I have been trying to figure out how I feel about this book. The story was so multi-faceted and all-encompassing that it was difficult to get a handle on it. There’s Cora’s interactions with her sister, and her sister’s murder; there’s Cora dealing with her feelings regarding that; Cora’s job where she inadvertently stumbles upon serial killer(s) and the racism that goes with it; then there’s the Chinese tradition and the hungry ghosts, and then there’s the pandemic to deal with also. There’s so much to unpack and despite the jumble it seems to create, it all works together. The story moves pretty swiftly and sweeps you up into the various things Cora contends with and I enjoyed getting to know all facets but it was a lot to take in.

I received a copy from #NetGalley for an honest review.

“Everyone wants Asian girls to look pretty. No one wants them to talk.”

before i type anything - please know that this is a dark story, and i do believe that if you are asian this book is going to be even more difficult to read. this book (and review) discusses hate crimes against asian people during the peak of covid here in the states. just please use caution going into this book and make sure you are in an okay headspace to read about that. and i hope you are able to pick this one up, because it is for sure a favorite of 2025 for me.

this story is about a biracial girl named cora zeng, who has always felt not “chinese enough”, yet people have always shown her that she also isn’t white enough. and in april 2020, on a subway platform, when the world is feeling already empty, her sister is murdered right in front of her. then the story jumps to august of 2020, where cora is trying to learn how to live without her sister and how to carry her grief when she feels so extra alone. she does get a job to be part of a crime scene cleanup crew in chinatown, and soon starts to see a pattern with asian women being brutally murdered, and wonders if there is potentially a serial killer doing this. and on top of it all, she thinks she could potentially be seeing her sister’s ghost, who seems very hungry for something.

the hungry ghost festival / ghost month is celebrated sometime between july, august, and september, and it is the first day of the festival when she sees this ghost. with the help of her friends, and her amazing aunt, she tries to figure out what is going on in nyc and what is going on inside her mind, too. and hopefully she can before the last day of the hungry ghost festival.

again, this is a really hard book to read at times, but i really loved it. i think it’s powerful, i think it’s so beautifully written, i think it’s going to help a lot of people see what it can feel like to be a child of immigrants, especially when you’re trapped in a country that will never let you forget it, during a pandemic they blame on you to excuse their racism and hate. to me, this book is ultimately a story about a girl who is just trying to find peace. peace with her grief, peace with her family + identity, peace for her sister and all these other asian women who never deserved what happened to them.

cora’s identity meant a lot to me, because my dad is asian and my mom is white, and that really is a rare asian american biracial experience for me to read about, even in 2025. also, it has gotten a lot better as of 2025, but i was really struggling with health anxiety induced ocd after 2020. the scene with cora going to the optometrist? that was truly me the last couple of years, with so many different kinds of doctors, and i would never wish it on anyone. so i just really wanted to write a little extra paragraph saying that i loved this book for so many reasons, but i also felt seen in many different ways that i was not anticipating.

in 2021 the world read about (and watched) a filipino elder being brutally beaten in new york while she was just trying to get to church. and i know that’s just one heartbreaking real story among so many during this time of a surge in these racially charged hate crimes, but i read that story over and over, while feeling so nauseous, with so much fear, for my devout grandma, who is also an immigrant from the philippines. and while being across the country from her, and the rest of my family, unable to do anything, unable to even pretend i could protect them. and i know so many asian americans have stories like this, some that have stories like cora’s and yuxi’s. and i wish i had better words to use here, but i don’t. especially with the racially charged escalation from our leaders, because of the protests going on in la right now, that are terrorizing and breaking apart more immigrant families and communities. but some people would rather close a glass door, look out, and pretend not to see the blood right in front of them. and then also pretend that their hands are now not covered in blood, too.

trigger + content warnings: graphic and detailed descriptions of violent hate crimes against asian women, racism, slurs, fetishization of asian women, grief, loss of loved ones, covid, the pandemic, murder, death, gore, unwanted touching, assault, health anxiety / ocd, intrusive thoughts, spider imagery, abandonment, cult mentions, drinking, talk of zionists, talk of nazis (in a negative light // of of these things in a negative light!), police brutality mentions, gun violence, talk of institutionalization, snuff videos and pictures of really graphic and disturbing crimes against asians, car crash, talk of child abuse and death, fire - this book gets really dark, please use caution and make sure you’re in a okay headspace

In Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng, a young woman reeling from the loss of her sister navigates grief, racism, and horror in a pandemic-stricken New York City while working as a crime scene cleaner.

This book pulled me in right away with its unique concept and atmospheric setting. Set in NYC during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, it felt like both a walk down memory lane and a haunting reminder of a moment in history when the world stood still—and when racism, particularly against people of Asian descent, surged in ugly and painful ways. The author does a great job intertwining those very real fears with horror elements that echo the main character’s inner turmoil.

I loved the unusual choice of making the protagonist a crime scene cleaner, which added an eerie and symbolic layer to the story—someone constantly cleaning up the messes of death while carrying the weight of her sister’s absence. There’s this heavy, aching sense of loneliness and identity loss, of living in the shadow of someone even after they’re gone.

The book also explores multi-generational conflict in a powerful and realistic way, especially within immigrant families. The themes of grief, cultural identity, and personal healing are all tightly woven into a story that manages to be both thoughtful and suspenseful.

The audiobook was well done and didn’t interfere at all with my comprehension or enjoyment. In fact, I thought the narrator complemented the author’s distinct voice and storytelling style nicely.

It’s a short read but an impactful one—thoughtful, well-paced, and deeply rooted in both personal and collective trauma.

ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Sisters Cora and Delilah Zeng are two art history majors living in New York City during the pandemic. The pandemic begins to pull the sisters apart before tragedy strikes, pushing Cora into a great period of darkness within and around her.

Desensitized by gore, she begins working on a crime scene clean up crew with coworkers who become friends forming their own Scooby Gang. This likeable trio begins to notice many of the victims of a local serial killer are East Asian women, their mutilated bodies left with a signature maimed bat.

As Cora continues going through her daily life, while enduring racist slurs and attacks in the city, ghostly occurrences begin to happen around her, then grow to a crescendo as the plot develops with folkloric horror. With the help of the Scooby Gang, Cora will try to understand these paranormal events and the murders that surround her.

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker is a multilayered read filled with realistic as well as fantastical horror. I found myself shocked, but not deterred by the body horror. It’s a quick read with much rich content to feast on from the paranormal folkloric elements to the serial killer murder mystery. A must read for fans of paranormal mysterious horror, folklore and the real darkness of humanity.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Audio for this ARC.

This one did start off a little slow for me, but I loved the creepiness, the discussions, and the way culture was woven into this story. It is a tough read because it's sad what so many Asian people went through because of hurtful and uneducated people with covid. Having a main character that is a crime scene cleaner was also a very interesting choice that I enjoyed. As a horror debut I think this was really great and will continue to read from this author!

I sincerely apologize for the tardiness of my review, but I greatly enjoyed BAT EATER AND OTHER NAMES FOR CORA ZENG, and I think it will be one of my top horror books of the year. Listening to it while I did my library work was a treat, and I enjoyed the narrator very much. This was a terrific horror book and I was grossed and creeped out in equal measure!

Just finished the audiobook and I absolutely loved this story!

The first chapter hooks you in a grotesque way. This story is filled with grief, horror and sadness. However it carries a strong message of how cultures and races are treated cruelly when people need someone to blame. I loved the characters, and the setting. It really brought me back to when Covid was happening and reminded me of all the feelings I felt during that time period. It really did have a drastic impact on everyone whether we care to admit it or not.

The ghost aspect was amazing. The visualizations are haunting. Just picturing what Cora was seeing and dealing with gives me chills lol I’ll definitely be recommending this to everyone, and will be in the look out for their next book!

Thank you netgalley for this arc!

I absolutely devoured this audiobook. I always love Natalie Naudus as a narrator, and she did a fantastic job yet again.

As I am still somewhat new to the Horror genre and a huge scaredy cat, this was the perfect amount of haunting for me. Baker paints a perfect picture - and when that picture is a gruesome crime scene, it's disgustingly delightful. *Check the trigger warnings!

There were so many "HOLY SH*T!" moments throughout this story that it had me squealing to my friends who had already read it constantly as I needed to experience the feelings of shock and horror outside of myself.

The premise was unique to me as a crime scene cleanup crew, which is not something I've experienced in a book, movie, or TV show. The concept of not seeing the body, but only the aftermath, is detached from the who & how, yet they can still piece things together based on their experience.

The plot was immediately intriguing, then adding in the layer of COVID took it to another unique level, as this is the first book I've read where characters are experiencing the impact of it. Little things like not being fully comfortable in public again, the need to constantly sanitize and wear masks, with varying participation.

Then, the bat-eater insinuation itself. It makes me sick that this portion of a fictional novel was actually pulled from the reality of such terrible discrimination, which is, unfortunately, not new in our world. I teared up from the author's note, do not skip it.

I love how Baker wove in pieces of Asain culture, the experience of grief, terror, and friendships in addition to SO much more! Words cannot describe the feelings this surfaced. This was phenomenal, and I cannot wait to read more from her.

A few things you will find:
🩸Murder (don't forget the gore)
🩸Not-so-friendly ghosts
🩸Grief
🩸Racism
🩸COVID Pandemic

Thank you, NetGalley, for this audiobook ARC - my thoughts are my own.

This book blew me away and was not at all what I was expecting. I loved every second of the book, the characters, the storytelling, everything.

Three Words That Describe This Book: grief, ghosts, gore

Bat Eater has strong character development and a diverse cast. Cora is biracial and feels like an outsider. Her cleaning coworkers have become more than just friends, and the side characters are also well-developed – Auntie Z is my favourite. When she shows up at Taco Bell!! – Awesome scene. I loved the description of the setting and the atmosphere in general. Baker’s writing style is incredible, and I enjoyed the dark humour. Other readers have said they felt the ending was rushed and unsatisfying, but I thought it was great. I enjoyed the mysterious parts of the story, didn’t see the reveals coming, and didn’t want to put it down! Bat Eater is one of the best books I’ve read in 2025.

APPEAL FACTORS
Storyline: character-driven, issue-oriented, own voices, tragic
Pace: medium
Tone: emotional, bittersweet, moving, sad, dramatic, mystical, suspenseful, thought-provoking, dark, informative, mysterious, sinister, bleak, creepy, gruesome, haunting
Humour: dark humour
Writing Style: well-crafted dialogue, attention-grabbing, compelling
Character: authentic, awkward, complex, flawed, likeable, relatable, strong female, well-developed, diverse
Disability representation: mental illness, neurodivergence
Racial Representation: Asian
Audio: character accents, emotionally connected, clear

Read Alikes:
Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova
Yellowface by R. F. Kuang
The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim
You Know What You Did by K. T. Nguyen
The Fervor by Alma Katsu

Final Thoughts
• Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng is a poignant novel about mental health, grief, found-family, and the danger of misinformation. It carries an important message about racism and the Asian hate experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. I came away feeling like I had a better understanding of an experience outside of my own.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This book has ghosts, but its one of those stories where the real horrors are from the real people.

The book follows Cora Zeng during the Covid 19 pandemic and after the traumatic death of her sister Delilah. Cora and the people she works with start to notice patterns in the crime scenes they clean, including the addition of bats associated with Asian victims.

Cora has to figure out what's going on, while dealing with uncooperative police, white supremacy, and vitriol just for being Asian during the pandemic. There are some fairly gory scenes but the grossest part for me is a scene towards the end where Cora encounters a 'normal' guy. And the guy is so gross and I've met many like him.

I absolutely devoured this book. Definitely recommend for those that like a darker read.

Honestly this book is WILD and at no point did I know what was going to happen next. I felt so bad for Cora the whole time but Harvey and Yifei brought levity to the book that kept it from being too much.

THIS WAS SO GOOOODDD. Man i loved this book so much. Kylie Lee Baker does such a great job navigating thru the COVID pandemic respectfully and thoughtfully. This story touches on so much and although its horror at its core its about how the Asian community was treated during this time and how that is horrific on its own.

Overall this the pacing of this book is well done.. It does have slower moments but it doesn't take away from the overall story.

I appreciated that book was more than just a panda if horror novel. It really had a lot to Say regarding the pandemic and how the Asian community was treated, that alone was horrific,

I highly recommend this book to a range of readers, yes it's horror but it's also literature fiction. With a lot of depth and important topics.

The audiobook of this was great. It was well produced and I thought the narrator really did a great job portraying the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Audio for this advanced listener copy. My review is voluntarily my own.

"Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng" by Kylie Lee Baker
3.5 stars
published January 7, 2025
kindle/audio

So I went into this blind after requesting it on @netgalley and I am glad I did. I do not like pandemic books but this one took an interesting twist. It started laying bare the ugliest parts of humanity that were always there but Covid brought them out. Cora Zeng is a crime scene cleaner, washing away the remains of brutal murders and suicides in Chinatown. She isn't haunted by the crime scenes. It is the memory of her sister being pushed in front of a train by a guy who whispered "Bat Eater". The killer was never caught, and now bat carcasses are being found at the crime scene clean-ups of more Asian women. NYC during the pandemic, where you can hide so much of your face with a mask, I can only imagine the blatant racism that was shown to all Asian- Americans. The novel would have made a great thriller with the serial killer plot line of targeting a specific racial group leaving a calling card of dead bats; however the story takes a haunting turn into the supernatural. The ghost of her sister Delia follows Cora around until finally confronted during the Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival where everything gets gory.

this book was...wow. this is one where I don’t even know what to say because I don’t want to spoil a single thing SO I’m gonna try to be vague but just know that BOTTOM LINE I LOVED IT!!

the writing, the pacing, the gritty horror, the unflinching look at how unmasked racists were towards Asians during COVID (and on), the mental health issues— it’s all so well written. this book is unsettling and haunting . it combines supernatural horror with suspense/mystery with Chinese folklore so well and will keep you turning the page to find out what is going on.

Natalie Naudus is one of my favorite narrators and she did a great job with this book!

Tense. Gory. Impactful and thought provoking.

“Wuhang was the epicenter of body bags and NYC was the epicenter of anti-Asian hate crimes.”

Part ghost story, part serial killer mystery, part unflinching commentary on how our worst fears can lead to illogical fear and blame. Bat Eater is a deftly layered story that’s as gruesome and intense as it is original and affecting.

This is the kind of story meant to be told through horror elements!

Haunted by her sister’s murder...and maybe even her sister’s ghost...Cora grapples with fear. Fear of the germs killing people. Fear of the hungry ghosts wanting fed. And fear of a serial killer targeting Asian women.

Baker has delivered a suffocatingly intense narrative that is rife with uncomfortable truths. The complex storyline skillfully explores the inner turmoil of grief and trauma Cora faces while also expounding upon the external turmoil of seeing Asian women hunted and brutalized. It’s no surprise that the writing is raw and provocative to match the tone of the read. And while the richly crafted characters and the dark humor sometimes offset the sense of foreboding, the narrative never quite let’s go of its sinister nature.

This is a rage filled horror novel that is meant to evoke deep feelings. And for me, Baker well delivered through this perfect blend of Chinese lore and incisive commentary.

🎧Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng is an Earphones Award winner, and with GOOD reason. It’s narrated by the incomparable @natalienaudus who delivered an engrossing performance that captured the fullness of the emotion and breathed life into Cora Zeng.

Many thanks to my friends at @_mira_books_ @htp_hive @htpbooks and @htpbooks_audio for the free #gifted copies of this book. #partner

If you're looking for a dark and gory peek behind the curtains of being a biracial woman in America during the height of the global pandemic.

It's hard to say what was more frightening, the casual and prevalent racism that dogs Cora's heels, or the ghosts that follow in their wake.

Being able to see Cora's identity pushed and pulled between her white and Asian aunties was an excellent utilization of bringing characters to life and I thoroughly enjoyed it.l

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker was nearly a five-star read for me. The story follows Cora, a young Chinese-American woman working on a crime scene cleanup crew in the aftermath of her sister’s murder at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. As Ghost Month begins, Cora starts seeing spirits—and noticing unsettling patterns in the crime scenes she cleans that suggest there might be a serial killer on the loose. What follows is a fast-paced, emotionally layered blend of ghost story, survival tale, and murder mystery.
The prose is lyrical in places, and Natalie Naudus’s narration in the audiobook really enhances the emotional core of the story, especially Cora’s grief, confusion, and unraveling sense of reality. I also really appreciated the friendships Cora forms with her coworkers—there’s some sharp, funny banter that helps balance out the heavy subject matter. The ghosts are described with vivid, eerie detail, and the scenes of gore and horror land effectively without feeling gratuitous.
My only hesitation is with the ending, which felt a bit inconclusive. While I can understand the thematic choice—sometimes real horrors, like murder or pandemics, don’t offer satisfying closure—I still found myself wanting more resolution from the mystery. That said, it didn’t take away from how strong the rest of the book was. Definitely worth a listen if you’re looking for something haunting, heartfelt, and a little unclassifiable.

We follow our main character Cora, and right off the bat we're exploring some complex sibling dynamics between her and her sister as they navigate their life in New York during the peak of the COVID pandemic. Things get devastating quick when she sees her sister get pushed in front of a moving train by a masked individual. She knows it is racially motivated because he calls her a bat eater before he runs away. She is obviously grieving profusely throughout this story and her OCD type behaviors are exacerbated by the trauma. Finding comfort in cleaning, she becomes a crime-scene cleaner. Her two co-workers become a compelling oddball mix of personalities and eventually, her friends. After cleaning up the aftermath of multiple homicides in Chinatown they begin to see a clear pattern. All the victims are East Asian women and there are dead bats left at each scene. Between a serial killer, the claustrophobic force of a society partially shut down, and Cora being haunted by hungry ghosts, she is barely clinging to any dregs of normalcy.

This book is brilliant and the longer I sit with it, the more my thoughts keep returning to it. It honestly amazes me how much emotional depth, social commentary, and varying types of truly disturbing horror are jam packed into around 300 pages. The pacing in this is FAST, like downward slope of a rollercoaster fast. And don't go into this lightly, definitely check trigger warnings because this book is as brutal as they come.

This is peak grief horror. The way she grapples with her complicated feelings about her sister in life and the inadequacy she felt always being compared to her by family while also grasping at the memory of her felt so raw and realistic. After their parents both essentially abandoned them, their only parental figures their two, very different Aunts. The maternal one is Caucasian and forces Cora to go to her Christian church in order to receive financial help while her Auntie Zeng is more concerned with ancient Chinese superstition and preparing Cora for the Hungry Ghost Festival. I loved the other side characters, watching her and her coworkers bonding despite her attempts to keep them at an arm's length almost gave a found-family type of vibe.

Now while this is peak grief horror primarily, there are so many other facets of horror we see executed to perfection. A ton of gore and intense body horror paired with the crime thriller whodunnit aspect as she pieces together connections between her sisters death and the grisly scenes at work. I think my favorite was the paranormal stuff, though! The way she is questioning her every move when food starts disappearing from her fridge and she finds bite marks on her coffee table. The imagery used to describe the hungry ghost that is haunting her was creepy as hell and reminiscent of some early 2000's horror favorites like "The Ring" and "The Grudge." By the ending, I was devastated and in awe at how flawless this book was. There are moments that will forever haunt me and the overall story holds up to reflection and analysis. I will never stop recommending!

I went into this audiobook completely blind. I knew it had something to do with COVID and I was pleasantly surprised with the story this book brought. This story follows Cora and her friends/coworkers through the COVID era of Asian discrimination, hauntings, death and murder. Cora is living in the city with her sister when a horrible death happens. When she takes a job as a crime scene clean up person, her life starts to change. Kylie Baker did a really good job showing the perspective of Asians as they were discriminated against and called hateful names. Bat eater was not something I knew was being said during this time and as a mexican american, this opened my eyes to the discrimination other races receive. This is a well written horror story that incorporates hauntings, gruesome death, religious turmoil, grief and mental health. It was much more heart wrenching then I though it was going to be. I will be adding this author to my automatic buy list!