I really wanted to read this book after reading “The Scarlet Alchemist”. In the Scarlet Alchemist I really enjoyed the dark side of the story so I was expecting this book to be even better with the horror! And it definitely was! This book had crime scene cleaners, ghosts, and a killer so I was hooked in the beginning.

As I kept reading though, the pace was just very slow for me and Cora’s personality was very detached. I really loved the plot in the beginning but I was definitely expecting a different ending. Even though this book played out differently than I anticipated, I really enjoyed reading it. The book is in 3rd person, but I actually liked that and the writing was good. I just wish it had a faster pace.

The side characters in this story, Yifei and Harvey, were really interesting. I loved how Cora became close to them and I loved reading their adventures together in such a shitty work environment. As someone who went to school for Forensic Science, I really really loved the crime scene cleaners aspect of this book and reading about all the horrible stories through Cora’s perspective. It’s definitely dark.

The authors perspective of the Covid pandemic was also very eye opening because I heard about all of the hate towards Asians during this time but having this perspective gave me more insight into how people were treated on a daily basis because of Covid and the Sinophobia that people had.

So overall, I enjoyed reading this book but it is not my favorite work of the author. I gave this book 3.5 stars 🌟 but I would definitely read it again! I do think this book had a lot of great horror elements and a new perspective on the pandemic through Cora’s life as a crime scene cleaner. The ending definitely surprised me (I won’t spoil it) but I would love to keep reading more books from this author!

Thank you to the author & Netgalley for the ARC!

First, shout-out to NetGalley for the Advance Read of this title.

This book started with wild action and never gave up. Every time we'd hit a slight lull, the book would take off again.

<spoiler>it starts with Cora's sister being decapitated by a train in NYC, falls into mysterious/paranormal activity that made me wonder if Cora was actually seeing these things or if she was hallucinating. I've read too many thrillers where it's gone one way or another</spoiler>

Was this a dark book in general? Yes. But the topic is also dark. And venturing back and reliving it was dark. But Baker does an amazing job capturing the fear as an Asian in America. She strikes the tone perfectly about fears about COVID as a whole. She nails the feelings and I was right back there in 2020.

I remember the man who rushed me while I was out on a hike because I am Asian. I remember the racist comments, even the ones not directed at me but still put out into the universe. I remember how it felt. I remember going to NYC for a friend's wedding right after so many news reports about violence against Asians on the subways and in the streets. I was absolutely terrified. Baker perfectly captured that experience with not only its fear, but it's heartbreak about the only place that I have ever called home.

I also love the call to action at the end. This isn't about Asians vs the world, there are many who have paved the way, the way this country operates on blame is still erroneous, and we must move and work together to fix it.

I would definitely read more Kylie Lee Baker. Her writing feels real, even with the ghosts. They are tangible in this title ans I love their inclusion in this writing. I don't know that I would buy it for my personal collection, given its darker nature, but this is definitely a deep book with experience behind its writing.

“But Cora knows that the face of fear is not an abstract what-if. Fear is born in the after, when the world peels back its skin and shows you its raw, pulsing innards, when it forces you to remember its name. Anyone who has seen the face of fear knows you should damn well be afraid.”

There’s potentially a serial killer on the loose in New York City – targeting East Asian women and leaving bats at the crime scene. Cora Zeng cleans up the scenes of these crimes for a living. While Cora is a germaphobe, the sight of all the blood and gore at work doesn’t bother her. It actually pales in comparison to the horror Cora experienced at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, when she witnessed a man shove her sister Delilah in front of an oncoming train. The only two words the man shouted before fleeing the scene were “bat eater.”

Cora doesn’t want to think about the connection between her sister’s death and the murder scenes she sees at work everyday. In fact, she tries to ignore thinking about Delilah altogether. But when a hungry ghost starts to haunt Cora, she realizes that it’s probably a bad idea to ignore the desires of the dead.

This book was seriously so good. Kylie Lee Baker did a fantastic job at crafting a fully fleshed out main character. Cora Zeng had fears, flaws, intrusive thoughts, and an incredibly well-defined voice. Being firmly rooted in Cora’s head immersed me in the horror of the novel in a way I have rarely experienced before. I felt like I could genuinely feel the fear that Cora felt during the tensest moments of the plot. I was on the edge of my seat for every single page, biting my nails, my heart racing as I waited to see what would happen next. As a horror fan, I can firmly say that this is the best horror novel that I have read in years.

Another thing I really appreciated about this novel was its discussion of the xenophobia and rise in anti-Asian hate crimes that occurred around the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. In my opinion, the best horror is always rooted in reality – the fact that moments in this novel mirrored moments from the recent past made the reading experience all that more unsettling.

I cannot wait for this book to be published so I can buy myself a physical copy. There were so many quotes in this that I highlighted, and I know there are so many scenes that will stick with me for a very long time.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A review was posted on my Goodreads account on 6/15/24.
An Instagram grid post will feature this book on 6/16/24.

Wow, wow, wow. Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng is definitely in my top 5 books of 2024 because what a ride this book was. Kyle Lee Baker has written a book with gore that managed to unsettle me and also comfort me. Funny how horror often does this.

The titular Cora Zeng is a twenty-four-year-old Chinese-American and the book takes place during the pandemic, which was not a fun time to be Asian let alone specifically Chinese. It’s made even worse for Cora, who suffers from a debilitating need to clean along with general anxiety. Luckily, her sister, Delilah, is always there for her. Until the day when a man pushes Delilah into a subway train after calling her a “bat eater.” A horrific series of serial killings comes to Cora’s attention soon after as well as a series of hauntings.

In the author note, Lee Baker thanks her editor, who called the first chapter of the manuscript “brilliant” and it really is. Somehow, I forgot that Delilah is pushed, but even if I had remembered, I doubt the horror of it would’ve changed that much. The fact that subways are the sites of so many violent incidents in New York City adds to the visceral description we get.

There’s also the shock from the fact that anyone would do this, and for what? Because someone who looked different was thought of as so subhuman or other in the perpetrator’s head? These are the horrors that Lee Baker captures and her ghosts and killer reflect them perfectly. I’m sure some readers won’t click as much with the book because the themes are very direct to the point of maybe being ham-fisted.

However, I think this book is the equivalent of “STFU!” by Rina Sawayama. It’s very clear what the intent is and seeing it so clearly from the first chapter doesn’t detract from its power. I felt like Lee Baker dipped into what it was like to be a Chinese American woman in NYC during the pandemic (check on all those boxes for me) on such an intimate level and she also managed to address the way racism and xenophobia continue to haunt all people of color. That a system that fails one group of people in one way fails us all.

Cora starts with so much fear at the beginning of the book, but her character arc was satisfying to me. I appreciate that Lee Baker captured the nuances of code switching, anxiety and self-loathing, and the difficult decisions we make to survive, even when it means sacrificing our dignity. One of my favorite things is seeing a fearful character being able to fully get angry. Cora gets this moment and more, and I love that she grew in multiple ways.

I also loved her relationship with two coworkers turned friends, Harvey and Yifei. Yifei in particular was amazing and I wish we had a second book with her. While I do think the background dumping done for these characters came truly out of nowhere and was one block of text monologue basically, their chemistry won me over.

I don’t want to spoil and say too much about the serial killings themselves but, wow. Definitely check content warnings.

Overall, Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng is an incredible book that you should pick up. I’m running to get a copy as soon as I can in 2025 and I really hope Lee Baker continues writing this powerfully and continues with horror if she wants to.

Thanks to NetGalley and MIRA for an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This review will be published on my blog (clearsummers.wordpress.com) and Goodreads on January 14, 2025. It will be published on Amazon on the pub date.

5/5 stars
Recommended if you like: horror, contemporary horror, ghost stories

This review has been posted to Goodreads as of 5/21, my review blog as of 6/11, and will be posted to Instagram 6/25.

TW racism/Sinophobia, covid, murder/gore

I wasn't totally sure what to expect coming into this book, but it is 100% a horror book. Not fantasy horror, horror...and I actually really liked it! While it is straightforward horror, I was invested in the story and the ghosts, and trying to figure out how the ghosts fit in with the other (arguably far scarier) stuff that was going on in the story.

Cora's story and the other murders go hand-in-hand. Cora's sister is murdered in the first chapter, and then time flashes forward to when Cora has already been working as a crime scene cleaner for a bit. As the story progresses, and the ghost(s) become more prevalent, Cora's journey of healing ties in with what's going on around the city and her journey of trying to figure out that mystery.

While this is a horror story, I liked seeing Cora make friends and start to come out of her shell a little. Even before Delilah's murder, Cora hadn't had the smoothest childhood, and even as an adult she deals with OCD. As a result, she has a tenuous relationship with her family members and almost no friends to speak of. Yifei and Harvey are pretty different people, and different from Cora, but somehow the three of them make sense together and I liked the budding friendship they form as they try to figure out how to satisfy Delilah's ghost. Yifei turns out to be a big asset since she's dealt with ghosts before, and while Harvey has seen one before, he has little experience with returning one from whence it came.

I liked Cora as a narrator and thought she had some interesting perspectives on things. As mentioned, she has a tenuous relationship with her family, on both her mom and dad's side, and so she's clung to Delilah for most of her life, resulting in Cora feeling as if she's not her own person (though she admittedly doesn't seem bothered by this). Part of Cora's story in this book is not only healing and coming to terms with some things, it's also about finding her own identity and connections. As the story progresses, Cora becomes friends with Yifei and Harvey, and she also becomes closer with her aunt on her dad's side. By the time the story ends, she may still not know exactly what she wants, but she feels more solid to herself and is eager to find her place.

I don't read a lot of horror, especially when it's not fantasy horror, so I found the ghost element interesting. The ghost can only come out in dark spaces, such as when the lights are off or in the dark crack between your closet door and the floor. I thought that was an interesting feature, and I second Cora's question of whether the ghost is gone or just invisible. The Hungry Ghost Festival also plays a big part in the ghost storyline and Cora's resistance to it, then slow acceptance follows the intensity of her ghostly encounters.

And as if being haunted isn't enough, East Asian women are also being brutally murdered around the city. Cora tries to chalk it up to coincidence at first, but as the crime scenes build and the pattern becomes more obvious, she's forced to acknowledge that something dark is afoot. Cora becomes invested in figuring out who is murdering these women, and Yifei and Harvey are on board with her plan, both also increasingly fed up with how the murders are being ignored/covered up (Yifei especially). This takes them down a twisty road that threatens to be even more dangerous than being haunted by a hungry ghost.

Related to the murders, and the book in general, is racism, and particularly the Sinophobia that reared its head during the covid pandemic. Delilah was murdered by it, as were the other women, and Cora deals with both subtle and overt forms of it throughout the book, from being told she scares people because she might carry covid to having someone spit in her face. We also see it with Yifei, whose roommate automatically assumed she didn't speak English. As Cora heals and develops in the book, she also gets angry and begins to want justice for the discriminations, both small and big, that have been piling up.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed this book and actually didn't find myself too freaked out by the horror elements (the ghosts and murders are definitely creepy though). I enjoyed reading Cora's story and seeing as she finds her footing in her life after everything that's happened. I'm going to be honest, I usually don't think the pandemic affected me very much (aside from not being able to watch TV shows set during the pandemic that actually acknowledge it exists), but I did get a little teary-eyed reading the Author's Note at the end.

I like the pov of this book and the uniqueness of the main character. Kylie tackles such a major and recent stain on American history with the horrendous treatment of Asians during the COVID 19 pandemic. The fear and anger are clear, the writing is haunting and descriptive, BUT I struggled with the pace. Ultimately, I chose to DNF at 54%

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced eARC.

Kyle Lee Baker has absolutely solidified herself as one of rare authors whose prose is as sharp as a knife and beautiful as falling leaves. Her prose truly is so stunning, and KLB absolutely brought the same horridly visceral quality to her historical fantasies to her adult horror debut, Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng. Lastly, it was such a delight to see KLB using 3rd person POV for the first time and I hope we get to see that again sometime soon. While this book did not hit it out of the park for me, it is a worthy entry into Kylie Lee Baker’s already flawless bibliography. May 2025 be the year of Cora Zeng.

What an excellent horror novel- it has some traditional elements (ghosts, rampant murder), but also an analysis of Asian racism and the fallout of COVID. It really read as fresh, and real, and unsettling for such a large number of reasons. The trauma is coming at Cora from so many directions- witnessing a brutal hate crime, working as a crime scene cleaner, suffering from OCD, hungry ghosts, and more. It adds up to an overwhelming sense of dread. The writing was very good and I'll looking forward to reading more from this author. I will definitely be recommending this one.

masterful macabre • rating [5]: 🍚🍚🍚🍚🍚

A horrific tragedy leaves Cora Zeng numb and broken leading into the world-altering COVID-19 pandemic. Her germophobia and meticulousness help in her job as a crime scene cleaner, until she realizes the victim trend of all Asian women and a unique calling card - dead bats left at the scene. As the Hungry Ghost festival commences, Cora finds that the horrors of the past and present is not something she can easily run away from.

I am such a big fan of horror movies and TV and this was my first real dive into horror literature. Let me tell you, there’s nothing I love more than when horror can show you that cruelty that humans can impose is much scarier than the supernatural. Kylie is has truly made a masterpiece and created a voice that tells the deepest fears of Asian American communities during the pandemic. But this was also a such a good gory ghost tale, satisfying spooky cravings for this reader!

This book was incredible. Traumatic. Unhinged. Definitely creepy. I loved every minute of it. This is my first intro to this author and it didn’t disappoint. Amazing.

I enjoyed the exploration of anti-Asian racism during the pandemic and connecting it to horror. I liked the descriptions as well!

Wow. It was definitely horror and mysterious. Who is killing all of these Asian women and leaving bats around? Who had killed Cora’s sister, Delilah and called her bat eater?

This book is set during the time when Covid first became rampant and Anti-Asian hate grew ten-fold. We see this with Delilah’s death, when a man spits at Cora, when the white men at the dumpling shop joke about the meat in the pork, and when a man grabs Cora and she pushes him into the street. The book really centers around the anti-asian hysteria with the deaths and the hungry ghosts.

I really enjoyed this book. It touched on racism as well as Christian and Asian cultural traditions. In one chapter, it almost feels like Spirited Away when the spirit eats the feast from the table.

In the end, I’m glad there is a bit of justice, but it also is open ended. There is a lot of death in this book, and unfortunately some of the characters I like were part of that number.

Cora did frustrate me at times, but she eventually became stronger and finally stood up for herself.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me read this arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a twisty dark adventure, between horror, classic mythos, and a mystery to be solved this book keeps you on your toes. With notes on racism and COVID throughout the book, this take on was interesting and a new perspective I think everyone should take a look at.

I didn’t realize how absolutely crushing and gut-wrenching this book would be. The ending especially hurt me because how does someone recover from the internal and external trauma that Cora went through?

This book was also just so incredibly FREAKY. I’m a new Kylie Lee Baker fan and I could tell from The Scarlet Alchemist that she could definitely write horror if she wanted to and DID SHE WRITE HORROR. I physically JUMPED in fear at one point of the book.

I want to add a random point that Cora’s job as a crime scene cleaner was really interesting. Her OCD manifesting into a spectacular cleaner was so interesting.

"In this explosive horror novel, a woman is haunted by inner trauma, hungry ghosts, and a serial killer as she confronts the brutal violence experienced by East Asians during the pandemic."
Cora is a crime scene cleaner who is traumatized by the murder of her sister. Delilah was pushed in front of a train and the murder shouted "bat eater". She has buried her trauma and ignored her superstitious Aunt who warns her to prepare for the Hungry Ghost Festival, when the fates of hell open. As she is struggling to figure out what is real and what is in her head, her most recent crime scenes are all East Asian women and all the crime scenes have dead bats.

I will admit I am a scaredy cat, I never watch horror movies and rarely read horror novels. I was skeptical about requesting this arc and I did it on a whim because the synopsis was so intriguing. I am beyond thankful that I requested this arc and was able to read this amazing book. The way the author wove the themes of trauma, racism, and horror was so well written. The ghost story theme and the serial killer mystery kept me invested. The characters are well written and I loved the bond that developed between Cora, Harvey and Yifei. I enjoyed every page of this book and found it hard to put down. I devoured this book. I highly recommend this book.

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the ARC.

2024 API Month

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'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.

I absolutely loved this book and hope Kylie Lee Baker writes more adult horror in the future.
The themes of racism, trauma, grief, and mental illness seamlessly blend in with the horror elements, and although the later are very well done, the thought-provoking nature of Cora's hardships is, for me, where this book truly shines. After all, is being haunted by the hungry ghost of a gruesomely murderer sister the worst that can happen to a Chinese American germaphobe who cleans up crime scenes during the COVID-19 pandemic?

I don’t even know what to say about this book. I was hooked from that gruesome science at the beginning. I loved the supernatural ghost elements of this story and all the horror elements.

Highly recommend if you’re a fan of ghosts, grief horror, and lots of gore.