This is a new favorite for me! While the characters weren't fully fleshed out until about the halfway point, they were definitely fully developed after that. While the hungry ghosts were frightening enough, the commentary on racial bias and the impacts of a pandemic were even more terrifying.

This is an urban horror story, full of murder, hungry ghosts, and Asian culture. Set in NYC during pandemic, with very gory details, multiple murder scenes and lots of suspense. The FMC, Cora, definitely became my hero. I cannot believe how brave she was. What a wild ride! I normally do not read much horror but this one was very well written. Thank you NetGalley for providing me a free e-arc.

I enjoy horror films, but I’m new to the horror book genre. Being East Asian myself, I was drawn to the synopsis of this and was intrigued to see where the story would go 🥸.

⤷ Set in 2020, in the midst of covid-19, Cora Zeng witnesses the most horrible accident when her sister gets pushed in front of a train. The trauma that comes with that event, combined with her discoveries during her job as a crime scene cleaner begins to haunt her more ways than one.

The first chapter was jarring and sets up the story well. I appreciated the blend of Chinese folklore of the supernatural 👻 along with the real-world events. This is gory & graphic, and I felt the paranoia—but what left an impression were the nuanced themes it tackles.

Kylie does an incredible job addressing racism, hate crimes, and systemic injustice in the Asian community. I felt mad & upset reading because the issues highlighted are still painfully relevant today. It stirred up a lot of personal triggers from my own memories. 💭

Though the story is unique in its genre blend, I found the pacing to be uneven. Also as a personal preference, I wanted a bit more emotional connection with Cora and get a better understanding of her relationships and connections.

That being said, the last third of the book really ramped things up. The imagery was creepy and visceral. I audibly gasped at a couple scenes. It was a haunting conclusion and even influenced my dreams the night I finished😂.

Overall, this was a gripping read. If you’re in the mood for horror, true crime, and social commentary, this is for you! 🦇

Thank you, Netgalley for this ARC!

Clearly I’m an outlier on this one, as it’s getting a lot of praise and 5-star reviews. I was definitely expecting something different than what this book delivered. The premise sounded dark and unique, and the beginning pulled me in, but after that it went flat. The pacing dragged, and it never quite recaptured the momentum.

It also read very YA to me—something I don’t mind if I’m in the mood for it, but I went in expecting something more adult and horror-forward. The ending was just okay and didn’t leave much of an impact. This one just wasn’t for me.

Thank you NetGalley, Harlequin books, & Harlequin Audio for the ALC & e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

I wish I could give this six stars. This is the best book I've read so far this year. The writing was sharp and evocative, and the book's message was so strong and clearly stated. The last few chapters nearly brought me to tears at many points (and I do not cry over books). The characters were so fully-realized that I felt like I was just a visitor in their presence. The horror elements were just right, gore utilized to sharpen the real horrors of the world. If you're ready to read a pandemic book, make it this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and MIRA Books for the e-ARC. This is my honest review.

Easily one of my favorite reads of the year, so far! This story is a shocker from start to finish. It’s dark and heavy with a dash of humor sprinkled in.

The book starts with a bang as Cora’s sister is pushed onto the train tracks by a racist Covid conspirator-turned-killer. And the story only gets more grim from there.

From Cora’s job as part of a death scene clean-up crew to being haunted by the trauma of witnessing what happened to her sister to the anti-Asian rhetoric invading the city, the book looks back on the early days of the pandemic and left me wondering, what’s more horrific – the gruesome yet fictional details the author so candidly presents or the real-life tragedy of humanity crumbling before our eyes?

4.5 rounded up. I am no expert in the horror genre when it comes to books as I prefer to watch over reading when it come to horror, but I thought this was a great book, executed really well for this genre.

The plot is following Cora Zeng who is a Chinese American existing during the COVID pandemic in NYC. The first chapter was a pretty gnarly start with Cora and her sister standing in a NY subway and a masked white man comes up, calls Cora’s sister a bat eater, and pushes her in front of a train where her sister is decapitated.

Fast-forward and Cora is trying to come to terms with her grief, her obsessive compulsive cleaning tendencies, and her reclusive personality by…cleaning up crime scenes. While doing so she begins noticing an uptake in Asian female murders. She assumes it must be a serial killer… but why is she not hearing about it in the news? Meanwhile, she’s also experiencing seeing ghost(s)? Her dead sister perhaps? This added a layer of creepiness to the story, and also some cultural significance that I appreciated.

I wasn’t sure at first if I wanted to read something about the pandemic - I think we all have some icky traumatic feelings about this time in our recent history and the effects are still ongoing. But, I’m so glad I continued as it really opened my eyes to how horrible this experience was for people who were marginalized and scape goated at this time. Absolutely terrifying. This book made me feel uncomfortable because of this, as acknowledging your privilege often does. This book was extremely creepy, dark, depressing, infuriating - but also hopeful. It challenged racism, religion, government, and coming to terms with your own identity under others expectations. By the end of this book, I still wasn’t quite sure what I was going to rate this but it made me feel things, complicated things, and I think the author’s intent was successful and I appreciate her sharing this perspective (and in such a well written novel).

Just shy of a five stars as there were times it felt a bit slow, and the part at the end (fire scene) felt rushed to me and I felt like more time could have been spent on the concluding actions.

This book is an example of why I love reading! Mixing fiction with realness, making you learn and think. I think fans of the sixth sense movie will also like this book AND in turn I think this book would make a GREAT movie!

Thanks for this digital copy from NetGalley - I’ll definitely be purchasing a copy for my shelves.

The novel takes place in New York City during COVID in the perspective of Cora Zheng, a crime scene cleaner. She’s dealing with racism due to COVID and loses her sister in the same way. Cora also has an extreme fear of bacteria and germs as well as white men since the pushing and eventual death of her sister. Her Aunt reminds her of the Hungry Ghost festival or Zhongyuan Jie and it slowly starts to eat away at her. Her coworker also believes in the story about what happens when ghosts become hungry and Cora starts questioning what she believes. Something begins to haunt Cora - which seems to be the hungry ghost of her sister, Delilah. While having to deal with that, there’s also a serial killer going after Asian women, and it seems as though the killer is getting awfully close to Cora. It’s not until the killer starts targeting those closest to Cora that she realizes just how close the killer is on her trail, and how close she is to figuring out who the killer is. All the while, the police are corrupt and the mayor doesn’t want anyone to know the true nature of how bad the crime in the city is.
The book deals with grief, loss and discrimination in a most thrilling and spooky way. It will have you on the edge of your seat wanting to devour more and more of it.

This horror tale from Kylie Lee Baker is a terrifying and also deeply emotional story about not only being haunted by a ghost, but being the object of anti-Asian racism during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cora is in some ways unreliable, but she is also deeply sympathetic, with such unresolved trauma after her sister's death and the constant fear of COVID in NYC in 2020 AND the ongoing racism of others lobbed towards her. I found the real world themes to be absolutely heartbreaking, and it's really sad to see that so little has changed in this country since this time period. And the supernatural horror elements of a hungry ghost haunting Cora were so, so well done and creepy. I've always loved a Hungry Ghost story, and this one had some great moments of terror and dread. A great ghost story.

"Closing your eyes doesn't stop monsters from devouring you"

Wow, what a wild, gory ride. Cora Zeng is a crime scene cleaner during the COVID 19 pandemic, and after witnessing the horrific, racially-motivated murder of her sister, she begins to notice a lot of the crime scenes she is cleaning are Asian-American murders. What follows is a haunting, nuanced take on the horrors of the pandemic and the ugliest parts of humanity, as well as her personal battle with trauma and loss.

The imagery that Kylie Lee Baker is able to convey in this book is stunningly eerie, and evokes such dread on every page. Grief, racism, and a global pandemic are the backdrop to this horror story, and Baker's craft in weaving these themes seamlessly and organically into the narrative is artful - not too heavy handed but rife with politics, even including a nod to the BLM protests. I appreciated learning and hearing more about Chinese lore and customs. Even as an avid horror reader, some of the scenes in this truly made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up - like WTF Kylie, okay I see you!! (Also please don't skip the authors note at the end - thank you to the author for including it).

What kept this from being a 5 star read for me was the pacing was a bit off and slow in the beginning. The third act was very strong, and I wish we hit that stride closer to a third/halfway into the book. Cora's listlessness, apathy, and lack of identity are integral to the story, yet make it difficult at times to fully connect to her, while some of the side characters (like Yifei and Harvey) are very compelling and I wish we heard more from them throughout.

Overall this book wasn't necessarily what I was expecting, but I was impressed by it! Definitely recommend for fans of social-commentary/political horror. Thanks to Netgalley, the author & publisher for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Reading this book, I switched from rage to sadness so quickly. I was crying alone at nighttime with such grief, sobbing into my dog and feeling so much anger.

As a white, privileged woman .. this book actually taught me a lot. It changed what I knew of the pandemic and how it impacted Asian women specifically, but also any gender of person.

My heart broke reading this but was also put back together again by the family love, the hope for the ghosts and more.

Id love to be able to read this all over again for the first time.

This book is a haunting, lyrical journey that blends mythology and identity in a way that’s both beautiful and brutal. Kylie Lee Baker’s writing is vivid and emotional, pulling you into Cora’s world with a quiet intensity. Some moments felt a bit rushed or abstract, which made it hard to fully connect with the story at times. Still, it’s a powerful read that lingers long after the last page—definitely worth picking up if you’re into dark, introspective fantasy.

4.5 stars. Cora Zeng is a crime-scene cleaner in Chinatown, NY during the height of the pandemic. She is not bothered by these messes, however, because nothing can be as horrific as watching your sister, Delilah, be pushed in front of a train. Cora is then haunted by this tragedy, by hungry ghosts and by a serial killer who is hunting Asian women. Since she witnessed her sister's murder, which the police still have no leads on, Cora cannot be sure what is real and what isn't. But someone is definitely targeting Asian women and something may also be targeting Cora herself.
This book gutted me. The amount of hate in the world back then and today is heartbreaking. I'm glad there are stories out there that shine a light on these atrocities so that we can, hopefully, do better.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and MIRA for this digital e-arc.*

"Wuhan was the epicenter of body bags, and New York City was the epicenter of anti-Asain hate crimes."

This story follows Cora, a Chinese American woman living in New York City during the height of the COVID 19 outbreak. She’s just trying to survive and figure out who she is after witnessing her sister’s brutal murder. A hate crime where the attacker called her sister a “bat eater.”
Now working as a crime scene cleaner, Cora begins to notice a disturbing pattern. All of the murder victims are Asian, and bats are being left behind at the crime scenes. She begins to wonder, could this really be just a coincidence, or is there a serial killer targeting the Asian community.
While drowning in her guilt and grief, Cora’s aunt urges her to burn joss paper offerings during the month long Hungry Ghost Festival to honor her sister’s spirit, a tradition Cora ignores. But now she’s not only haunted by guilt… she may be haunted by her sister’s actual ghost.
We watch Cora struggle with abandonment, germaphobia, OCD, PTSD, identity, and loss. Baker masterfully blends body horror, paranormal elements, and social commentary on anti-Asian hate during the pandemic into an emotional and thought-provoking story.
While I normally prefer my horror books a bit more fast-paced, I couldn’t put this one down because of the necessary topics this book discusses. Sometimes, the real horror lies in how people treat each other.
Please read the author’s note at the end. It adds so much weight to the story.

🅁🄰🅃🄸🄽🄶 : 4

🄵🄾🅁 🅁🄴🄰🄳🄴🅁🅂 🅆🄷🄾 🄻🄸🄺🄴

☆ Horror
☆ Psychological Unraveling
☆ Chinese Folklore
☆ True Crime
☆ OCD Representation

🄵🄰🅅🄾🅁🄸🅃🄴 🅂🄲🄴🄽🄴

Harvey calls Cora at 1 AM, convinced he knows how to get rid of the hungry ghosts. After watching an old vampire movie, he tells her that jiangshi and hungry ghosts aren’t all that different.
Reluctantly, Cora agrees to meet him in the park. Harvey shows up with a broom handle, a bag of uncooked rice, some coins, and a mirror. As he's explaining his plan, Harvey starts to realize how ridiculous it sounds and asks Cora why she agreed to meet him at the park in the middle of the night.
Cora simply replies, “It seemed like you thought it would work.”

🄵🄰🅅🄾🅁🄸🅃🄴 🅀🅄🄾🅃🄴

-The quotes referenced are from an advanced reader's copy and may not reflect the final version. Please refer to the finished copy for accuracy.-

"When you're drowning and someone grabs your hand, you don't ask them where they're taking you."

"Even when she is no one at all, just an echo of a dead person, she's still Chinese and no one will let her forget it. That's all anyone cares about, all anyone wants to see."

✨️ Thank you so much to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the advanced copy of this thought-provoking book in exchange for an honest review.

Okay, honestly, I was going to DNF this because I was getting a little impatient and it wasn't grabbing my attention.
But after deciding to keep reading I'm glad I did, because it did get interesting.

This book is a blend of racism, murder, asian fetishization, chinese folklore, the era of the covid pandemic

There were a lot of scenes that boiled my blood and it was mainly due to the way the white men viewed asian women, which is a real life issue.

I loved the friendship of the main characters, loved the relationship Cora had with her Auntie Zeng, was intrigued by the customs to appease the dead

I did want to know who killed her sister Delilah, but I guess the ending was justice enough.

Rating: 4.75/5

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Audio for this ALC!

This was my first time reading a book that took place during the pandemic when fear and uncertainty of COVID was especially high. So it was a bit of an adjustment to bring myself back into that world and reality that so many of us went through.

This was a pandemic horror story that contained Chinese folklore, AAPI violence, grief and mental health, and racisim (so please check your trigger warnings before reading). I truly had no idea what to expect with this book and didn't expect it to take the turn that it did. Although, I struggled at times to really like Cora as our main chatacter, I liked how brutally honest and thought-provocking this story was. It really highlighted the cruelties that unfortunately are still very real in our society.

I highly recommend reading the authors note as well.

4.25⭐

I typically avoid any kind of pandemic novel, but this one was really good! I really loved Cora, Yifei, & Harvey. I wish we had gotten more of their back stories, but the author did a great job of utilizing the space she had to flesh out the story. I really enjoyed watching Cora come to terms with her heritage's darker beliefs and it was nice to see that she could adapt to the craziness that was thrown at her instead of retreating into her shell like she always had before. The character growth in such a small amount of pages was impressive.

I would recommend this one if you can stomach the gore.

Absolutely brilliant.
I went into reading this book with only the knowledge that it’s a horror book during Covid times and centers on Asian hate.
I loved every second of reading this.
The content is so fucking heartbreaking though. Knowing that these communities are consistently ravaged by hatred and stereotypical bigotry is awful. I cannot imagine the turmoil that simply existing causes. You would expect in times of tragedy, like a fucking global pandemic, that we would all come together and fight, but no. We hate instead. The author lets you glimpse, through Cora, what it is like.
The inner monologue of Cora was so relatable!!!
This authors writing style is fantastic and I cannot wait to read another of her books!!!

Also, THE HORROR!!
Reading this, reminded me of every hella creepy Junji Ito story I’ve ever read!! The imagery she called to my imagination was so freaking scary and the gore was a delightful punch. 🫶🏻

IF YOU WANT TO BE COMPLETELY SURPRISED WHEN READING THIS BOOK, DONT READ ANY FURTHER!
Here’s a little snippet:

“She sighs and presses her forehead against the door of her apartment, dropping her bag to the floor. Delilah left her in life and in death, and she is never coming back.
Cora turns around and heads for the bathroom, but her hands go numb, keys slipping from her fingers, crashing to the ground.
There is a woman in her living room.
Her throat is needle-thin, no more than a whispered silver thread. Her eyes are deep chasms of black, skin a translucent tarp pulled taut over cheekbones, the knife edge of her jaw, her withered black lips.”

Please read this book!
And please read the authors note when you finish!

🦇🤩 ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS! 🤩🦇

Alright horror fans! Alright non-horror fans! I may have just read one of my top reads of the year! This book… was something else.

The social commentary? 🧑‍🍳💋
The gore? 🧑‍🍳💋
The mystery and thrill? 🧑‍🍳💋

I devoured this, and while I feel kind of weird using that term to describe this book, it’s the only thing that fits. I mostly listened to this one, going back to my physical copy every now and then. This is one I will definitely be re-reading but with mainly my eyeballs, because it was just SO good, and I want to experience it in all ways possible.

I’m honestly having a hard time writing this review beyond just screaming “I LOVED THIS BOOK- GO READ IT NOW!” So maybe you can take me at my word, and go pick this one up. (Pre-order now, or if you have Aardvark Book Club, add this to your box!)

𝑾𝒉𝒐 𝑰'𝒅 𝑹𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒐:
Basically everyone - as long as you can stomach a little gore.

2 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the advance reader copy.
I did not make the connection with the phrase/slur bat-eater, as the title of this book was going to be a COVID story. Once I got the context of the first chapter, I immediately knew what social commentary/themes we would be delving into. However, I would have adjusted my expectations with the story and not made this a five-star prediction. My fault for the lack of research on the book and my reader preferences.

Genres
Horror, thriller, and Crime Investigation

Triggers
The main character suffers intensely from Mysophobia and her obsession with hygiene and sanitizing.
Gore, body horror, heightened violence towards Asians during the pandemic, and racist language.

The main character had a codependent relationship with the sister who died. We also see snippets of Cora having deep, conflicting emotions about her sister. I wish the book had been more about accepting these emotions and dedicating time to finding things that made her different from her sister. She was only ever allowed to be a shadow when Delilah was alive.
Books can struggle when the main character is a ghost of a person. This means our main character does not take initiative in life, so the pacing of the murders, being haunted, and the murderer is very slow to unravel. That pace made it hard to stay motivated to finish. Cora herself has an obsessive personality, so her days are overly routine and repetitive for the reader.
I was not satisfied with the ending either. I did not mind that it was a powerful white man as the villain. Some can argue that it is the easy way out for an ending, though. That was always going to be the reader's first guess, and it is not scary when you know what to expect. However, I did not mind who the characters were, but I did mind how they were dealt with. For the torture and brutality that he put people through before he killed them, and the fact that he killed off her group of friends, his ending was easy. Which is too kind for him. As a reader, I feel we have some outstanding questions. Where and why were the bats at the scene, and was the killer only the mayor, or was he just protecting who did it? It is all unclear.
Finally, in the digital arc copy I had their was quite a bit of formatting issues. Especially, words with L’s in them I hope all those are edited before the final print.