Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker is an absolutely gripping supernatural horror/ thriller novel that will sink its teeth into you and not let go.

Cora Zeng is a 24 year old germaphobe who is half Chinese and half American. Her sister Delilah has always guided Cora through and now, during the height of the pandemic, Cora needs Delilah more than ever. But one day a trip to get some much coveted toilet paper ends in tragedy when a masked white man pushes Delilah head first into a subway train, yelling "Bat Eater" into her face. Four months later Cora is still haunted by her sister's violent death. Working as a crime scene cleaner, Cora is able to focus her energy and cleanliness into her work and the routine helps quiet but not silence the grief. After being called out to multiple crime scenes all involving Asian women, Cora and her coworkers begin to suspect someone is targeting Asian people. At every scene there is also at least one bat left as a calling card. And if the grief of Delilah's death and a possible serial killer isn't enough for Cora, add in The Hungry Ghost festival that Auntie Zeng has been trying to get Cora prepared for and no wonder it feels like she is losing her tenuous grip on reality.

This is definitely one of those books that will stay with me for a long time! Creepy, disturbing and atmospheric, I found myself fully immersed into Cora's story. I love the way that Kylie Lee Baker has masterfully layered a supernatural horror and a gripping thriller on top of a sharp and incisive look at the prejudice and racism that controlled our world during the pandemic and after. I absolutely loved Cora as our main character! She is flawed and relatable and her vulnerability and emotional turmoil pulls you deep into her fractured mind. This book is one I am going to be thinking about for awhile and I highly recommend checking it out!
Content and Trigger Warnings:
- Racism
- Violence
- Grief/trauma
- Blood/gore
- Mental Illness
- Supernatural horror
- Animal cruelty/corpses

Thank you to NetGalley, Kylie Lee Baker, and HTP/MIRA for this ARC!! Publication date: April 29th 2025.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

WOW.
This was heavyyyy but amazing horror.
I have not picked up a book who is set during the early days of COVID, so I was worried this wouldn't be something I would enjoy but it's so well written and I LOVED CORA and her crime scene clean up crew, Yifei and Harvey, so so much. This is a whole other level of grief horror and something I haven't experienced before in a novel.

Bat Eater has found a way to combine a deeply creepy mystical horror/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.

My only gripe with this amazing horror novel is that I would have loved to spend even more time with Cora, Yifei and Harvey as a trio, honestly my favorite part of the book was them trying to unravel what is going on with Cora.

I absolutely loved this book. Cora was such an amazing character that we see grow throughout the book. Seeing her finally become her own person was just what my cold little heart needed. But don’t think this book was all about the feels. It was gory as heck and is definitely a horror novel. Theres a serial killer on the loose and trust me they don’t care if crime scenes are messy. Anddd I love that Cora and her friends are just crime scene cleaners?! During COVID?! Idk why but I thought you had to go to a special school or something to do that 😂Anywhooo there’s also the perfect amount of dark humor/sarcasm to lighten the mood every once in a while. I highly highly recommend picking this one up

Bat Eat and Other Names for Cora Zeng was my first pandemic book on COVID and it did not disappoint! From the first chapter, you’re thrown into the horrors of what’s to come in this book. Cora witnessed the death of her sister that was a hate crime, and now four months later she’s working as a crime-scene cleaner where life still isn’t normal and may never be. I’m sure you can relate to Cora in one way or another. This book was filled with dark, eerie, and gory moments that also had mystery and cultural aspects. The inclusion of the Hungry Ghost Festival made for an interesting read with its important role the festival played in the book. The character dynamics were one of my favorites in this book and I loved the relationship that Cora built with her co-workers. This book doesn’t shy away from the violence and racism against Asian Americans and reflects many themes that makes for a powerful read.

Thank you to The Hive and HTP Books for the gifted copy!

THIS BOOK WAS A LOT. That's not a bad thing, but holy cow, make sure you know what you're getting into. As someone with OCD, I found there were parts of this story that made it way harder for me to read, just because Cora herself seems to have some OCD tendencies, and I wasn't prepared for that. It isn't anything bad, but I had to brace my brain so that I didn't take her intrusive thoughts and allow them to become my own.

ANYWAY- now onto the actual review.

In this story, we start in NYC 2020. COVID just hit, and it's a nightmare. Then we immediately experience a hate crime by a white man, which leads to Cora's sister's death. Fast forward a few months, Cora is a crime scene cleaner and she and her colleagues start to notice a pattern in the apartments that they are assigned to clean...they belong to young Asian women, and there are bats present. Oh, and did I mention that this is all during Ghost Month (the seventh month of the lunar calendar/typically around July or August)??? Cora starts to see a hungry ghost that follows her around, and she is quite literally haunted by it, because she never believed in any of this kind of stuff before.

So this book is quite literally a murder mystery, a ghost story, and lit fic about the atrocities faced by Asians and Asian-Americans during the pandemic. It was scary, it was emotional, it was riveting. We watch Cora deal with her grief and come into her own.

Definitely check trigger warnings because there are some grisly topics here. Lots of death.

Beautifully written, engaging, and morbid. The holy trifecta for me! I really enjoyed the way things were described in these passages, and despite some things being easy to predict, or the story taking out around while knowing the end, I really enjoyed the process. I'll be on the lookout for more KLB!

I am going to admit when I first started this book for maybe the first 20% I didn’t think that this book was going to be for me. I continued reading though and found the further I got in the more I enjoyed the book. I think this is a very interesting look at the pandemic mingling it with mythology and beliefs. If you like horror or darker mystical books this book will be right up your alley. I think that Cora’s idiosyncrasies added to the story. Covid was a hard time for everyone but for someone who is a germaphobe I know it was harder. I feel horrible that anyone even used the term bat eater during covid, but this idea of bats being at every crime scene added to this story in a unique but sad way. This book really does grow on you the more you read it and I hope that others find it as interesting as I did.
Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing Group and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

This book chewed me up, spit me out, and whispered, “you good?” (Dear reader, I was not.)

When I tell you this book has one of the most EPIC first chapters I’ve ever read, I am not exaggerating. My jaw hit the floor, my eyes bugged out of my head, I pulled the covers up to my chin and settled in for a long night of reading because I knew I wasn’t going to be able to put it down. Some books whisper, some books shout, BAT EATER sinks its teeth into your flesh and drags you into the shadows.

When Cora Zeng, a young woman with severe OCD, suffers an unspeakable trauma, she takes a job as a crime scene cleaner and finds herself haunted by more than just the ghosts of her past. There’s a serial killer in New York City, and they’re killing Asian women.
Set during the pandemic amidst the fear and rising violence against Asian Americans, Bat Eater doesn’t flinch. It asks you to stare down what hurts (and haunts) and asks you to sit with it. To listen.

This is horror in its most visceral, terrifying form. Steeped in Chinese folklore, the hauntings drip with dread, and there are some truly gruesome moments I wish I could scrub from my brain (in a good way?). Baker’s writing is lyrical, brutal, and tender all at once. It’s horror with heart that will haunt you long after the last page. This isn’t just a ghost story. It’s a reckoning.

Finally, I have to acknowledge the author’s note. I put a few quotes in the photos above, but this line really stood out: “Do not let your empathy stop at the borders of your own community.”

Not only is this one of my favorite books of the year, it’s also my new favorite horror novel. A must-read for horror fans.

🦇 FEELS LIKE: holding your breath for 300 pages, a scream stuck in your throat, cold chills coating your skin

🦇 READ IF YOU LIKE: Trauma + complex grief + OCD rep, gruesome deaths you can’t unsee, hauntings, scathing social commentary, horror with depth

*Thank you to @HTPHive for the gifted eARC!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for an ARC of this book to review!

I had intended to avoid any media about the pandemic at all costs. Luckily for me, I had no idea this book was set during that time. I was suprised at how much I loved this book and I am so glad I read it.

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng follows Chinese-American and crime-scene cleaner, Cora, as she tries to navigate grief, mental health, and discrimination in the wake of the pandemic. To make matters worse, she's being hunted by ghosts and there is a potential serial killer on the loose. This book is blood-soaked and gory but with dark humor sprinkled in to provide comic relief. It is truly an enthralling, can't-put-down kind of read.

There is so much going on in this story in the best way. It's scary, depressing, thrilling, horrifying, all while providing a unique perspective on the pandemic. I highly recommend this book to a horror lover but check trigger warnings!

I absolutely devoured this novel. Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng is one that I’ll be thinking about for a long time. Truly one of the best horror novels I have read in a long time.

At the height of the pandemic, Cora Zeng is already struggling with the uncertainty of the world. Then her sister is brutally murdered in front of her. “Bat eater” is all the man says as he pushes her sister in the path of an oncoming train. “Bat eater” are the words that will haunt Cora throughout the days of her life. In the months following Delilah’s death, Cora becomes a crime scene cleaner. The gore doesn’t bother her. Not after what she witnessed. When Cora begins discovering bats at the scene of these crimes, all involving Asian women, she can’t help but wonder if there’s a connection between them and her sister’s death.

This book is gruesome and not afraid to go there. The descriptions of the crime scenes Cora cleans are visceral and the author doesn’t shy away from the goriest of details. My heart broke for Cora time and time again. In the beginning of the novel, she struggles with her relationship to her sister and the generations that came before her. She’s rather timid and keeps to herself. I love the found family she establishes with Harvey and Yifei, and the bond she strengthens with her Auntie Zeng. Cora’s growth to a full on badass over the course of the novel made her so easy to root for. And please make sure to read the Author’s note at the end.

I tandem read this with the audiobook and Natalie Naudus did a great job bringing this book to life. Her narration added so much to the story and really helped heighten the feeling of unease. This is one you’ll be looking over your shoulder while listening to.

Thank you to Harlequin Audio, MIRA, and NetGalley for a review copy.

Thank you HTP / Netgalley, #partner, for the advanced e-copy of Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng in exchange for my honest review.

As soon as I started hearing about this one, I knew I wanted to read it, even though I don’t tend to read horror. And no one is more shocked than I am by how much I loved it! ⁣
⁣
Let’s start with this cover…I’m obsessed with it. It perfectly embodies this story and sums up exactly how I felt while reading it – I wanted to stop at times because it’s such a tough, gritty, dark, difficult read and yet I couldn’t put it down…I couldn’t walk away. I was consumed with the way Baker told this story – her writing is lyrical yet brutal – again, much like this cover. ⁣
⁣
Pick this up if you like:⁣
🦇 NYC settings⁣
🦇 Creepy AF stories⁣
🦇 Chinese folklore⁣
🦇 True Crime Plotline/Serial Killer???⁣
🦇 Pandemic story with social commentary ⁣
⁣
I cannot recommend this book enough…not only for the fantastic storytelling but also because of the way it forces you to reflect on your own experiences during this time and about the larger issues at hand – racism, cultural identity and more. It really is quite a powerful book and I implore you, once you’ve finished reading the book, the make sure you read the author’s note…it’s just as powerful as her story!

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng is a chilling and complex horror novel that manages to be both disturbing body horror, and a thoughtful look into racism, and specifically the domestic terrorism Asian American women faced during the height of COVID.
The main character, Cora, suffers from some form of OCD, as well PTSD from her sister’s death detailed at the beginning of the book. Her internal monologues give haunting insight to an extra layer of anxiety and suffering during the pandemic.
I was so enthralled by this book, it was hard to put down. There were many hard to read moments, not just the frightening moments of violence and haunting, but also the hatred and anger some of our population are capable of.
There were a couple moments I had to briefly stop to absorb what I had read because some scenes were so traumatic, that’s how invested in this book I was.
Bat Eater was my first book by Kylie Lee Baker, but it won’t be my last. It was beautiful, petrifying, and also quite educational about Chinese culture and mythology.

Thank you so much to HTP | MIRA for the digital review copy via NetGalley.

I enjoyed this story much more than I anticipated I would. I loved the cover art and the title, and I've enjoyed KLB's other works, so I was intrigued by this one. While I normally really avoid reading books that feature or center the pandemic/pandemics in general, I broke my rule for this story. And I'm glad I did. This book was a fantastically woven tapestry of horror and vibes and really poignant social commentary. Truly this was fantastic, and I cannot wait for more from this author and to get our physical copies of this book in at the branch level so I can share it with everyone!

There hasn't been enough time since the pandemic lockdown for it to have gained any nostalgia. There might never be. So while we writers had plenty of time to type away during those months of isolation and worry, and even though enough of those books are hitting shelves to give us a whole subgenre of pandemic fiction, it's not something I particularly want to think about while reading. But Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng, the adult horror debut from Kylie Lee Baker, turns the lockdown, and the social and racial tensions that bubbled up during the course of it, is almost a character itself in this fun and chilling book.

Cora Zeng spends her days cleaning up crime scenes. It's not glamorous work, but there's satisfaction in cleaning bloodstains out of carpet or viscera from walls, and it keeps her busy and reasonably able to afford an apartment in New York City on her own after the murder of her sister a few weeks into the pandemic. Plus, her coworkers, Harvey and Yifei, aren't bad. Things might even seem like they're looking up, if it weren't for the demonic-looking ghost of her sister that keeps following her around. Or the increasingly frequent crime scenes featuring young Asian women murdered in horrific ways.

As the trio cleans more and more of these gory scenes, they notice similarities that the police have either missed or are ignoring, such as the presence of dead bats at many of the murders. When her sister's ghost gives her a USB drive that may contain evidence about the cases, Cora realizes that between the apparent serial killer and the hungry ghost on her heels, she has to solve this case or die trying—and it will probably be the second one.

Bat Eater is a marvelous friendship bracelet of plot threads that sometimes take turns and sometimes work in tandem but are always engrossing. At times, I was so invested in the developments of Cora's haunting that I forgot about the serial killer; other times, the serial killer made the ghosts look like small potatoes. Here and there, Cora's family drama added an extra knot to the whole thing, and all of it was wound around Cora's anxiety, and how being in a global pandemic and of the marginalized group wrongly blamed for it really doesn't help matters. Often, it's easy for this kind of switching between the main and supporting plots to feel disjointed. In Bat Eater, all of it credibly feels like facets of a terrifying and claustrophobic world. 

Emphasis on "terrifying;" this was a rare horror book that had me literally gasping more than once as a new threat was discovered or a secret was revealed. Once, I was so immersed that a neighbor's car alarm made me jump. Hungry ghosts, the uncertain days of lockdown, a depraved killer on the loose, the lack of social safety that comes with prejudice, and even living on the financial edge make it feel like nowhere and nothing is safe, not even for the reader. That's tempered by a quick pace and some well-placed gallows humor that also serve to make the frightening bits that much scarier by catching you off guard. By the end, it's clear that there's no escaping for Cora and no ignoring what's unfolding around her—she can only turn off the light and press forward, hoping against hope that she's smart enough to stay one step ahead of danger, even though she's pretty sure she's not. Meanwhile, the pandemic keeps advancing, hospitals keep filling up, cabin fever keeps ratcheting social tensions, and the ghosts grow hungrier with each passing day.

Bat Eater skillfully captures the strange fear and stagnation of the early days of the pandemic in a way that feels familiar, not tired, and then lets that be both backdrop and character in this story of grief and fear, corruption and redemption. It's a rare book I wish I could read for the first time again, and one I'll be pushing obnoxiously on any friend remotely interested in horror.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I am absolutely obsessed with this horror novel set in COVID era New York that meshes the horror of existence and the brutality of man with the supernatural and the superstitions of Chinese culture.

It’s early pandemic time in New York when Cora Zeng’s half sister is horrifically killed in a race based murder. Alone both literally and figuratively, Cora begins to work as a crime scene cleaner, when she and her co workers start to recognize the trend in their crime scenes - almost all of the victims of horrific murders are Asian-American and all have a disfigured or mutilated bat at the scene. A reference to the slurs hurled at Asian Americans in response to the pandemic. At the same time, hungry ghosts appear at Cora’s home and job. In an attempt to solve or end the crimes, Cora and her co workers try to find out what the ghosts want, in a horror that is terrifying but also occasionally laugh out loud funny.

The best horror books are the ones that recognize that the most terrifying thing in the world are other people. And Bat Eater does just that. The combination of the supernatural plus the crime, the marrying of anti-Asian sentiment coupled with the particular horrors of the pandemic all took this horror up to one of my favorite horror books ever. If you like strange horror, I cannot recommend this enough

Cora Zeng is standing on the subway platform when a stranger pushes her sister in front of a moving train, and she's haunted by his last words, "bat eater." Now, as a crime scene cleaner, she starts to see a connection between victims - someone is targeting East Asian women in Chinatown. But they're not the only targets because a shadowy figure has begun following Cora as the Hungry Ghost Festival approaches.

Even 5 years after the COVID-19 pandemic, I wasn't sure I was ready to read a book that centered so heavily around it, but this book took some very heavy themes and events and turned them into something incredibly powerful and moving. This is definitely one of my top reads for the year so far.

If you love a good ghost story with a little bit of dark humor, definitely check this one out! Some of the twists and turns literally had me screaming outloud while I was reading. Cora's evolving relationship with the spirit following her had me on the edge of my seat the entire time.

The book isn't all freaky ghosts, murder investigation, and crime scene clean up, though. Cora builds her own little family with her coworkers, Harvey and Zifei, and I loved seeing them get closer throughout the book.

Read if you like:
Dark humor
Ghosts
Asian American perspective post-COVID
Single-POV
Murder mystery
Found family

This was brilliant and haunting.

The core of this story is grief. Cora doesn't know who she is without her sister, and it's this lack of identity as much as her despair that defines her. The ghosts in the story become a physical manifestation of the darkness inside her, hungering for a life that's no longer theirs.

The ghosts get under your skin. Terrifying in their own way, but in my opinion, not nearly as horrifying as the violent murders of Asian people or even the racism itself.

The pandemic isn't actually described in much detail—we mostly just see Cora's experience as a Chinese-American and as someone showing symptoms of OCD. But those two experiences are enough to create a very visceral and unique perspective of the hardships faced during this time period.

My biggest issue with this was pace. It starts with a bang, then unspools slowly as Cora meditates on her grief, experiences intrusive thoughts, and is witness to appalling acts of racism. I wanted the ghost and serial killer plot to develop more quickly.

Eventually, the horrors converge and climax. I was satisfied with one of those plot threads more than the other. I think Cora gets what she needed in the end, but I guess I wanted more catharsis myself.

Still, I would highly recommend this for an immersive, gruesome, and thought-provoking read that will haunt you long after you close the final page.

Read if you like:
💔 Stories about grief & trauma
🦇 Horror with social commentary & gore
👻 Ghost tales
🔪 Serial killer stories
✏️ Beautiful, descriptive writing

4.5 stars rounded up to 5

“Cora knows all too well that the mangled clockwork of her mind doesn’t always respond to logical arguments, that the fact that something is objectively safe doesn’t mean her mind won’t short-circuit anyway, make her hyperventilate until her limbs lose so much oxygen she can’t stand up.”

🏮This one is about Cora, a young woman who is already struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic when her sister is brutally murdered, at once removing Cora’s closest relative, friend, and emotional centre. Cora becomes a crime scene cleaner, but with her sister gone, fear ramping up to a fever pitch, and racism rampant all around her, she’s adrift in a fog. When mysterious occurrences start happening all around her, Cora is at a loss whether it’s real, or whether he overwrought mind is conjuring it all up. 💀

🏮This book is absolutely not a simple scary story, and I love that about it. Truly good horror movies and books are a mirror, and they reflect real world terrors through a heightened and sometimes fantastical lens. We explore issues of racism (big trigger warning ⚠️). We explore grief and how to move on from it, and if it’s even possible. We explore issues of existential crises and identity exploration. Who was Cora without her sister who “made decisions”? Who is Cora now? She refers to herself as never having been real but “an echo of Delilah”, her sister. She sees herself as someone who never does anything for herself and cannot get anything right on her own. 💀

🫖I paired this book with Super Ginger 🫚 tea from David’s Tea. Cora is a very nervous person and she gets ill when she has an episode. At one point her friend Yifei offers her some ginger tea, which I’ve learned is a traditional Chinese home remedy for digestion problems. Ironically, ginger gives me heartburn 🥲

Thank you Harlequin Trade Publishing, Macmillian Audio, and Netgalley for the ARC!

Kylie Lee Baker, you are a genius and I love your work more than anything. Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng is a unique take on horror, focusing on not just the mythology of China but also branching into the serial killer genre. I was nervous about this book, given the fact that the story is based in the COVID era. However, the way that it used the hate crimes against the Asian community to tell this story was perfect. I found that it wasn't the ghosts, but the humans that left me scared.

There are things far more fearsome than Covid in this book. While it’s fiction, it’s embedded with many scary truths about the world we live in. It’s a chilling and powerful read.

Cora Zeng knows suffering and trauma having witnessed her sister (literally) lose her head when she’s pushed into a moving train in New York City. The words the masked stranger said last: ‘bat eater.’

Cora tries to process her grief during ghost month while working on a crime scene cleaner crew. They recognize a pattern in the jobs they attend. It can’t be a coincidence that there are bats at each and the targeted victim was Chinese. They take it upon themselves to do some of their own investigation, only they end up being at risk of violence themselves. Is it by the living or the dead?

“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.”

Thank you to HTP Books, MIRA Books, and NetGalley for the ARC.