commentary: Kylie nails it. Racism during COVID is front and center, and it’s absolutely heartbreaking to read. The way Cora deals with this hate while battling the supernatural was so powerful.
✅ Cora’s character: She’s messed up in all the right ways—haunted by her sister’s death, pushing everyone away, but also trying to hold onto what’s left of herself. Her growth? Tough to watch, but so worth it.
✅ The mythology: The Hungry Ghost Festival vibes were creepy as heck and felt like a perfect parallel to everything Cora was dealing with. 🏮👀
What could’ve been better:
❌ The pacing: It sometimes dragged a little bit, and I wish we’d gotten more from the side characters. But hey, that’s a small complaint in the grand scheme of things. 👀
❌ The ending: Talk about relentless! Dark, heavy, and emotional, but if you love stories that don’t pull punches, you’ll love it. Heartbreaking doesn’t even cover it. 💔
Final thoughts: This book is haunting, gory, and so much more than just a typical horror novel. It tackles grief, racism, and a whole lot of supernatural terror. If you’re looking for a book that makes you feel deeply and question everything, this is it! 💥🌑
Highly recommend this one, especially if you're a fan of true crime, supernatural horror, and stories that leave you thinking long after the last page. 🚨
Wow. Where do I even start?! This book absolutely wrecked me in the BEST way! Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker is everything you didn’t know you needed in a horror novel—gory, eerie, and uncomfortably . Seriously, if you’re into dark, twisted stories, this one is for you. 💀🔥
Cora Zeng is a crime scene cleaner in the thick of the COVID pandemic, and she's living with trauma, ghosts, and a whole lot of germs (I felt that in my bones!). 🦠 After witnessing her sister’s brutal murder, Cora’s life spirals into a nightmare of superstition, racism, and a serial killer targeting Asian women. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg—enter the Hungry Ghost Festival and a mysterious connection to dead bats, and you’ve got yourself a seriously spooky ride. 🦇👻
What I LOVED:
✅ The tension and atmosphere: Seriously, I felt like I was suffocating right alongside Cora. The claustrophobic feeling of being trapped in her own head and the dark corners of Chinatown had me on edge the whole time.
✅ The social commentary: Kylie nails it. Racism during COVID is front and center, and it’s absolutely heartbreaking to read. The way Cora deals with this hate while battling the supernatural was so powerful.
✅ Cora’s character: She’s messed up in all the right ways—haunted by her sister’s death, pushing everyone away, but also trying to hold onto what’s left of herself. Her growth? Tough to watch, but so worth it.
✅ The mythology: The Hungry Ghost Festival vibes were creepy as heck and felt like a perfect parallel to everything Cora was dealing with. 🏮👀
What could’ve been better:
❌ The pacing: It sometimes dragged a little bit, and I wish we’d gotten more from the side characters. But hey, that’s a small complaint in the grand scheme of things. 👀
❌ The ending: Talk about relentless! Dark, heavy, and emotional, but if you love stories that don’t pull punches, you’ll love it. Heartbreaking doesn’t even cover it. 💔
Final thoughts: This book is haunting, gory, and so much more than just a typical horror novel. It tackles grief, racism, and a whole lot of supernatural terror. If you’re looking for a book that makes you feel deeply and question everything, this is it! 💥🌑
Highly recommend this one, especially if you're a fan of true crime, supernatural horror, and stories that leave you thinking long after the last page. 🚨
March 18, 2026
**4.5-stars**
Bat Eat and Other Names for Cora Zeng can officially be noted as the only novel that features the backdrop of the COVID pandemic that I've actually enjoyed.
Many have tried it, but none, IMO, have been able to pull it off with the power and creativity of Kylie Lee Baker. I've been impressed by Baker's writing in the past, and the fact that she could pull me into this so easily, is a testament to her spectacular writing chops.
In Bat Eater we follow Cora Zeng, who recently lost her sister, Delilah, after she was pushed in front of a train in a vacant subway station. Cora witnessed the whole thing, and will never forget the murderer uttering, 'bat eater', as he pushed the unsuspecting Delilah onto the tracks.
In her job as a crime scene cleaner, Cora, is used to cleaning away the goriest scenes that you could ever imagine, but her sister's end is one brutal scene that will forever be seared into her brain.
As the pandemic continues around them, Cora and her two coworkers, Yifei and Harvey, get called to scene after scene of brutalized Asian women, where they're also finding the bodies of bats. This cannot be a coincidence, can it?
They start to fear a killer could be targeting their community, but even if there is, what can they do about it?
In addition to the horrid crimes occurring all around them, Cora failed to adequately honor the Hungry Ghost Festival as her Aunt advised her to, and trust me, she should have. Unfortunately, it seems Cora's gonna pay the price for that.
This story is exquisitely told. I feel like it won't be for everyone, just due to the whole COVID-backdrop, but for the people who try it out, I think you'd be hard-pressed not to get pulled into Cora's world.
I really enjoyed getting her experience and perspective, which although fictional, I'm sure is very much based in true life. Her relationship with her sister, aunts and co-workers, was also so well done and I liked watching the evolution of Cora's character over the course of the story.
This isn't an uplifting story, by any stretch of the imagination, but it has a lot of powerful moments examining society and humanity. I also, as always, was very impressed with Baker's horror imagery. The descriptions and scene-setting truly make the story come to life.
In a way, I almost wanted more. There were certain areas that I would have enjoyed built-out even more than they were. For example, Cora's relationships and interactions with her Aunts.
With this being said, having this short and punchy also made it highly-effective. The mystery and horror were equally intriguing. I listened to the audiobook, and would recommend that format, as I feel the narration style fit the story quite well.
Thank you to the publisher, MIRA and Harlequin Audio, for providing me copies to read and review. I was a fan of Kylie Lee Baker before, but this has taken her to a whole new level for me. I can't wait to see what she does next!
.
Bat Eat and Other Names for Cora Zeng can officially be noted as the only novel that features the backdrop of the COVID pandemic that I've actually enjoyed.
Many have tried it, but none, IMO, have been able to pull it off with the power and creativity of Kylie Lee Baker. I've been impressed by Baker's writing in the past, and the fact that she could pull me into this so easily, is a testament to her spectacular writing chops.
In Bat Eater we follow Cora Zeng, who recently lost her sister, Delilah, after she was pushed in front of a train in a vacant subway station. Cora witnessed the whole thing, and will never forget the murderer uttering, 'bat eater', as he pushed the unsuspecting Delilah onto the tracks.
In her job as a crime scene cleaner, Cora, is used to cleaning away the goriest scenes that you could ever imagine, but her sister's end is one brutal scene that will forever be seared into her brain.
As the pandemic continues around them, Cora and her two coworkers, Yifei and Harvey, get called to scene after scene of brutalized Asian women, where they're also finding the bodies of bats. This cannot be a coincidence, can it?
They start to fear a killer could be targeting their community, but even if there is, what can they do about it?
In addition to the horrid crimes occurring all around them, Cora failed to adequately honor the Hungry Ghost Festival as her Aunt advised her to, and trust me, she should have. Unfortunately, it seems Cora's gonna pay the price for that.
This story is exquisitely told. I feel like it won't be for everyone, just due to the whole COVID-backdrop, but for the people who try it out, I think you'd be hard-pressed not to get pulled into Cora's world.
I really enjoyed getting her experience and perspective, which although fictional, I'm sure is very much based in true life. Her relationship with her sister, aunts and co-workers, was also so well done and I liked watching the evolution of Cora's character over the course of the story.
This isn't an uplifting story, by any stretch of the imagination, but it has a lot of powerful moments examining society and humanity. I also, as always, was very impressed with Baker's horror imagery. The descriptions and scene-setting truly make the story come to life.
In a way, I almost wanted more. There were certain areas that I would have enjoyed built-out even more than they were. For example, Cora's relationships and interactions with her Aunts.
With this being said, having this short and punchy also made it highly-effective. The mystery and horror were equally intriguing. I listened to the audiobook, and would recommend that format, as I feel the narration style fit the story quite well.
Thank you to the publisher, MIRA and Harlequin Audio, for providing me copies to read and review. I was a fan of Kylie Lee Baker before, but this has taken her to a whole new level for me. I can't wait to see what she does next!
.
April 15, 2026
I'm not sure if I just read a darkly honest and horrifyingly realistic analysis of Covid and its aftermath—exposing how it pushed people to the brink of survival and fueled illogical hatred and racism against Chinese people (a phenomenon that might be called Sinophobia)—or if I just experienced a spine-tingling, gory ghost story intertwined with a serial killer murder mystery, featuring mutated bats at crime scenes. I believe I encountered both, making this book uniquely unconventional and thought-provoking, while also turning readers into scream queens with its heart-throbbing tension. I warn you, my friends, this is one of the best books I've read, but it is truly hard to digest. It’s extraordinarily gory, stomach-churning, jaw-dropping, and eye-popping with fear. There are numerous triggering and graphic scenes of violence that realistically portray the changing face of New York during the pandemic, as people navigate their way through the darkness.
The story opens with 24-year-old Chinese woman Cora Zeng and her sister Delilah waiting for the subway at an abandoned station. A mysterious man appears as the train approaches, utters the word "bat eater," and pushes Delilah onto the tracks, resulting in her brutal death before Cora's eyes. Unfortunately, the man escapes.
In the following chapter, we find Cora working as a crime scene cleaner, washing away the cruelest and goriest remains of bodies, mostly those of Chinese people targeted by a mysterious serial killer who leaves mutilated bats at the crime scenes.
Cora faces not only a foreboding situation but also struggles with grief and guilt as a sister who always lived in the shadow of her stepsister. We learn about her estranged relationship with her parents, her father's abandonment to form a new family in China, her cult-member mother's misuse of her college fund, and Delilah's impending departure from her life (ironically, her last words before she died). Cora's guilt, abandonment, resentment, and anger evolve into mental issues, including OCD. When she learns about the Chinese myth of hungry ghosts returning to fulfill their cravings, she initially dismisses it until she notices food disappearing from the house and encounters what remains of her sister's ghost.
Unable to consult her two eccentric aunties—one a pyromaniac, the other overly conservative—Cora turns to her two coworkers, Yifei and Harvey, who also deal with the horror of bile-piling crime scenes. They become close confidantes, declaring themselves ghostbusters to help Delilah pass peacefully between universes following Eastern traditions, and they team up to catch the killer known as Batman, who targets Chinese people.
The unconventional bond between these three eccentric characters and their unique ways of facing supernatural forces and unexpected situations warmed my heart. They become each other's family during the most tragic and vulnerable times, showing the importance of having someone to hold on to and care for.
The realistic depiction of racism and the unfair Sinophobia people faced, combined with a scary ghost story rooted in Eastern folklore and a bleak, dark murder mystery, is perfectly executed. The book is terrifying and thought-provoking, making readers nod in agreement with the author's explored points, which makes it extra special and one of a kind.
Overall, this book is harsh reality! It's extra bleak, dark, and not for the faint of heart, but it rocked my world with its honesty and creative execution. I wholeheartedly loved it! I also cried a lot after reading the Author’s Note, which shook me to the core. I advise you not to miss it after finishing the book.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing / MIRA for sharing this amazing horror novel’s digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.
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The story opens with 24-year-old Chinese woman Cora Zeng and her sister Delilah waiting for the subway at an abandoned station. A mysterious man appears as the train approaches, utters the word "bat eater," and pushes Delilah onto the tracks, resulting in her brutal death before Cora's eyes. Unfortunately, the man escapes.
In the following chapter, we find Cora working as a crime scene cleaner, washing away the cruelest and goriest remains of bodies, mostly those of Chinese people targeted by a mysterious serial killer who leaves mutilated bats at the crime scenes.
Cora faces not only a foreboding situation but also struggles with grief and guilt as a sister who always lived in the shadow of her stepsister. We learn about her estranged relationship with her parents, her father's abandonment to form a new family in China, her cult-member mother's misuse of her college fund, and Delilah's impending departure from her life (ironically, her last words before she died). Cora's guilt, abandonment, resentment, and anger evolve into mental issues, including OCD. When she learns about the Chinese myth of hungry ghosts returning to fulfill their cravings, she initially dismisses it until she notices food disappearing from the house and encounters what remains of her sister's ghost.
Unable to consult her two eccentric aunties—one a pyromaniac, the other overly conservative—Cora turns to her two coworkers, Yifei and Harvey, who also deal with the horror of bile-piling crime scenes. They become close confidantes, declaring themselves ghostbusters to help Delilah pass peacefully between universes following Eastern traditions, and they team up to catch the killer known as Batman, who targets Chinese people.
The unconventional bond between these three eccentric characters and their unique ways of facing supernatural forces and unexpected situations warmed my heart. They become each other's family during the most tragic and vulnerable times, showing the importance of having someone to hold on to and care for.
The realistic depiction of racism and the unfair Sinophobia people faced, combined with a scary ghost story rooted in Eastern folklore and a bleak, dark murder mystery, is perfectly executed. The book is terrifying and thought-provoking, making readers nod in agreement with the author's explored points, which makes it extra special and one of a kind.
Overall, this book is harsh reality! It's extra bleak, dark, and not for the faint of heart, but it rocked my world with its honesty and creative execution. I wholeheartedly loved it! I also cried a lot after reading the Author’s Note, which shook me to the core. I advise you not to miss it after finishing the book.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing / MIRA for sharing this amazing horror novel’s digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.
Follow me on medium.com to read my articles about books, movies, streaming series, astrology:
medium blog
twitter<
January 20, 2025
As a person of Chinese descent who’d lived right in the area for 6 years and having known so many East Asians who had suffered abuse or discrimination during the pandemic, I knew I had to read this as soon as I came across the title.
This novel comments on the increased violence towards Asians during the pandemic and the lack of effort in trying to solve these hate crimes, PLUS body horror, gore, the supernatural, and Chinese folklore!
Some of the rules (I was also told as a kid) of the 7th lunar month AKA Hungry Ghost Festival are:
- Don’t dress in all black clothing
- No swimming, no hiking, no picking up coins you find on the street
- Don’t turn around if someone calls your name at night (could be a ghost!)
The supernatural parts were so creepy!!! Straight up old school Asian horror movie imagery- think Sadako, Ju-On, Chinese vampires with ominous red smoke… read this over a few nights and i jumped one time when the radiator came on because i was just so wired :-D
I really really really wanted to love this because on paper this is a mix of all the genres that I adore… Unfortunately I didn’t connect to the writing style here. The pacing felt a little bit off to me. Sometimes a mood or subplot is set up but moves on abruptly, but sometimes for something kinda uninteresting (to me), there’s a lot of telling to excruciating detail. In my opinion that made the book feel much longer than it actually is and hindered connection/ feelings towards the characters in the book. It probably doesn’t help that I found Cora an unreliable and generally kinda dull MC. It’s sad because the book quite literally started off with a bang and then never really brought that same excitement or tension back.
This novel comments on the increased violence towards Asians during the pandemic and the lack of effort in trying to solve these hate crimes, PLUS body horror, gore, the supernatural, and Chinese folklore!
Some of the rules (I was also told as a kid) of the 7th lunar month AKA Hungry Ghost Festival are:
- Don’t dress in all black clothing
- No swimming, no hiking, no picking up coins you find on the street
- Don’t turn around if someone calls your name at night (could be a ghost!)
The supernatural parts were so creepy!!! Straight up old school Asian horror movie imagery- think Sadako, Ju-On, Chinese vampires with ominous red smoke… read this over a few nights and i jumped one time when the radiator came on because i was just so wired :-D
I really really really wanted to love this because on paper this is a mix of all the genres that I adore… Unfortunately I didn’t connect to the writing style here. The pacing felt a little bit off to me. Sometimes a mood or subplot is set up but moves on abruptly, but sometimes for something kinda uninteresting (to me), there’s a lot of telling to excruciating detail. In my opinion that made the book feel much longer than it actually is and hindered connection/ feelings towards the characters in the book. It probably doesn’t help that I found Cora an unreliable and generally kinda dull MC. It’s sad because the book quite literally started off with a bang and then never really brought that same excitement or tension back.
June 3, 2025
I love it when I can agree with the masses on a hyped horror book. Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng is a well-written and unique blend of very creepy horror and gritty crime suspense. The character work is excellent, and there are some truly unsettling scenes (one in a crypt early on that was so well done and creepy, it made my horror loving heart so happy). I also really loved the relationship that builds throughout the book between Cora, Harvey and Yifei. I didn't find the ending entirely satisfying. I don't know what I was hoping for exactly, but it was something different. In any case, I do agree with the majority for once: Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng is a great horror book.
P.S. It should be obvious, but don't read this if you don't want to hear about COVID-19.
P.S. It should be obvious, but don't read this if you don't want to hear about COVID-19.
June 4, 2025
very few people do body horror like Kylie Lee Baker 😍 some of the deaths had my jaw in hell.
I wish this weren't a pandemic book, but I understand why it needed to be a pandemic book. I can't wait to see what Kylie Lee Baker does next.
I wish this weren't a pandemic book, but I understand why it needed to be a pandemic book. I can't wait to see what Kylie Lee Baker does next.
Read
April 28, 2025Pandemic-set horror novel, in which Cora, a Chinese American with mental illness, witnesses the racist murder of her sister, becomes a crime scene cleaner, and gets tangled up in both hungry ghosts and what seems to be a racist serial killer.
It's an extremely bleak book. As with Victor LaValle, we quickly come to feel the paranormal nightmares are reasonable and friendly compared to white American racism; since it's set in Covid, the general awfulness of other people is a major theme.
For me it was too bleak; I need my horror seasoned with hope, and this is, basically, not. That's not a criticism, it's just the type of book this is, and why not, since the aspects of human nature it's talking about (racism, misogyny, callous self-centredness, the glee in inflicting pain, the determination not to see other people's suffering) don't seem in any way inclined to change.
It's an extremely bleak book. As with Victor LaValle, we quickly come to feel the paranormal nightmares are reasonable and friendly compared to white American racism; since it's set in Covid, the general awfulness of other people is a major theme.
For me it was too bleak; I need my horror seasoned with hope, and this is, basically, not. That's not a criticism, it's just the type of book this is, and why not, since the aspects of human nature it's talking about (racism, misogyny, callous self-centredness, the glee in inflicting pain, the determination not to see other people's suffering) don't seem in any way inclined to change.
July 19, 2025
“And Cora feels truly pathetic, crying in front of someone that understands suffering better than she ever will.”
Damn, this was not even close to what I was expecting, well written and well executed. The dread is real in this one.
Damn, this was not even close to what I was expecting, well written and well executed. The dread is real in this one.
May 17, 2025
"Even now, you want to walk away from us because it's gross, because blood and guts make you uncomfortable. But it doesn't matter if we're uncomfortable- we don't get to look away. We're dying and no one can hear us"
Have you ever read a book & by the end felt like you've been punched in the face??? Yeah, that was me by the time I finished this. This was fantastic! It blends horror with social commentary & eastern folklore that really hits where it's intended.
Bat Eater is gory, bleak but also beautiful? I'm so glad I have the ✨S T U N N I N G✨ Evernight Edition to add to my collection. This story will stick with me for a very long time.
Trigger warnings: Racism, murder, hate crimes, death, gore, animal abuse/death.
Update; it's been 2 weeks & I still think about this almost daily😭. I wish I could give it 10 Stars ✨
Have you ever read a book & by the end felt like you've been punched in the face??? Yeah, that was me by the time I finished this. This was fantastic! It blends horror with social commentary & eastern folklore that really hits where it's intended.
Bat Eater is gory, bleak but also beautiful? I'm so glad I have the ✨S T U N N I N G✨ Evernight Edition to add to my collection. This story will stick with me for a very long time.
Trigger warnings: Racism, murder, hate crimes, death, gore, animal abuse/death.
Update; it's been 2 weeks & I still think about this almost daily😭. I wish I could give it 10 Stars ✨
January 5, 2025
Wow. I am gobsmacked and shaking.
Intensely gory and bloody. Rawly piercing and realistic. Profoundly descriptive and horrifying.
It is 2020 and Cora Zeng is a biracial Chinese American crime scene cleaner in New York during COVID after she is laid off from her office job. She is haunted by her dead murdered sister who was pushed in front of a train. Hunted by anti-Chinese prejudice. Spiralling as fears of cleanliness and COVID dominate her life.
As if this is bad enough, Asian women are being mass murdered, but the police and media refuse to investigate.
I was just so mad whilst reading this. That first chapter grabs you by the throat and the grip just tightens and tightens until you can barely breathe, barely flip the pages fast enough.
Cora is used to terror, a worry that wrings your organs out and carves holes in you like termites in wooden furniture, but if enough of you is devoured, soon there's nothing left of you but what was, and Cora is starting to feel full of holes.
What was scarier?
The ghosts or the prevalent racism and treatment of East Asians? Cora’s seemingly descent into insanity or her unease of being around other people?
There is a strong aversion to authority, reminding us of instances of protests, police brutality, power abuse, and copaganda.
And you know what the cops told me? They said that's not enough to go on. We can't just look for white men. You should have looked harder, they said. But white men are going after Asian girls, and that's all they have to go on, us being Asian. No one wants to look harder at us. To imagine that we're real people.
The character dynamics were great too!
The quirky friendship between Cora and the other two on the clean up crew gave me Ghostbusters vibes. They all try and handle their situations and trauma differently. Food, booze, bleach, sanitiser, rituals.
Also, the contrast between Cora’s White Christian auntie and her superstitious Chinese auntie was fascinating to see how Cora feels she has to shape herself to suit the moulds of others’.
The ending is relentless. Extremely dark. Heartbreaking.
My mind is reeling.
I cannot stop thinking about it a week later….
Finally, the author’s note is a must-read. Just a section:
For me, no needle-neck ghost can compare to the way the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world— the way we sacrificed the elderly and disabled on the altar of capitalism, the way trust in the government and the CDC swiftly dissolved, and the way we proved we as a country still haven't learned not to scapegoat an entire race of people in times of fear.
Thank you to Hodder and Stoughton for sending me the arc in exchange for a review.
Bookstagram
Intensely gory and bloody. Rawly piercing and realistic. Profoundly descriptive and horrifying.
It is 2020 and Cora Zeng is a biracial Chinese American crime scene cleaner in New York during COVID after she is laid off from her office job. She is haunted by her dead murdered sister who was pushed in front of a train. Hunted by anti-Chinese prejudice. Spiralling as fears of cleanliness and COVID dominate her life.
As if this is bad enough, Asian women are being mass murdered, but the police and media refuse to investigate.
I was just so mad whilst reading this. That first chapter grabs you by the throat and the grip just tightens and tightens until you can barely breathe, barely flip the pages fast enough.
Cora is used to terror, a worry that wrings your organs out and carves holes in you like termites in wooden furniture, but if enough of you is devoured, soon there's nothing left of you but what was, and Cora is starting to feel full of holes.
What was scarier?
The ghosts or the prevalent racism and treatment of East Asians? Cora’s seemingly descent into insanity or her unease of being around other people?
There is a strong aversion to authority, reminding us of instances of protests, police brutality, power abuse, and copaganda.
And you know what the cops told me? They said that's not enough to go on. We can't just look for white men. You should have looked harder, they said. But white men are going after Asian girls, and that's all they have to go on, us being Asian. No one wants to look harder at us. To imagine that we're real people.
The character dynamics were great too!
The quirky friendship between Cora and the other two on the clean up crew gave me Ghostbusters vibes. They all try and handle their situations and trauma differently. Food, booze, bleach, sanitiser, rituals.
Also, the contrast between Cora’s White Christian auntie and her superstitious Chinese auntie was fascinating to see how Cora feels she has to shape herself to suit the moulds of others’.
The ending is relentless. Extremely dark. Heartbreaking.
My mind is reeling.
I cannot stop thinking about it a week later….
Finally, the author’s note is a must-read. Just a section:
For me, no needle-neck ghost can compare to the way the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world— the way we sacrificed the elderly and disabled on the altar of capitalism, the way trust in the government and the CDC swiftly dissolved, and the way we proved we as a country still haven't learned not to scapegoat an entire race of people in times of fear.
Thank you to Hodder and Stoughton for sending me the arc in exchange for a review.
Bookstagram
April 10, 2025
Bat Eater and Other Names For Cora Zeng! I mean, just look at that stunning cover! 🔥🔥🔥I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into.
It’s 2020 in New York and covid has spread across the world. Everyone is wearing masks and staying indoors. Yet, people are dying. People called it the China Virus. Remember when people actually did that though? Plus, if you’re Chinese then that means you eat bats and you’re definitely infected. Right?
— This story isn’t really about covid, it’s just a time period. So people who hate reading Covidy stuff… don’t worry. This is so much more.
Imagine the horror in the world that the Asian culture had to go through. Then add in Asian women being murdered by a mysterious serial killer and hungry ghosts terrorizing you!
This book touches on religion, spiritual beliefs in Chinese culture, racism, covid, grief, death of a loved one and I’m probably missing some. Gruesome stuff that had me speeding to the finish line! This horror novel was a unique tale that all horror enthusiasts will love! I loved everything about it! Please read the author’s note at the end too!
Thank you to Kylie Lee Baker, Mira and Net Galley for the opportunity!
Release date April 29, 2025
4.5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
It’s 2020 in New York and covid has spread across the world. Everyone is wearing masks and staying indoors. Yet, people are dying. People called it the China Virus. Remember when people actually did that though? Plus, if you’re Chinese then that means you eat bats and you’re definitely infected. Right?
— This story isn’t really about covid, it’s just a time period. So people who hate reading Covidy stuff… don’t worry. This is so much more.
Imagine the horror in the world that the Asian culture had to go through. Then add in Asian women being murdered by a mysterious serial killer and hungry ghosts terrorizing you!
This book touches on religion, spiritual beliefs in Chinese culture, racism, covid, grief, death of a loved one and I’m probably missing some. Gruesome stuff that had me speeding to the finish line! This horror novel was a unique tale that all horror enthusiasts will love! I loved everything about it! Please read the author’s note at the end too!
Thank you to Kylie Lee Baker, Mira and Net Galley for the opportunity!
Release date April 29, 2025
4.5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
February 10, 2025
EDIT: Updated my rating from 4.75 stars to 5 stars. I just keep thinking about this book and how brilliant it was. Originally I was kind of not sure how to feel about the conclusion of the murder “investigation” but now I’m realizing there wasn’t any other way it could’ve ended that would’ve had the impact (I know this won’t make sense if you haven’t read it) that it did, so 5 stars.
4.75 stars - thank you MIRA for an early copy of this book I exchange for my honest feedback.
What a thrilling gore filled story with brilliant social commentary
Video review: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT2rKkxy3/
4.75 stars - thank you MIRA for an early copy of this book I exchange for my honest feedback.
What a thrilling gore filled story with brilliant social commentary
Video review: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT2rKkxy3/
March 6, 2025
"Harvey's uncle owns a dry-cleaning shop in Chinatown that expanded into crime scene cleanup, since hardly anyone needs their dry cleaning done during a pandemic, but a surprising number of people need brains scrubbed off their walls and even cheapskate families don't like doing that kind of thing themselves." (Page 19)
Good lord, everything about this book was brutal and infuriating. Kylie Lee Baker really combined all her anger about being an Asian woman in a pandemic-struck America with the fear of hungry ghosts, creating this violent book that's probably closer to reality than I would like it to be.
Good lord, everything about this book was brutal and infuriating. Kylie Lee Baker really combined all her anger about being an Asian woman in a pandemic-struck America with the fear of hungry ghosts, creating this violent book that's probably closer to reality than I would like it to be.
February 20, 2025
ARC for review. To be published April 29, 2025.
4 stars
Cora Zeng saw her sister, Delilah be pushed in front of a train in New York City. It’s the pandemic and she and other Asian-Americans, well, all Asians are the victims of so much hate, thanks, in part, to a President who calls this the China virus. Now it’s hard for Cora, who had essentially spent a lifetime following Delilah in all things, to determine what is real, and what she’s imagined.
It probably doesn’t help that the only job she can find is as an off-the-books crime scene cleaner in Chinatown, s ribbing away the messes left by suicides and murder victims alongside co-workers Harvey and Yifei.
But some additional things are bothering Cora. First, the germs, on stair rails, bare hands, all those places the virus could be hidden. Plus one of her aunts (she has two aunts in the city, they are each annoying and great in their own ways) advises her to prepare for the Hungry Ghost Festival, when it’s said the gates of hell open. Cora doesn’t think much about it. She will live to regret this. And why does her cleaning team keep finding the bodies of bats at crime scenes and why are so many of the victims dead East Asian women?
What an interesting book, filled with menace, that puts the reader right back into the midst of the pandemic and gives non-Asians a look into the racism of the period (thanks, MAGA.) Baker has drawn a number of wonderful characters and and great mix of serial killer and supernatural horror. Really enjoyed this. Recommended.
4 stars
Cora Zeng saw her sister, Delilah be pushed in front of a train in New York City. It’s the pandemic and she and other Asian-Americans, well, all Asians are the victims of so much hate, thanks, in part, to a President who calls this the China virus. Now it’s hard for Cora, who had essentially spent a lifetime following Delilah in all things, to determine what is real, and what she’s imagined.
It probably doesn’t help that the only job she can find is as an off-the-books crime scene cleaner in Chinatown, s ribbing away the messes left by suicides and murder victims alongside co-workers Harvey and Yifei.
But some additional things are bothering Cora. First, the germs, on stair rails, bare hands, all those places the virus could be hidden. Plus one of her aunts (she has two aunts in the city, they are each annoying and great in their own ways) advises her to prepare for the Hungry Ghost Festival, when it’s said the gates of hell open. Cora doesn’t think much about it. She will live to regret this. And why does her cleaning team keep finding the bodies of bats at crime scenes and why are so many of the victims dead East Asian women?
What an interesting book, filled with menace, that puts the reader right back into the midst of the pandemic and gives non-Asians a look into the racism of the period (thanks, MAGA.) Baker has drawn a number of wonderful characters and and great mix of serial killer and supernatural horror. Really enjoyed this. Recommended.
August 19, 2025
Many people think that death is the end. The ending of pain, of hate, of love. But these things are not so easy to erase. Any kind of wanting leaves a scar. The living are good at forgetting, the years smoothing out memories until all the days of their lives are nothing but rolling planes of sameness. But in Hell, it is always just yesterday that everything was lost. The dead do not forget.
so I normally avoid covid books like the plague they don't interest me, and they are too much real life in them, so I was kinda sceptical about going in this book and this was my first book by the author so I wasn't sure if I would like it but this was a pleasant surprise the only covid book I give an exception into liking cora Zeng struggling to find herself after her sister got pushed in front a train and brutally killed infront of her in a Asian hate crime during covid and it's aftermath this book is emotional heartbreaking thrilling erie and dark this tells how it made people to the brink of surviving and is fuled by unreasonable hate and racism against Chinese people this has spine tangling scary ghost story gory and with a mix of killer murder mystery with mutated bats at every crime scene this book is unique one of a kind and there is none like it and thought provoking with heart throbing tension and anxiety this is one of the best books I read while being hard to read jaw dropping full of fear this book has bunch of triggering and graphic scenes with violence
quotes
But not everyone has dreams. Some people just are, the way that trees and rocks and rivers are just there without a reason, the rest of the world moving around them.
Cora thinks about the Girl with a Pearl Earring, and the Mona Lisa, and all the beautiful women immortalized in oil paint, and wonders if they said cruel things too, if their words had mattered at all or just the roundness of their eyes and softness of their cheeks, if beautiful people are allowed to break your heart and get away with it.
Cora Zeng does not get angry because anger always melts through her fingers until it is a pool of anguish under her feet. There is not enough oxygen inside Cora to keep anger burning. No matter how hard she tries, she can only wield her sharpest thoughts against her own f lesh. She knows, on some level, that most of the problems in her life are her own fault in one way or another. Anger is just one of those thoughts that can never quite sink its teeth into her—she is not solid enough, and its jaws close around nothing at all.
Maybe she wants someone to teach her how to be a human the correct way, the way she never learned. Someone to wake her up and tell her what to eat, what to dream about, what to cry about, who to pray to. Because Cora somehow feels that every choice she’s made has been wrong, that every choice she will ever make will lead her deeper and deeper into a life that feels like a dark, airless box, and when she peers through the slats in the wood she’ll see the pale light of who she might have been, so bright that it blinds her.
But maybe she wants this monster to have teeth, wants it to be some intangible, hungry darkness that can swallow all her rage like a black hole. She doesn’t want him to have a name, a job, a wife that he holds with the same hands he uses to gut Asian girls like fish. The thought sickens her, the idea that the kind of person who carves people like her open could smile at other people. That he could be loved by other people. Because what does that make Delilah and Yuxi and Zihan and Ai and Officer Wang? Subhuman, bat eaters, garbage to be taken out, people who don’t deserve his humanness. Cora wants him to be a formless ephemeral ball of pure evil, but she knows that he’s not. And she doesn’t care about his redeeming traits but she knows that other people will, that the newspapers will highlight his accomplishments, that the courts will talk about him being a good father or diligent worker or a thousand other things he did that matter infinitely less than what he took from Cora.
There are thousands of monsters in the world—not just the ones in folktales, but the ones in real life who push girls in front of trains—and yet, there are still people who think Cora Zeng is the most fearsome of all. A sharp laugh forces its way out of Cora’s throat. Those people should see what fear truly is. Let them taste their sister’s blood, watch her headless body twitch, hear her windpipe still wheezing for breaths that won’t come, gurgling as the blood drowns down the wrong pipe. Let them remember it every time they close their eyes, whenever they hear the sound of a train, whenever salt stings their lips. Remind them that the same thing could happen to them any day, and then let them talk about what fear really means.
so I normally avoid covid books like the plague they don't interest me, and they are too much real life in them, so I was kinda sceptical about going in this book and this was my first book by the author so I wasn't sure if I would like it but this was a pleasant surprise the only covid book I give an exception into liking cora Zeng struggling to find herself after her sister got pushed in front a train and brutally killed infront of her in a Asian hate crime during covid and it's aftermath this book is emotional heartbreaking thrilling erie and dark this tells how it made people to the brink of surviving and is fuled by unreasonable hate and racism against Chinese people this has spine tangling scary ghost story gory and with a mix of killer murder mystery with mutated bats at every crime scene this book is unique one of a kind and there is none like it and thought provoking with heart throbing tension and anxiety this is one of the best books I read while being hard to read jaw dropping full of fear this book has bunch of triggering and graphic scenes with violence
quotes
But not everyone has dreams. Some people just are, the way that trees and rocks and rivers are just there without a reason, the rest of the world moving around them.
Cora thinks about the Girl with a Pearl Earring, and the Mona Lisa, and all the beautiful women immortalized in oil paint, and wonders if they said cruel things too, if their words had mattered at all or just the roundness of their eyes and softness of their cheeks, if beautiful people are allowed to break your heart and get away with it.
Cora Zeng does not get angry because anger always melts through her fingers until it is a pool of anguish under her feet. There is not enough oxygen inside Cora to keep anger burning. No matter how hard she tries, she can only wield her sharpest thoughts against her own f lesh. She knows, on some level, that most of the problems in her life are her own fault in one way or another. Anger is just one of those thoughts that can never quite sink its teeth into her—she is not solid enough, and its jaws close around nothing at all.
Maybe she wants someone to teach her how to be a human the correct way, the way she never learned. Someone to wake her up and tell her what to eat, what to dream about, what to cry about, who to pray to. Because Cora somehow feels that every choice she’s made has been wrong, that every choice she will ever make will lead her deeper and deeper into a life that feels like a dark, airless box, and when she peers through the slats in the wood she’ll see the pale light of who she might have been, so bright that it blinds her.
But maybe she wants this monster to have teeth, wants it to be some intangible, hungry darkness that can swallow all her rage like a black hole. She doesn’t want him to have a name, a job, a wife that he holds with the same hands he uses to gut Asian girls like fish. The thought sickens her, the idea that the kind of person who carves people like her open could smile at other people. That he could be loved by other people. Because what does that make Delilah and Yuxi and Zihan and Ai and Officer Wang? Subhuman, bat eaters, garbage to be taken out, people who don’t deserve his humanness. Cora wants him to be a formless ephemeral ball of pure evil, but she knows that he’s not. And she doesn’t care about his redeeming traits but she knows that other people will, that the newspapers will highlight his accomplishments, that the courts will talk about him being a good father or diligent worker or a thousand other things he did that matter infinitely less than what he took from Cora.
There are thousands of monsters in the world—not just the ones in folktales, but the ones in real life who push girls in front of trains—and yet, there are still people who think Cora Zeng is the most fearsome of all. A sharp laugh forces its way out of Cora’s throat. Those people should see what fear truly is. Let them taste their sister’s blood, watch her headless body twitch, hear her windpipe still wheezing for breaths that won’t come, gurgling as the blood drowns down the wrong pipe. Let them remember it every time they close their eyes, whenever they hear the sound of a train, whenever salt stings their lips. Remind them that the same thing could happen to them any day, and then let them talk about what fear really means.
May 22, 2025
"But white men are going after Asian girls, and that's all they have to go on, us being Asian. No one wants to look harder at us. To imagine that we're real people. Every day I clean up their brains and blood and I know that a white man coming for me isn't an if, it's a when."
Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng is truly a book for the times.
In an era where we are still trying to push COVID and the utterly horrific, reawakened presence of BIPOC hatred to the back of our minds, Kylie Lee Baker shoves a story in our faces that we just can't look away from.
Cora Zeng is a Chinese-American living in New York City with her sister, Delilah. Her father has already fled back to China and her white mother is a part of a cult based somewhere upstate. Immediately, just by learning Zeng's biracial background— we're thrown into the tumult of her battle with identity. Estranged from much of her family except for her Auntie Zeng and Auntie Lois, Cora is forced to navigate New York City and life with only her half sister, Delilah.
Delilah is the anchor. Cora's daydream of an older sister. She's perfectly Chinese— beautiful, intelligent, poised, and graceful. Cora sees herself as a nobody. Someone who's just an empty vessel, a shadow following Delilah around.
So, when Delilah is brutally murdered during a hate crime in a train station, Cora's already spiraling life dwindles even further.
Months after Delilah's death– Cora becomes a crime scene cleaner. She spends her shifts scrubbing the blood of Asian-American women who have been slaughtered in horrific ways across the city.
Something bad is happening, and the occurrences are in the masses.
And what's even more unusual are the bats.
They're at every crime scene.
Bat Eater.
And from here, the story dives into a multi-genre tale of grief horror, the paranormal, and psychological turmoil. Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng is as much blood and suspense as it is sadness and heartache. It's a pandemic-fueled horror story that incorporates Chinese lore, Asian-American racism and hate crimes, suppressed trauma, sexism, and systemic violence.
Kylie Lee Baker does an incredible job at deep-diving into New York City's battle with all of these harsh topics. Pulling from facts, she writes a story that makes you think deeply and resurfaces the collective trauma of COVID-19.
By the book's end, I was sobbing. I cried for Delilah, for Cora, for the multiple women killed by the hands of hatred and ignorance— and for the real world, what every one of us had to endure.
This novel pushes the boundaries of conventional horror novels. It's more than a horror story, but one filled with heart and depth. This was the by far the easiest ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ star rating to give this year. I typically would not recommend "another pandemic book", but this one had me in an utter chokehold. Stark, brilliant, and transparent— Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng is the newest novel I'll be thinking about for a long time coming.
I do wonder if this novel will be categorized as historical fiction in the next fifty years.
Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng is truly a book for the times.
In an era where we are still trying to push COVID and the utterly horrific, reawakened presence of BIPOC hatred to the back of our minds, Kylie Lee Baker shoves a story in our faces that we just can't look away from.
Cora Zeng is a Chinese-American living in New York City with her sister, Delilah. Her father has already fled back to China and her white mother is a part of a cult based somewhere upstate. Immediately, just by learning Zeng's biracial background— we're thrown into the tumult of her battle with identity. Estranged from much of her family except for her Auntie Zeng and Auntie Lois, Cora is forced to navigate New York City and life with only her half sister, Delilah.
Delilah is the anchor. Cora's daydream of an older sister. She's perfectly Chinese— beautiful, intelligent, poised, and graceful. Cora sees herself as a nobody. Someone who's just an empty vessel, a shadow following Delilah around.
So, when Delilah is brutally murdered during a hate crime in a train station, Cora's already spiraling life dwindles even further.
Months after Delilah's death– Cora becomes a crime scene cleaner. She spends her shifts scrubbing the blood of Asian-American women who have been slaughtered in horrific ways across the city.
Something bad is happening, and the occurrences are in the masses.
And what's even more unusual are the bats.
They're at every crime scene.
Bat Eater.
And from here, the story dives into a multi-genre tale of grief horror, the paranormal, and psychological turmoil. Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng is as much blood and suspense as it is sadness and heartache. It's a pandemic-fueled horror story that incorporates Chinese lore, Asian-American racism and hate crimes, suppressed trauma, sexism, and systemic violence.
Kylie Lee Baker does an incredible job at deep-diving into New York City's battle with all of these harsh topics. Pulling from facts, she writes a story that makes you think deeply and resurfaces the collective trauma of COVID-19.
By the book's end, I was sobbing. I cried for Delilah, for Cora, for the multiple women killed by the hands of hatred and ignorance— and for the real world, what every one of us had to endure.
This novel pushes the boundaries of conventional horror novels. It's more than a horror story, but one filled with heart and depth. This was the by far the easiest ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ star rating to give this year. I typically would not recommend "another pandemic book", but this one had me in an utter chokehold. Stark, brilliant, and transparent— Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng is the newest novel I'll be thinking about for a long time coming.
I do wonder if this novel will be categorized as historical fiction in the next fifty years.
August 17, 2025
I think what makes this book good, and what will give it legs, is that it's about COVID without relying on COVID. If you're like me and you're still allergic to the idea of reading about a period you've already lived through, it helps to know that Kyle Lee Baker is a better author than that. And while COVID still provides the necessary context, everything that happens here - the racism against Asian communities, the sexual humiliation victims of hate crimes are forced to endure, the murder, the abandonment by those who should protect you, the police violence, the loss of identity post-college - happens without that context. COVID just exacerbates it, as Baker's writing and anger demonstrate over the course of the book.
Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng is gory and disgusting, and you can pick out so many moments where less confident authors would've stopped at the edge, and this book keeps going. And while it would be a mistake to say this is anything close to "cozy horror," there are also moments that are funny, and calm, and refreshing. Cora's halting efforts to seek out the community she is scared of are rewarded and then later still punished, because this IS a horror novel. She's an excellent narrator, with the slightest gap between how she describes herself and how she reads that actually exposes more of her character. I also really liked the depiction of contamination OCD.
I might say that the ending feels a little too neat? I would not have minded if the book finished even angrier. Highly recommend.
Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng is gory and disgusting, and you can pick out so many moments where less confident authors would've stopped at the edge, and this book keeps going. And while it would be a mistake to say this is anything close to "cozy horror," there are also moments that are funny, and calm, and refreshing. Cora's halting efforts to seek out the community she is scared of are rewarded and then later still punished, because this IS a horror novel. She's an excellent narrator, with the slightest gap between how she describes herself and how she reads that actually exposes more of her character. I also really liked the depiction of contamination OCD.
I might say that the ending feels a little too neat? I would not have minded if the book finished even angrier. Highly recommend.
April 10, 2026
Petition to change the book title to Therapy and Other Activities for Cora Zeng, because my girl needs a therapist yesterday.
This is 5 stars with caveats.
The end of chapter one had me putting the book down and just staring into space for a while. This is not a book that makes you comfortable or gently eases you in.
Some parts are so unsettling that I genuinely felt like I was forgetting to breathe. Moments where the tension tightens and you don’t even realise it until it snaps. Lines like:
It's horror, of course, but it’s also rage. You can feel Cora’s (and the author’s) rage on every single page. It’s sharp, relentless, and intentionally uncomfortable. This book doesn’t care about your feelings. It’s not interested in soothing you; it wants to confront you.
Our main character is Cora Zeng, a deeply depressed crime scene cleaner trying (and failing) to function after witnessing her sister’s murder in a racist attack at the height of COVID-era hysteria. She’s broke, drowning in student debt for a degree she’ll never use, constantly on the brink of eviction, and spends her days scrubbing human remains out of places no one should ever have to think about. Everywhere she goes, she’s navigating racism and sexism. So of course she’s depressed and barely holding it together. Anyone would be.
And the book makes you sit in that.
Maybe a little too much. And for a little too long.
Because Cora spends a lot of time in her own head. She loops, she spirals, she has a meltdown. Rinse and repeat. There are only so many times you can read variations of “I’m not a person,” “no one cares about me,” “I’m nothing,” before it starts to feel exhausting. After a while it becomes almost unbearable, not in a “this is bad writing” way, but in a “I want to go home” way. Which is obviously the point, but that doesn’t always make it enjoyable to read.
There’s a kind of circularity to Cora’s internal monologue that wore me down. I kept hoping the book might shift gears and offer a different emotional register, even briefly, but it rarely does. It commits fully to that suffocating headspace, which is admirable and effective, but not always engaging.
And then there’s Cora as a person, which is complicated. She’s a personality vacuum. Or maybe more accurately, she’s so consumed by grief and self-erasure that there isn’t much room left for anything else.
She’s kind of a pathetic character. She drifts aimlessly through life, expecting everyone else to handle the difficult things for her. She rarely makes decisions. When things get hard, she shuts down completely. It’s infuriating. I wanted to grab her, shake her, and tell her she’s a grown woman and to stop simpering at everything and whining.
The only decision Cora ever really makes is to clean herself. It’s her response to everything. Raining? Forget the umbrella, grab the sanitiser. Friend murdered? Lysol will fix it. Lost your keys? Build a new home out of wet wipes.
I hated her. But I also felt sorry for her. And as the story went on, I got attached. I wanted to protect her. Which I think is part of what the book does so well. It traps you in that push-pull between frustration and empathy. You don’t always like her, but you feel for her anyway.
The side characters end up carrying a lot of the emotional weight, and tbh they’re fantastic. Yifei and Harvey, in particular, are standouts. Auntie Zeng completely drew me in; I hung on her every word. They all feel alive in a way that cuts through the heaviness of Cora’s perspective.
Yifei is such a great character. Strong. Capable. She’s got her shit together. We all need a friend like Yifei.
I need Auntie Zeng to adopt me. This woman shows up to fight a ghost in a light up Christmas sweater. In July. Love her. Queen behaviour.
And we should all strive to be more like Harvey. We’d get on much better in life. Something weird is happening and while everyone else is trying to figure out if it’s a ghost or a serial killer, there’s Harvey: “Nope, no no no, no way,” and then he just sprints in the opposite direction.
This is a smart man.
…however, Harvey's also the guy who “summoned fifty ghosts” in an apartment, so actually, maybe be slightly less like Harvey. General vibes will do.
The book's so intensely committed to Cora’s deterioration that it rarely gives her space to be anything else. I often found myself wishing not necessarily for happiness or a neat resolution, but just for variation. A break in the intensity.
I did really enjoy her intrusive thoughts. Who hasn’t had them from time to time? The urge to touch something we know is hot, or to do something we know we really shouldn’t, but then we blink and the thought's gone like it never even existed to begin with. That fleeting, intrusive quality is something the book captures so well.
There are also some really interesting stylistic choices going on. The prose can be lush, almost lyrical, with long, flowing, image-heavy sentences that feel carefully constructed and almost hypnotic. And then it just cuts. A blunt, almost clinical line dropped right after, like: Then [insert character here] died. No cushioning or drama, just fact. It’s jarring, and it works because it mirrors the emotional whiplash of the story, the way beauty and brutality sit right next to each other.
The author frequently refers to Cora by her full name in this almost rhythmic, repetitive way. “Cora Zeng doesn’t… because Cora Zeng… so Cora Zeng…”and I couldn't not think of that South Park bit: “James Cameron doesn’t do what James Cameron does for James Cameron. James Cameron does what James Cameron does because James Cameron is James Cameron." Same energy. Once you notice it, you can’t unhear it.
And then there’s the xenophobia and racism, which the book tackles head on. Sometimes with a scalpel, sometimes with a hammer.
The pandemic becomes less about the virus and more about what it exposed: how quickly fear turns into suspicion, then into hatred, then into violence. The book captures that escalation in a way that feels ugly and real. The sense of being watched, judged, targeted, of being both hyper-visible and invisible at the same time is constant.
But I also think this is where the book gets a bit messy.
I’m not saying I’d enjoy a book with constant racism and bigotry, but a lot of it feels very surface level. It gestures toward something deeper, something more insidious and unpredictable, but doesn’t always fully commit to exploring it.
Instead, it sometimes feels more fixed and predictable. It’s very clear that white supremacy is positioned as the central, overarching threat, and yes, obviously, that’s valid. But at times it feels overly simplified. In reality, anti-Asian hate during the pandemic came from multiple directions, and I think the book could have been even more unsettling if it leaned into that unpredictability, if you didn’t know who to trust, who might turn, or where the next threat was coming from.
Iit often slips into a pattern of: new white character introduced = they’re going to be awful. And while I understand the intention, it sometimes flattens the nuance. There were moments where it felt like the book was circling a more complex, more frightening idea and then stepping back from it.
There are also plot threads that just disappear. There are quite a few moments where something's introduced and built up, then quietly abandoned when a newer, more intense thread comes along. It adds to that slightly chaotic, almost fragmented feeling the book has, which sometimes works in its favour, but sometimes just feels underdeveloped.
Sometimes the story moved on from some things too fast. Cora will have a meltdown over dropping a banana on the floor and it’ll take her days to recover. She remembers every slight against her in photographic detail and spirals for hours over something that happened when she was 4. But within an hour of witnessing a murder, she’s moved on like it never even happened.
And I know Delilah’s death is a central plot point. But she’s mentioned 430 times. The book’s only 300 pages. After a certain point I was genuinely sick of hearing about Delilah. I get that grief is repetitive. I get that trauma loops. I get that memory is intrusive. But narratively, it started to feel like the book was stuck replaying the same beat without letting it evolve.
Also, this book is disgusting (complimentary). It's vividly and unapologetically grotesque. The crime scene cleanup scenes are described in such tactile, nauseating detail that you can practically smell them. It’s purposeful rather than gratuitous, and forces you to confront the physical reality of violence in a way that’s hard to ignore.
And through all of this, the supernatural horror threads itself in so seamlessly that it almost feels secondary, which is wild, considering how disturbing it is. The ghosts, the bats, the creeping sense of unreality all feel like extensions of Cora’s internal state. It’s her trauma made literal.
And then, in the middle of all of this bleakness, there’s Tom Hanks the dumpling-eating koi. My favourite character, no contest. A tiny, bizarre moment of levity in a book that otherwise refuses to let you breathe. Spin-off series when??
This book doesn’t scare you in a traditional horror sense. It just leaves you unsettled and drained. Also more than a little impressed.
I never found any comfort here, and sometimes I didn’t even enjoy it. It can be repetitive, heavy-handed, emotionally exhausting, and occasionally lacking in nuance.
But it’s also bold, human, visceral, angry, feral, and unforgettable.
This is 5 stars with caveats.
The end of chapter one had me putting the book down and just staring into space for a while. This is not a book that makes you comfortable or gently eases you in.
Some parts are so unsettling that I genuinely felt like I was forgetting to breathe. Moments where the tension tightens and you don’t even realise it until it snaps. Lines like:
Then the footsteps start again, closer.Oh hell no.
This time, they're running.
It's horror, of course, but it’s also rage. You can feel Cora’s (and the author’s) rage on every single page. It’s sharp, relentless, and intentionally uncomfortable. This book doesn’t care about your feelings. It’s not interested in soothing you; it wants to confront you.
Our main character is Cora Zeng, a deeply depressed crime scene cleaner trying (and failing) to function after witnessing her sister’s murder in a racist attack at the height of COVID-era hysteria. She’s broke, drowning in student debt for a degree she’ll never use, constantly on the brink of eviction, and spends her days scrubbing human remains out of places no one should ever have to think about. Everywhere she goes, she’s navigating racism and sexism. So of course she’s depressed and barely holding it together. Anyone would be.
And the book makes you sit in that.
Maybe a little too much. And for a little too long.
Because Cora spends a lot of time in her own head. She loops, she spirals, she has a meltdown. Rinse and repeat. There are only so many times you can read variations of “I’m not a person,” “no one cares about me,” “I’m nothing,” before it starts to feel exhausting. After a while it becomes almost unbearable, not in a “this is bad writing” way, but in a “I want to go home” way. Which is obviously the point, but that doesn’t always make it enjoyable to read.
There’s a kind of circularity to Cora’s internal monologue that wore me down. I kept hoping the book might shift gears and offer a different emotional register, even briefly, but it rarely does. It commits fully to that suffocating headspace, which is admirable and effective, but not always engaging.
And then there’s Cora as a person, which is complicated. She’s a personality vacuum. Or maybe more accurately, she’s so consumed by grief and self-erasure that there isn’t much room left for anything else.
She’s kind of a pathetic character. She drifts aimlessly through life, expecting everyone else to handle the difficult things for her. She rarely makes decisions. When things get hard, she shuts down completely. It’s infuriating. I wanted to grab her, shake her, and tell her she’s a grown woman and to stop simpering at everything and whining.
The only decision Cora ever really makes is to clean herself. It’s her response to everything. Raining? Forget the umbrella, grab the sanitiser. Friend murdered? Lysol will fix it. Lost your keys? Build a new home out of wet wipes.
“That’s all you’re going to do? Clean your hands? ... Jesus. Do I have to do everything?”It becomes almost darkly funny at points, but also sad, like control has narrowed down to this one small, repetitive action she can cling to.
I hated her. But I also felt sorry for her. And as the story went on, I got attached. I wanted to protect her. Which I think is part of what the book does so well. It traps you in that push-pull between frustration and empathy. You don’t always like her, but you feel for her anyway.
The side characters end up carrying a lot of the emotional weight, and tbh they’re fantastic. Yifei and Harvey, in particular, are standouts. Auntie Zeng completely drew me in; I hung on her every word. They all feel alive in a way that cuts through the heaviness of Cora’s perspective.
Yifei is such a great character. Strong. Capable. She’s got her shit together. We all need a friend like Yifei.
I need Auntie Zeng to adopt me. This woman shows up to fight a ghost in a light up Christmas sweater. In July. Love her. Queen behaviour.
And we should all strive to be more like Harvey. We’d get on much better in life. Something weird is happening and while everyone else is trying to figure out if it’s a ghost or a serial killer, there’s Harvey: “Nope, no no no, no way,” and then he just sprints in the opposite direction.
This is a smart man.
…however, Harvey's also the guy who “summoned fifty ghosts” in an apartment, so actually, maybe be slightly less like Harvey. General vibes will do.
The book's so intensely committed to Cora’s deterioration that it rarely gives her space to be anything else. I often found myself wishing not necessarily for happiness or a neat resolution, but just for variation. A break in the intensity.
I did really enjoy her intrusive thoughts. Who hasn’t had them from time to time? The urge to touch something we know is hot, or to do something we know we really shouldn’t, but then we blink and the thought's gone like it never even existed to begin with. That fleeting, intrusive quality is something the book captures so well.
There are also some really interesting stylistic choices going on. The prose can be lush, almost lyrical, with long, flowing, image-heavy sentences that feel carefully constructed and almost hypnotic. And then it just cuts. A blunt, almost clinical line dropped right after, like: Then [insert character here] died. No cushioning or drama, just fact. It’s jarring, and it works because it mirrors the emotional whiplash of the story, the way beauty and brutality sit right next to each other.
The author frequently refers to Cora by her full name in this almost rhythmic, repetitive way. “Cora Zeng doesn’t… because Cora Zeng… so Cora Zeng…”and I couldn't not think of that South Park bit: “James Cameron doesn’t do what James Cameron does for James Cameron. James Cameron does what James Cameron does because James Cameron is James Cameron." Same energy. Once you notice it, you can’t unhear it.
And then there’s the xenophobia and racism, which the book tackles head on. Sometimes with a scalpel, sometimes with a hammer.
The pandemic becomes less about the virus and more about what it exposed: how quickly fear turns into suspicion, then into hatred, then into violence. The book captures that escalation in a way that feels ugly and real. The sense of being watched, judged, targeted, of being both hyper-visible and invisible at the same time is constant.
But I also think this is where the book gets a bit messy.
I’m not saying I’d enjoy a book with constant racism and bigotry, but a lot of it feels very surface level. It gestures toward something deeper, something more insidious and unpredictable, but doesn’t always fully commit to exploring it.
Instead, it sometimes feels more fixed and predictable. It’s very clear that white supremacy is positioned as the central, overarching threat, and yes, obviously, that’s valid. But at times it feels overly simplified. In reality, anti-Asian hate during the pandemic came from multiple directions, and I think the book could have been even more unsettling if it leaned into that unpredictability, if you didn’t know who to trust, who might turn, or where the next threat was coming from.
Iit often slips into a pattern of: new white character introduced = they’re going to be awful. And while I understand the intention, it sometimes flattens the nuance. There were moments where it felt like the book was circling a more complex, more frightening idea and then stepping back from it.
There are also plot threads that just disappear. There are quite a few moments where something's introduced and built up, then quietly abandoned when a newer, more intense thread comes along. It adds to that slightly chaotic, almost fragmented feeling the book has, which sometimes works in its favour, but sometimes just feels underdeveloped.
Sometimes the story moved on from some things too fast. Cora will have a meltdown over dropping a banana on the floor and it’ll take her days to recover. She remembers every slight against her in photographic detail and spirals for hours over something that happened when she was 4. But within an hour of witnessing a murder, she’s moved on like it never even happened.
And I know Delilah’s death is a central plot point. But she’s mentioned 430 times. The book’s only 300 pages. After a certain point I was genuinely sick of hearing about Delilah. I get that grief is repetitive. I get that trauma loops. I get that memory is intrusive. But narratively, it started to feel like the book was stuck replaying the same beat without letting it evolve.
Also, this book is disgusting (complimentary). It's vividly and unapologetically grotesque. The crime scene cleanup scenes are described in such tactile, nauseating detail that you can practically smell them. It’s purposeful rather than gratuitous, and forces you to confront the physical reality of violence in a way that’s hard to ignore.
And through all of this, the supernatural horror threads itself in so seamlessly that it almost feels secondary, which is wild, considering how disturbing it is. The ghosts, the bats, the creeping sense of unreality all feel like extensions of Cora’s internal state. It’s her trauma made literal.
And then, in the middle of all of this bleakness, there’s Tom Hanks the dumpling-eating koi. My favourite character, no contest. A tiny, bizarre moment of levity in a book that otherwise refuses to let you breathe. Spin-off series when??
This book doesn’t scare you in a traditional horror sense. It just leaves you unsettled and drained. Also more than a little impressed.
I never found any comfort here, and sometimes I didn’t even enjoy it. It can be repetitive, heavy-handed, emotionally exhausting, and occasionally lacking in nuance.
But it’s also bold, human, visceral, angry, feral, and unforgettable.
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