This book was so good! It made me think and it made me squirm. I have dnf’d some previous “pandemic” books but this one was different. It has an important message it is just covered in blood at times.

Bat Eaters and Other Names of Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker
This story is about the COVID pandemic in New York City, at its height in 2020. It’s also about people’s struggles during times of great disruption, about tendencies to find racial and national scapegoats to blame during crises, and more specifically, about one woman’s struggles to survive, and to figure out who she is at heart. It’s also about mental illness, and being haunted by memories and more. It’s an investigation, and revenge, and in the end, a kind of mercy.
it is horrific and very depressing in parts, but it’s also gripping, active, exciting, sometimes very funny, loving, and hopeful. It’s like nothing I’ve read, and I highly recommend it for those who can stand the horror and hatred to win through to the positive parts.

What a wild ride this book was. While a lot of it felt familiar from my own time during Covid, this gave me a look into the racism and prejudice so many people faced during that time. While I am not usually a horror genre fan, this was done in such an atmospheric way, that I really enjoyed it! Some moments were so unsettling, and then we were get brief moments of humor to break it up. I would absolutely recommend this to any fan of this genre!

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. I only knew it centred around a Chinese woman during the COVID period, and I was intrigued. But this blew my mind.

It's part horror, part social commentary with unexpected humour woven in. I'm sure not everyone will feel this way, but to me, Cora was relatable. She seems to suffer from OCD and anxiety, and of course, during COVID, she finds it hard to cope. I also liked other characters in the book, including Cora's coworkers Yifei and Harvey, as well as her Auntie Zeng.

I was pleasantly surprised to feel so many things because of the book, and I would recommend it to everyone. I'd also love to check out more books from the other.

Thanks to Netgalley & Harlequin Books for the e-copy!

<i>Bat Eater</i> hits hard with a gut punch of rage and grief. Baker doesn’t flinch—from pandemic-era racism to sister-shaped trauma, it’s all cracked open and bleeding on the page.

Cora, scrubbing crime scenes by day and battling literal ghosts by night, is a fierce and messy protagonist, and her pain feels real. The horror aspect of the book is almost less grounded in the supernatural/gory and more searing in the way the world looks at her and decides she’s other.

This book is really good and full of fire, but I struggled with the pace. There’s a lot of internal exposition that kind of gets repetitive and I thought the plot threads would eventually come together in a more satisfying way, but it all stayed somewhat disjointed in the latter half of the book.

Still, I enjoyed the chaotic, angry heart of the story and I’m definitely going to look into Baker’s backlist!

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker has one of the most intense beginnings I have read in a long time. I do appreciate the light this book sheds on life in the pandemic and the racial hate and prejudice that is sadly still a part of our society. That conversation and the sad reasons it still continues is an important one. However, unfortunately, for many other reasons, I find myself not the reader for this book. 

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2025/05/bat-eater-and-other-names-for-cora-zeng.html

Reviewed for NetGalley and a publisher’s blog tour.

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I knew I’d love this book before I reached 10% (just looked it up, at 5% I knew!!) of the digital ARC. Sheesh, I took so long to read it that I was able to, and definitely ran to, buy my very own copy. To help gauge how much this means: I haven’t purchased a new book in over a year.

Cora Zeng unfortunately witnesses the murder of her sister, Delilah when some A1 A-hole pushes her into an oncoming train during the beginning of the pandemic. Months later, Cora is a crime scene cleaner, and she is noticing an uptick in murders of East Asian women, the connection: bats are at each crime scene. And if that’s not enough, Cora is seeing things, items in her apartment (where she lives alone) go missing. To add to the stress, it’s time for the Hungry Ghost Festival, and Cora did NOT burn any joss paper for her late sister. So what’s happening? Is Cora imagining everything? Is a serial killer after her now, too? Does she have a ghost haunting her?

Cora is not a character I loved; I found her to be very passive, someone who moves like everything, including her own choices, are out of her control. I can’t describe it accurately - but I’ll try>>I was annoyed with Cora’s inner dialogue and [lack of] actions for almost the entire book, but I didn’t dislike her. This book would make an awesome origin story and I think Cora would be a great anti-hero.

Yifei, Cora’s coworker, is everything Cora isn’t: outspoken, fearless, and independent. Then you have Harvey, their third coworker, who fills the role of the unserious, to the point of offensive, character. The three form an unexpected bond that will last their entire lives.

The writing is wonderful. The descriptions of the of the gruesome parts and moments of horror/suspense are great! Kylie Lee Baker is able to write Cora so well as a prey throughout the book. I also enjoyed the various terms Baker uses to convey consumption where they usually wouldn’t be used, keeping with the theme of the title.
The writing is easy to follow and quickly retained my attention. There wasn’t much down time for me to read, but when I could, I was captivated by this book.

I recommend this to anyone who likes social horror, ghost horror, and stories that deal with trauma.

Thanks to NetGalley and Mira Books for an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng honestly highly exceeded my expectations. I feel like some reviews mentioned that this book had "too much going on," but I don't think that's the case at all. I think that this author blended several themes and genres into one cohesive story, making it impactful and extremely unique.

On one hand, this has a thriller/mystery vibe happening, after Cora's sister Delilah is murdered. When Delilah starts reaching out to Cora from the grave, Cora goes on this quest to try to solve her murder. With ghost Delilah haunting Cora, there's also the horror/supernatural aspect. And while the author gave us physical horror in the form of ghosts, we also experience the horror of the racism against Asian Americans during COVID, and how they were viciously targeted and blamed for the pandemic. There is also a lot of Asian culture explored, which I absolutely loved. And while Cora is also coping with the grief from her sister's murder, she also lives in fear of getting sick with COVID, and fear that she will one day become another Asian American woman murdered out of hatred. She also copes with the difficulty of growing up in America, and not being as connected to her Asian heritage as the rest of her family. All of these things came together beautifully to create this terrifying and simultaneously heartbreaking story. Everything was so well-done, and even the scenes with the hauntings were terrifying.

While COVID is still a recent traumatic experience for many people, I can't help but see similar fear and hatred towards marginalized groups today, 5 years later in 2025 (for different reasons, but the horror of it is still similar). It's an important topic to discuss, and I feel like this should be something everyone reads, whether they like horror or not.

I highly recommend this!

3.5 stars!

Holy wow, what a punch in the face. This book is brutal and nonstop from the very first chapter. I found myself drawn into Cora's story so easily and was fully on board for the entire horrifying ride. Go into this expecting something ugly and glaring and incredibly heavy all wrapped up in a reading experience that will leave your head spinning for days to come. This is a book that weighs you down in the bestworst way.

I've never read something that would be categorized as grief horror, but I'm glad my first one was in KLB's skillful hands. Ditto for anything set during the modern pandemic era. I was worried how a book rooted in such nearby history would land, but KLB handles it perfectly. It was especially fascinating to see this familiar setting in time through the eyes of someone so isolated and obsessive about exposures.

Although "enjoyable" isn't the word for it, it was great getting to experience how the height of COVID paranoia amplified racism against people with a perceived involvement. Very eye-opening and disarming to experience as directly as Cora and crew do on the page. The boldness of strangers interacting in a public space never failed to stagger me, which I absolutely recognize comes from a place of privilege. The way KLB mirrors Cora's experiences with the general population with the systemic racism associated with the crimes unfolding on page is nothing short of masterful.

The issues I have with this book I fully recognize are mine rather than any fault of the author or the book itself. I don't want to spoil anything, but I'm a reader who tends to want to know why certain things happen, who tends to want solid closure at the end of a read. I don't feel like I got that here and I'll leave it at that. You'll have to read to see what I mean!

But regardless of how I felt at the end, this was a fantastic experience and I absolutely plan to recommend it widely. I've been meaning to check out KLB's fantasy books and now that I've seen her writing in action those will def have to move up the TBR.

Special thanks to MIRA for providing access to an ARC in exchange for review.

I received this eARC as a free gift for attending an author talk through my bookclub. The way the author spoke about her process and the motivation for the story made me really intrigued. I haven’t finished it yet and I’m not sure I’ll be able to. The novel is really well written, but the horror aspect just isn’t for me. I’ve rated based on the writing and the story even though I didn’t finish.

Nope, I got about 6% done and couldn't do it anymore. I couldn't handle the violence and descriptions, which are really vivid and written in an interesting way, so if you're into that I'm sure it's a good book.

“It’s strange how hate and love can so quietly exist at the same time. They are moon phases, one silently growing until one day all that’s left is darkness.”

✨ARC Review*: “Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng” by Kylie Lee Baker ✨

Wow, this one is definitely one of my top reads of the year! Although I got this as an ARC, it was definitely one I needed to sit with before putting this review together.

If you have not heard of this one, it’s a story that takes place during the pandemic in New York and is told from the perspective of Cora Zeng, a crime scene cleaner. As a story it covers some pretty heavy topics in addition to what you might expect for other books in the horror genre.

The story is very gripping and I was thinking about it even when I had to step away from it. From scenes that made me gasp out loud to a mystery that I was so desperate to unravel, this exceeded all of my expectations.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Overall Rating| ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

*This book was published on 4/29/25.

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng was a book unlike anything I had ever read before. To be honest, I was a bit hesitant to pick up a book that sounded so heavily focused around Covid. Although Covid did play a major role in the plot, it wasn't the primary focus, which I was glad for.

Cora Zeng is a crime scene cleaner. It's April 2020 in NYC. Cora's sister was recently shoved off a subway platform by a man who called her a "Bat Eater" and gruesomely hit by a train right in front of her. Cora is trying to cope with the loss of her sister, her whole world, and turns to crime scene cleaning. The murders of Asian women is on the rise during this time and it seems to be a serial killer behind it. His calling card? Leaving live bats at the crime scene. It's up to Cora, Yeifi, and Harvey to figure out who the killer is and stop him. All the while trying to keep Hungry Ghosts at bay (yes, ghosts are real and there is one (or more) following Cora around).

This novel took me by surprise. I didn't think that I would enjoy it as much as I did. There was mystery, paranormal, Chinese folklore, and gore throughout. The book was marketed as being of the horror genre, however I wouldn't call it horror. It wasn't scary, per say, maybe a bit spooky at times, but not horrifying. Definitely a mystery aspect as well as thrilling. This book makes me want to dive into Kylie Lee Baker's backlist. I highly recommend this one to anyone wanting to branch out of the ordinary because this novel is anything but! 5 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the ARC!

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng turned out to be bigger than the premise ever issued! Cora Zeng's story takes place during COVID in Chinatown, New York, after a dramatic travesty transpires in front of her eyes. From there, we follow her life as an OCD-ish, germaphobe, crime scene cleaner (I know, right), trying to navigate through a Pandemic, racism, and a haunting.

BEAONFCZ was a well-crafted book. I had no idea where the story was going until we reached the end. Although BEAONFCZ is classified as horror, it brings out the fear in more ways than one. For a story that presented multiple topics, it all meshed well together.

I love Asian horror, but I will say that this book was not meant for me. I highly appreciated Baker's note at the end of the story, which made me give her cool points. I stayed with my original rating. 3.5 stars

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng kept me on the edge of my seat. I’m a huge fan of horror movies, but I haven’t read a lot of horror books. I enjoyed seeing Kylie Lee Baker step into a new genre and make it her own.

This book is set during the pandemic in New York City. The story starts with our main character, Cora, and her sister at the train station. Instead of it being a normal day, a white man pushes Cora’s sister, Delilah, onto the train tracks, and she is killed. The man isn’t caught. The rest of the book follows Cora as she grieves and attempts to move on. She gets a new job as a crime scene cleaner and soon realizes there is a serial killer in New York City targeting young Asian American women. If all of that wasn’t enough for one person to deal with, Delilah’s ghost starts appearing everywhere. And she isn’t a harmless ghost. She’s hungry. 

This book deals with grief and racism, particularly the racism Asian Americans faced during COVID. This was the first book I’ve read set during the pandemic, and Baker did a great job capturing the essence of that time and the vast spectrum of how people dealt with the pandemic. I found the ghost aspect of this book really interesting. I wasn’t familiar with the mythology about hungry ghosts. Combining hungry ghosts with a serial killer gave this book a spooky edge I loved.

an eerie and sharp story that explores familial grief, racism, and trauma.

this novel follows cora zeng as she deals with the murder of her sister while living through the covid-19 pandemic, and how she and her coworkers start to notice a scary pattern in the crime scenes they clean up. the writing is graphic, immersive, and profound. the author explored the real-life ramifications of racism, xenophobia, and hatred. this is definitely a horror novel; some of the scenes were very scary #tome (i don't read horror much). i also enjoyed the threads of chinese culture and folklore that were interwoven into cora's investigations.

cora is such an interesting character to me; she's very multifaceted, even if you think that her only identity is being wrapped up in her sister. i really liked the relationships developed in the novel; harvey, yifei, and cora were a really interesting dynamic with all of them being chinese and dealing with xenophobia/racism, and auntie zeng and cora, with auntie zeng's spiritual and cultural knowledge versus cora not believing in it at first.

gory, haunting, and intriguing; this book really draws you in and places you in the horror of cora's world as she fights both the hungry ghots emerging, a closed-down world in the wake of an illness spreading around the world, and the racism and xenophobia directed towards not only her, but many asian people. i would recommend this book to people who like literary or horror novels

thanks to netgalley and harlequin trade publishing for the arc!

I wanted to love this book. It had the eerie vibes I love, but the pacing was far too slow, the plot too predictable, and the emphasis on racism while important, was too much the focus of this book and honestly it killed the story for me. The fmc seems to be a very introverted person, which is fine but I feel like the side characters were more interesting and that's just not what readers want.

This is a sharp and beautifully written horror story about a haunted and fractured mind amidst the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic. The opening scene alone cleaves you in two and horrifies you, and you’re immediately invested in Cora’s story. I don’t think any other book has, or could, address racism, grief, anxiety, trauma, and hauntings so perfectly. This is easily one of the best books of the year.

"It’s strange how hate and love can so quietly exist at the same time. They are moon phases, one quietly growing until one day all that’s there is darkness."

I think this is the first pandemic horror book I've read / heard of, and it did not disappoint. Usually I read thriller books, but the haunting of an attached spirit (and it actually being a spirit) was so interesting.

This book definitely covered heavy topics of death and racism that any and all Asians experienced, whether they were Chinese or not. during the pandemic. This is a gory, scary, all around insane book that I was sucked into from about 75 pages in.

It would be such a good late night spooky read. I recommend. Just not during the month of August...

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for granting me an e-arc!!

This book is so hauntingly beautiful, definitely something that will stay with you for a long time!!

Cora is a Chinese-American living in New York City in 2020 at the start of the pandemic. Life is scary enough as it is with the disease and unprecedented restrictions and isolation, but Cora also has to face an overwhelming anti-Asian sentiment that is present in the city. She deals with people making racist remarks as she passes by, and even sometimes physical harassment. However, this is taken to an extreme when Cora and her sister, Delilah, are at a subway station and a masked white man comes and pushes Delilah out onto the tracks in front of the train. Cora witnesses the terrible, tragic death of her sister, and the man behind the attack isn’t caught.

Since Cora’s normal job shut down due to the pandemic, she eventually gets a new job as a crime scene cleaner. While she and her coworkers turned friends are going to clean these places, they notice a frightening pattern- they’re seeing a lot of Asian women brutally killed, some left with a bat as a calling card. While they suspect they have a serial killer on their hands, Cora is also dealing with something perhaps equally as scary: she starts seeing Delilah where she goes, except it’s not her human form, but a terrifying ghost. Cora trusts that even as a ghost Delilah won’t hurt her, but she’s not sure why Delilah is coming back or what exactly she wants. Cora has been told about how people in their culture that are killed in a violent way may come back as hungry ghosts, only appeased once you’ve filled their nearly insatiable appetite. However, Cora is sure that this ghost is leading her to something- but what? As Cora and her coworkers work to try to put Delilah’s spirit to rest, they uncover more information about these recent killings- potentially putting them in danger.

This book was heartbreaking but so wonderfully written. It is graphic and gory, so readers should beware of that. However, I think it’s important and impactful that the author used such descriptions, because these terrible acts of prejudice really were inflicted on Asian women during the pandemic. This novel really brought back the fear of the pandemic, but tenfold as Cora dealt with a lot of scary things that many of us did not have to. I would recommend this read, even if it doesn’t sound like your typical book! It really is worth the read.