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.

For some reason, I just could not get into this book. I will definitely look back into this book in the future, because I have heard really great things about it.

Haunting, brilliant and utterly heartbreaking are merely a few words that come to mind after reading Bat Eater and Other Names For Cora Zeng. There are layers upon layers to the novel; social commentary is intertwined with horror, mental health and personal identity struggles.

Twenty-four-year old Cora Zeng grapples with existing in the world after her older sister Delilah is horrifically murdered in a racially-motivated crime. Set during the COVID pandemic in 2020, when anti-Asian sentiment was blatantly prevalent, Bat Eater and Other Names For Cora Zeng does not shy away from depicting the shameful racist and xenophobic behavior and mindsets that Cora and other Asian women and men were subjected to.

Following Delilah’s murder, Cora works as a crime scene cleaner and an increasing number of grisly cleanups with Asian women as victims and mutilated bats left behind eventually lead her and her coworkers Harvey and Yifei to assume that a serial killer may be responsible.

To make the situation even worse, Cora is also dealing with supernatural occurrences, with food in her home being devoured and a spectral presence that appears from the shadows.

While the many different threads of the story might have been overwhelming in the hands of other writers, Kylie Lee Baker deftly balances each aspect of the plot and creates a compelling and unforgettable novel. I cried, I laughed and then felt slightly bad for doing so and I gasped when the story went in a direction I wasn’t anticipating.

Cora is an incredible character; an uncertain young woman who is abandoned by both of her parents at a young age, forced to completely center her older sister and her wants and drawn to both sides of her religious and cultural identity by her two eccentric Aunts. Yet despite her best efforts, the knowledge of who she truly is as someone separate from her sister completely eludes her. As someone who is also biracial, that feeling of not quite belonging is painfully accurate.

Her anger, grief and resentment at Delilah for leaving her are all visceral and her germaphonia and OCD tendencies, while wholly understandable in the midst of the pandemic, are also her means of exercising a small measure of control while things spiral around her only partly due to COVID.

Although this is a dark and heavy novel, I greatly appreciated the moments where Cora connected with her coworkers and their relationships developed more as they attempted to assist her with the hungry ghosts that were troubling her. It was also wonderful to learn more about the Month Of Hungry Ghosts and the different customs and folklore associated with it.

The conclusion of Bat Eater and Other Names For Cora Zeng is something that I have spent time reflecting upon and I eventually realized how truly effective and thought-provoking it is. A deep and pervading societal issue can’t be resolved simply and when the rot is festering deeply, sometimes measures must be undertaken to bring it to light.

Bat Eater and Other Names For Cora Zeng is not an easy novel to read, but it is an important one. It places a magnifying glass upon the the hateful and callous aspects that overall society would rather pretend are nonexistent for fear of damaging appearances and refuses to simply excuse it away.

It also illustrates the importance of being a good roommate.

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing, MIRA and NetGalley for providing access to this ebook. All opinions expressed are solely my own.

This Novel is flipping rough. The arc didn't come with any trigger warnings, but I hope the published one does. I had to take several mental health breaks. We follow Cora Zeng, who is a crime scene cleaner. She lost her sister in a racist attack in response to COVID-19. She doesn't feel like the Police are doing enough for all, and when she realizes that there's a pattern to the victims that they're cleaning, she begins to question things.
Cora isn't sure of herself and her culture; she's being haunted, but soon you'll realize that hungry ghosts are the absolute least of her problems.
This YA Horror does its job and really makes you think on a wide array of topics—fetishization, Racism, hatred, White supremacy, cover-ups, and more. Highly recommend.

Due to the trigger warnings, I will not be finishing this book. I definitely recommend checking those out. I love horror books but unfortunately some can be too dark for me.

Thank you NetGalley, Kylie and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the eARC!

Publication Date: April 29 2025
Rating: ✨✨✨

I thought this was a horror story. And, honestly, there were some horrific things. But despite the running death and paranormal themes throughout this story, I'm left more depressed than frightened. But my eyes also opened more than they were during the worst of the pandemic to more than just the death, disease, and fear. I never thought about how deep the racism against Chinese and Chinese Americans ran during that time. And not just verbal but horrific physical assaults that these idiots thought were somehow justified. Disgusting.
Now I realize this was fiction. But it was based on unfortunate truths.
I'm glad I read this and that it made me look at that bigotry. But I think my heart is going to hurt for a while.
4⭐️
As always, I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to have an advanced ebook copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

content warnings (please note i may have missed some): OCD obsessions and compulsions (mainly related to contamination), grief, murder, hate crimes, racism, gore, covid-19 pandemic, animal death, sexism, body horror

this book follows cora zeng, a crime scene cleaner with OCD, during the covid-19 pandemic as she yearns for justice for her sister, whose murderer was never caught. as the shadow lurking around cora becomes more prominent and more east asian women are murdered in chinatown, cora realizes that her sister wasn’t the only victim—someone is targeting east asian women, and some*thing* is targeting cora herself.

i’ve been a fan of kylie lee baker since reading the keeper of night a few years ago, and i know how much she loves the horror genre, so i was highly anticipating this book! though i knew what this was about, nothing could have prepared me for the journey this book took me on. though i will, occasionally, read horror that does not have real-life tie-ins, i love political horrors so much more. i thought it was incredible how kylie lee baker incorporated the paranormal horror of hungry ghosts into the real-life horrors of anti-asian hate crimes and the covid-19 pandemic. she also explored a complicated kind of grief, with cora missing her sister, delilah, deeply but still acknowledging the ways delilah hurt her. overall, this was an amazing adult horror novel. i highly recommend this book.

It's 2020 in NYC, and COVID has shut everything down. Cora Zeng witnesses her sister Delilah's murder when someone pushes her into an oncoming subway. The killer's last words, "bat eater," still haunt her. She works as a crime scene cleaner and is increasingly called to scenes involving murdered East Asian women. A serial killer appears to be targeting them. Is it the same person who killed Delilah? Why can't the police catch this person?

This book was dark, creepy, and gory—everything I want in a horror book. It was also thought-provoking and eye-opening. It definitely made me glad I wasn't living in NYC during the pandemic. The Asian hate, unfortunately, was very real, and so were the author's depictions of it. The Hungry Ghost Festival was fascinating, and I loved the supernatural aspect of the story. I kept wondering if Cora was running from the killer or the ghosts, or both. There were some slow parts, but overall, I really enjoyed this one and would recommend it.

Many thanks to NetGalley, MIRA and Harlequin Trade Publishers | Harlequin Audio for gifting me both a digital and audio ARC of this novel by Kylie Lee Baker, with the audiobook perfectly narrated by Natalie Naudus. All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 4.5 stars!

Cora Zeng is a crime scene cleaner—but the bloody messes don't bother her, not when she's already witnessed the most horrific thing possible: her sister being pushed in front of a train. The killer was never caught, and Cora is still haunted by his last words: "bat eater." After a series of unexplained killings in Chinatown, Cora believes someone might be targeting East Asian women, and something might be targeting Cora herself.

Horrifying in so many ways, brutally honest in others, all wrapped up in a novel that is not for the faint of heart, but one that will open your eyes. Covid brought so many of us to our knees, but the Asian Americans were subjected to that as well as all the racism and blame for the virus. Add a cultural ghost story and a murder mystery into the mix, perfectly executed, and this book is a winner. I loved Cora’s circle of found family - Yifei and Harvey – who were there for each other until the end. This is dark but has so many important themes. Don’t miss the author’s note at the end.

I was provided both an ARC and ALC of this book via Netgalley and the team at Harlequin, all opinions are my own.

This book was strange, and unlike anything we've seen from Kylie Lee Baker before. I try to avoid fiction based around the COVID pandemic, mainly because it is a time that I'd rather forget rather than something I want to relive. This however uses very real social horrors and reframes them into a very creative horror novel to tackle how terrible humanity can be.

Cora is struggling in New York as the pandemic hits. As an Asian woman, specifically a Chinese American woman, she faces discrimination and hatefulness as news breaks that the virus that impacted the world originated in China. She is having a hard time finding work, and when her sister is violently murdered in front of her her life is changed forever. She eventually finds work as a crime-scene cleaner, which isn't the most glamourous job, but it pays the bills. She doesn't mind as she likes things to be clean. She along with her two cleaning partners discover that there seems to be a trend in Asian women being violently murdered. They may have uncovered a serial killer, and as they clean more scenes the closer they get to the killer.

Did I mention Cora has a ghost in her apartment? Baker always does a good job weaving mythology into her novels, and this is no different. Cora's Auntie Zeng keeps tabs on her and always makes sure she follows Chinese traditions and takes care of herself. As the Hungry Ghost Festival approaches Auntie Zeng insists that Cora take proper precautions to prevent being haunted. Cora doesn't heed her warnings, and finds herself with a very hungry supernatural companion.

I really loved how the supernatural element and the thriller came together. At first I wasn't sure how they were linked, but the author did a great job bringing everything together. This does get gory at times, but it isn't all gore all the time. If you are at all squeamish, you may want to skip this or skip those parts. Cora was such a unique character, and I'm so glad we got to go on this weird journey with her. Through Cora we get to relive one of the most horrible times in recent history, but for me we get to walk in the shoes of someone who experience vastly differed from my own, but in this case it has a supernatural horror twist. We get to understand her obsession with cleanliness, solve a murder, make friends, and learn about the supernatural all in one book. This was a rollercoaster ride that I'm so glad I got to experience.

Overall this was a really great horror novel. It tackles social issues and packs a punch when it comes to the horror elements. There is the right amount of gore and tension. You also come to care about the characters. I really enjoyed it!

I have never considered myself a big horror fan, but this book transcends genre. It's gripping, thought-provoking, and inciting. Part ghost story, part murder mystery, part reflection of the very real-life horrors and impact of the COVID pandemic.

This book is dark and gory. A tale that lingers with you long after it's over. A small book that packs a massive punch.

I won't spoil anything, but if you enjoy horror and mystery, or you want to try something new, give this book a shot.

✨ Review ✨ Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker; Narrated by Natalie Naudus

Thanks to Harlequin Trade Publishing, Harlequin Audio, and #netgalley for the gifted advanced copy/ies of this book!

After her sister suddenly dies, Cora Zeng begins seeing ghosts, and they seem to be trying to communicate with her. This is particularly awkward because her job is as a crime scene cleaner, which is even more horrifying to be happening during COVID.

As a serial killer style mystery unravels around Cora, she seeks to understand the ghosts while also trying to figure out how to get them to go away. She thinks her sister is reappearing to her and she wants her to be free from her. Overall, the book brilliantly weaves in Chinese folklore / beliefs around ghosts and the Hungry Ghost Festival.

This book, however, doesn't flinch. The violence and ghosts are gory, and the book shows the rampant and horrifying racism faced by Chinese and Asian American people during COVID across the U.S. She uncovers terrible violence against East Asian women in particular.

Despite all the seriousness, the book brought a touch of lightheartedness - through the relationships between Cora and her friends, the work of crime scene cleaning, and the general ghostiness of the book.

🎧 The audiobook was so engrossing - I stayed up late one night just binging it. I loved how the narrator brought the story to life and brought out all the creepiness that filled the book.

(check out trigger warnings around gore, violence against East Asian women, serial killing, COVID-19, germphobia, etc. if these are issues for you).

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (4.5)
Genre: horror, mystery/thriller
Setting: New York City during the COVID era
Length: 8 hours 46 minutes
Reminds me of: Stephen Graham Jones, Nat Cassidy
Pub Date: April 29, 2025

Read this if you like:
⭕️ ghost stories
⭕️ family drama
⭕️ gory horror and mysteries
⭕️ Chinese folklore and traditions

Baker’s novel is a cheeky, yet serious story about Cora Zeng, who confronts her fears and connects with her family and culture. Throughout the novel, Cora learns to navigate New York City during the COVID-19 pandemic alongside the string of murders committed against Asian American women. Baker integrates magical realism/supernatural elements throughout the plot, which positively contributes to the story and the characterization of Cora. Originally drawn in by the cover, the story examines contemporary racism and feminism alongside a critique of the romanticization of gore and violence.

This novel is compelling and informative. Cora explores her connection to religion and her familial practices. Cora is overall a complex character, who has her own internal mental, social, and emotional struggles. Throughout the course of the novel, we get to know Cora more and get to see her grow and lean into a sense of agency she denied herself for so long. If you’re looking for a horror novel that has something deeper to say, this book is for you.

thank you for the arc!
i listened to the audiobook as i read it and that really added a layer of depth to the story. hearing the emotions in the narrator’s voices through the dialogue was great. i also really enjoyed the audiobook because with it being in 3rd person pov, it’s like im listening to a true crime podcast or show and that really drew me into the story. i just felt like some of the scenes were repetitive but overall it was enjoyable. the horror and thriller was beautifully done.

I found Kylie Lee Baker when she wrote the The Scarlet Alchemist duology and she made me a fan of her writing so much that I’ll be reading every new book that comes out, so I was so excited when I saw she was writing a horror novel, and I knew I’d be reading it asap! I think my favorite part of this book is that it mixes both real-life horror through racism and prejudice, and paranormal horror in the terms of ghosts not able to move on, it shows how there can be horror in the mundane but also in the ghost stories we hear as children through adulthood, and both can have deadly consequences.

I was shocked at the first death and then I continued to be shocked at every character death till the end, but I started to feel the foreboding of the later deaths as the pace of the story gets faster and faster as Harvey, Cora, and Yifei are rushing to find a serial killer killing Asian people living alone. As it goes on, the story gets more and more sinister in both the ghosts and the serial killer, and Cora struggles to adapt to all the changes, fear, and grief she is still going through, while also all living through COVID-19. While I know a lot of people might still be afraid to touch books set during the COVID pandemic, I think you should pick up this one. It’s funny, ghostly, gory, and so many other wonderful adjectives, but also a story that touches on the horror and racism Asian’s went through and still do, when discussing the COVID pandemic.


I’ll post my review on my instagram: goodbook_clearminds and on Amazon on release day

After her older sister Delilah was pushed off the subway tracks and murdered, Cora Zeng's been doing her best to make it through each day. But the year is 2020, New York City is under COVID lockdown, and more and more Asian women are turning up dead each day. Worse, it is the 7th month of the lunar calendar, when the spirits of the deceased return to the earth, and the dead are clawing at Cora's door, hungry.

Miss Kylie Lee Baker is an auto-buy author for me, always. I love her messy, bitter heroines, and Cora Zeng is an excellent protagonist. Frankly, she's a mess, which worked really well for the horror atmosphere. Baker's writing is perfect for setting the chilling tone and dark twists of Cora's inner psyche, while also infusing the warm moments with heart. This is her third protagonist I've seen who is Wasian and struggling with her identity and envy toward a full-Asian sibling/cousin, but Baker always manages to paint different facets of the Wasian experience with each book. With Cora Zeng's contemporary New York setting, we get to see both sides of her heritage intersect and shape her, during a recent time of violence against the Asian-American community. Cora is besieged on all sides by the living and the dead alike, and her journey toward finding who she is and how she can put these demons—within or without—to rest is so satisfying. I also can't give enough kudos to her supporting cast of Auntie Zeng, Yifei, and Harvey.

With this, Baker delivers another artfully messy, layered book. As always, I look forward to seeing what else Baker might have in store for us next.

Gives you a glimpse into the life of a crime scene cleaner, and believe me this has convinced me I would never want this job. But give that Cora was witness to her pretty, borderline perfect sister who she both loved and resented being shoved by a racist into a train, I guess not much would phase you after that. the PTSD would be too overwhelming. This is set in what feels like a dark gothic alternative universe during the pandemic and afterwards and focuses on the worst of humanity and how they can focus on a minority to sate their issues, and there’s a good bit of gore and horror mixed into seal the deal. The writing is quite vivid and I don’t want to post a review with too many spoilers but it’s a good dark gritty read.