Thank you Netgalley for this arc. I also listened to the arc audio version, so thank you for that as well. This was everything dark and funny. I really enjoyed this one as an immersive read. I would rate this book a 5 stars and I would really recommend checking it out if this sounds like your vibe.

This book isn’t just horror, it’s the nightmare we lived in but never fully acknowledged. In a world where mainstream media peddles clickbait and half-truths, Kylie Lee Baker’s novel is the unfiltered scream into the void we desperately needed. Like *The Handmaid’s Tale*, it shoves us face-first into a dystopia that feels chillingly real because it *is*.

Skyrocketing hate crimes against Asians during the COVID pandemic? Buried under "random violence" labels or forgotten in the news cycle's endless churn. Baker doesn’t let us look away. Through Cora Zeng, we confront the raw horror of being dehumanized overnight, scrubbing hands raw, flinching at every shadow, haunted by literal ghosts while society pretends everything’s fine. Cora’s unraveling mind mirrors our collective post-2020 paranoia: OCD amplified by invisible viruses and very visible hate. The bodies pile up, the monsters walk among us, and the question looms *how much will we accept before we say enough?*

And lastly... to whoever is reading this...this book isn’t fiction!! it’s a mirror reflecting the terror we’ve normalized. When horror starts feeling like reality, you should be terrified. Because this time, it’s not just a story. It’s a warning of what despicability is normalized..

Cora Zeng a young Asian American woman living in New York City during the COVID pandemic. Cora witnessed her half sister Delilah, fall to her death on the tracks of a train and when the suspect flees thescene he yells bat eater to her. Cora's job is to clean crime scenes for a living. When Cora starts to notice that the victims are also of Asian descent she wonders if this is not just some kind of hate crime. At every scene Cora has found a bat. The other strange thing is that Cora also sees Delilah's ghost. In order to help Delilah's spirit rest Cora must find out who is behind these attacks. With the help of her two coworkers they travel down the path of feeding ghosts, pieceing together shreeded papers from a dead Asian American police officer and reinacting rituals to make the ghosts go away. This was a great book and I liked the fact that it was told from the point of view of an Asian American, and how unjustly they were treated during the early days of the pandemic. I would like to thank both NetGalley and MIRA Publishing for letting me read an advanced copy of this novel.

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.

I don't recommend reading this book in your semi-dark apartment near midnight, but if you do, just make sure you have a friend on video call.

Me the last third of this book:

"OH MY GOSH."

"WHAT."

"SHE ATE THEM???"

"THE PLATES."

"Omg thank god they're good at cleaning up blood."

"WAIT. No no no no. Omg no."

"Oh my gosh what."

"Why????!!!"

Cora Zeng doesn't know who she is without her sister Delilah. She's always followed in her sister's shadow, but after her sister's horrific murder, Cora is left drifting like a spirit in a world who sees girls like her as lesser; scapegoats for a pandemic that she has nothing to do with.

I don't think I've read a book that takes place in 2020 during the early months of COVID, but it's a very weird experience going back to the first few months and remembering the toilet paper crisis, the empty streets, the confusion on how long to quarantine, and which masks were better/would keep you safe. I felt for Cora so much, and like in the author's note, she doesn't realize that she will probably still be wearing a mask 4 years into this pandemic.

Cora's OCD is what really made me feel for her as a character, especially since it mimics my own OCD. I feel like more and more books with characters who have OCD try to step away from contamination and focus on other manifestations, since most people associate OCD with hand washing and sanitizing. But it is nice to see this kind of OCD in books, especially in a character who had this before covid came into the picture. Cora's awareness of her coworkers noting how often she sanitizes her hands made me feel so seen, because I know my coworkers notice me wiping down my pens and stethoscope and phone at the end of a shift. OCD really does take over your life, and it's not just the compulsive behaviours, but also the intrusive thoughts and catastrophizing. You live always predicting the worst possible outcome so that you're as prepared as possible for when it happens, and if it doesn't, you're prepared anyway. I honestly loved the representation in this book. There is one scene where Cora gets covid and feels almost relieved that her worst fear has become reality and it's not actually as horrible as she thought it would be (even though she does feel like death) and I honestly wanted to hug her and say "oh sweetie, you don't even know about long covid yet".

The serial killer mystery aspect of this book kept me on the edge of my seat, especially as Cora and her friends were getting closer and closer to figuring out the truth, while also trying to help Cora with her "hungry ghost problem". The dynamic between Harvey and Yifei was so fun to read and really provided the comedic relief this book needed in between all the dark and gory parts.

I love how this book doesn't shy away from social and political issues either. We already know how corrupt the NYPD is and how people in power can coerce and manipulate what cases are considered "important" and what the media should/shouldn't cover. It's no surprise that our world doesn't care about anyone who isn't white, and it's only become even more obvious since covid began. I also really appreciated the mention of Jesus being from Palestine. I know it made the zionists angry, which always makes me happy.

This book is dark and gory and disturbing. But it also feels very real because the purposeful targeting and murder of minorities is our present reality and has been for some time. It's sad and frustrating watching white supremacists and nazis rising into power yet again, and creating a space where people like them are emboldened/encouraged to be hateful and racist.

The ending of this book does leave you feeling hopeful, because resistance, and sometimes violent resistance, is necessary to achieve justice and freedom for everyone.

4.25/5 stars

This is a really unique read. Told from the perspective of a young Chinese American woman, this novel is a horror story that saves its biggest scares for the real-life dangers that exist right outside of our doors. Set during the early-ish days of Covid, we see what it was like for people of Asian heritage to live in urban centers with a constant threat of violence and who faced constant distrust from the general population.

The book also has some incredibly spooky scenes; the ghosts in this one are ones that populate Asian folklore so the book is a perfect, eclectic example of a globalized Gothic, one that is both familiar and not. The setting is NYC; the narrator is trying to figure our her identity as an American who is constantly stereotyped because she looks "just Chinese enough"; the days of Covid are familiar to us all; the ghosts come from a history that will be new to many American readers; and the violence is palpable, transgressing all boundaries.

Good job, Kylie Lee Baker. I'm pretty sure this one will stay with me for a long time. And the resolution to the mystery (because yeah--this is also a mystery story, too) is freaking terrifying.

From the start, this book will do what many books won’t do these days: remind you of the very real, terrifying realities of the Covid era. Mix that in with the hate-fueled crimes across the country, but especially in New York City, and you’ve got yourself a truly horrific tale.

Come for the creepy horror story, stay for the powerful message.

(Thank you, HarperCollins Publishers | HTP Books, Harlequin Audio, and NetGalley, for the e-ARC and audiobook ARC in exchange for my honest review.)

If you have been even remotely considering adding this book to your TBR, let me save you the trouble: stop thinking and just add it. ((You're welcome!))

I finished this book days ago and have not been able to stop thinking about it since. I have tried so many times to write this review, but nothing I have to say is going to properly express the way this book reaches out from the dark and latches onto you. The spectrum of horror and horror-adjacent topics that are covered in this book ((and covered WELL)) is honestly incredible and done in such a beautiful, horrifying, and impactful way. Fear of the supernatural is one thing, and the imagery the author uses in describing these elements is absolutely chilling.

Cora has so much more to contend with, though. Grief is a massive theme in this book: how do you grieve the loss of a sibling while wrestling with thoughts of the complicated relationship you had? How do you grieve the way your life has changed during a pandemic in the beginning stages? How do you come face-to-face with violent crimes on a daily basis, seeing yourself in every victim, grieving this reality and any illusions of personal safety? Layered into all of this is Cora's fear of herself: is there actually something otherworldly in the dark corners and shadows, or is she slipping into madness?

How do you fight the ugliness of the world ((and maybe the restless ghost of your sister)) while battling your own mind?

What else worked well for me: I will never tire of relentlessly supporting any horror that is lore-heavy, and learning about "hungry ghosts" has sent me down a research rabbit hole from which I fear I may never emerge. The author's depictions are equal parts chilling and compelling and seamlessly woven through the book. The characters in this book are also perfectly crafted. They're all so well-developed and just feel real, though I've definitely selected a "favorite." ((Yes, it's Yifei, and no, I will not be accepting any alternate options.))

What did not work for me: while the pacing for the first 2/3 of the book felt perfect, that last bit felt rushed. As a result, there were a few things that didn't quite have as strong of an impact as they could have. I'd have also loved to see a few things fleshed out more with Auntie Zeng- she feels like she has lifetimes of stories to tell.

The point: I cannot recommend this book more. Show it some love, add it to your TBR, make sure to get your copy, and please support this incredible author... but DON'T turn around when you think you hear something behind you.

((While the viewpoints shared are my own, I want to thank NetGalley, HarperCollins, and Kylie Lee Baker for this complimentary copy.))

6 ⭐️

One of the best horror books I’ve read to date. It’s gory, haunting, horrific and devastating. The plot, pacing and writing are perfection. This book will be cemented into the top books I’ve read for life. I will pick up any book this author puts out.

Please reach out if you need any publicity or reader for this author in the future.

This was so good! You could feel Cora's anxiety with germs and the kill scenes😲. Epic. The Asian community received so much backlash from COVID it really showed how racist Americans are.

Bat Eater by Kylie Lee Baker is a dark, mesmerizing read that combines rich world-building with a gripping, fast-paced plot. Baker’s writing immerses you in a haunting, fantastical world, while her complex characters add depth to the suspense. It’s an intense and unforgettable story that will keep readers on the edge of their seats.

Covid 19 was a difficult time for the country, but I can't imagine living through it as Cora Zeng. What a nightmare. Cora lives in New York during the pandemic, and was already struggling to find her place. She doesn't fit in with her Chinese culture, because she grew up americanized, but she isn't accepted as an American either because of how she looks. She hates germs, and takes almost neurotic measures to ensure cleanliness. Her chosen profession is disgusting (and facinsating) but is the best she can do given the circumstances. Add in losing the most important person in her life is a gruesome and horrific manor, plus the fact she might be going crazy and you're in for a wild story.

Right away, and throughout, the horror aspect shines. It's woven so gracefully throughout the story that you wouldn't even notice if the visions painted for you weren't so horrific.

This book addressed some huge topics, racism and mental health being the most prominent. The story itself is interesting and catching, but i struggled to stay engaged throughout. I couldn't wait for the story to move along, and found some parts kind of stagnate.

This was an incredibly powerful read - I'm a huge fan of horror being used to explore real issues, and there's few narratives as real and as poignant as this one.

The prose is beautifully written - it felt like reading poetry and made everything feel dreamlike, intensely real and not real at the same time. There are moments that are truly terrifying and heartbreaking, but even the moments in between have this tension to them, which is mostly created by Cora's characterization and her inner narrative. Cora jumps off the page, fully realized and practically flesh and blood even as the impossible happens to her. Her anxiety and fear translates directly to the reader, which is a feat of writing unto itself.

I also really enjoyed how starkly realistic the plot is - it would have been easy for Baker to fall into common thriller tropes and turn Bat Eater into a trendy thrill ride, and we all would have enjoyed it. But this book is different - nothing is simple or as it seems, and nothing will be tied up in a neat bow of tropes and justice. We're instead left to stare into the mirror that Baker holds up to our reality, wondering how we got here and what might come next.

If you're looking for a book that is part slasher, part haunting, and part bio-horror, look no further. In the midst of the COVID pandemic of 2020, Cora Zeng is haunted by her deceased sister and stalked by a serial killer as everything in her clean and neat and somehow already spiraling life begins to fall even farther apart. The journey to finding her way back to some semblance of normal won't be easy and there will be blood. Fortunately, Cora is an expert on crime scene cleanup. Atmospheric urban horror at it's finest, this is one horror fans won't want to miss.

When I read the preview of this book, I knew I was gonna love this one. The audiobook was great. I enjoyed it more than I thought.
Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng is a haunting horror novel that weaves supernatural terror with the very real horrors of racism and violence against East Asians. Through Cora’s journey as a crime scene cleaner in Chinatown, the book explores the surge in anti-Asian hate during the pandemic, showing how fear, grief, and trauma manifest both psychologically and physically. As Cora uncovers eerie patterns in her work, the novel highlights the dehumanization and brutality faced by East Asian women, making the horror feel all too real. This book is both unsettling and deeply relevant.
4.5 stars

I realized this book isn’t for me as I was not able to finish. I won’t be able to give a full review and I won’t review on social sites as I wish the author the best pub day.

I love Kylie Lee Baker's books, and I think this is her best yet. Definitely the scariest. I finished this book in about a week, but it would have been shorter if I hadn't have needed to read during the daylight hours. Ha.

Overall, it was brilliant. Kylie seamlessly tackles issues of Asian hate, class, healthcare, and more while providing a story that is gripping as it is disturbing.

This book sucked me in immediately. It follows Cora Zeng in the early days of the COVID pandemic in New York City. She’s having to adjust to a new way of life when her world is completely upended once more. A man murders Cora’s sister Delilah right in front of her, pushing her in front of a train as he yells “bat eater.”

Kylie Lee Baker’s writing is so visceral. Some of the descriptions she employs are so disgustingly graphic, they really work to put you in Cora’s perspective and show how she’s coping (or not coping) with her situation. As Cora works as a crime scene cleaner she starts to realize that all the cases they’re getting are murdered East Asian women. Could this be connected to whoever killed her sister? And what are all those shapes that are coming out of the darkness, reaching out for Cora? Maybe she should’ve taken her aunt’s advice about the Hungry Ghost Festival more seriously…

This was such a wonderful blend of horror, character development, catharsis, social commentary, mental health, dark humor, family, and found family. I really enjoyed how the horror in this book was coming from multiple sources, some realistic and some supernatural. And the conclusion of the book felt very poignant. Definitely check this one out if it sounds interesting to you! I hope Kylie Lee Baker continues writing horror, she has a knack for it.

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 as her aunt is the only one willing to call her upon 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 taught 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.

Whew. This was quite a ride.

I have a couple of questions about why the author chose to do certain things, but this is the kind of book where I feel like the author DID have reasons even if I'm not sure what they were. In other words, I have no overall critiques.. This book won't be for everyone (whew, that body horror tho), but the horror doesn't exist for its own sake. Baker is so clearly responding to the types of violence that is entrenched in our society. I shuddered at the ghosts and their grisly acts, but the things that made me flinch or exclaim aloud while reading were the acts of everyday violence that Baker describes.

I've been struggling to find horror books that are actually scary, and I think this one delivers. At the same time I spent most of the book feeling just... sad. As Baker says in the notes, we lost a lot in 2020, including the belief that strangers were generally good people. This hits even harder in 2025, when we're watching our government crumble before our eyes, while a significant portion of the population values the theoretical price of eggs over the lives of their neighbors.

This book features some interesting rep (undocumented immigrants, OCD, a reference to eating disorders) on top of the core theme of hate crimes perpetrated against the Asian-American community. It's well-written and I got attached to all the characters, sometimes to my detriment.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book. It's one of the best horror novels that I've read in quite some time.