BLOG TOUR - Bat Eater & Other Names for Cora Zeng
- Kindig
- Apr 29
- 3 min read
Harlequin - Mira have very kindly asked me to participate in their blog tour for Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker which is out TODAY! I'll start by telling you all about this KINDIG GEM and the author and then share my review!
THE BOOK
In this explosive horror novel, a woman is haunted by inner trauma, hungry ghosts, and a serial killer as she confronts the brutal violence experienced by East Asians during the pandemic.
Cora Zeng is a crime scene cleaner, washing away the remains of brutal murders and suicides in Chinatown. But none of that seems so terrible when she’s already witnessed the most horrific thing possible: her sister, Delilah, being pushed in front of a train.
Before fleeing the scene, the murderer shouted two words: bat eater.
So the bloody messes don’t really bother Cora—she’s more bothered by the germs on the subway railing, the bare hands of a stranger, the hidden viruses in every corner, and the bite marks on her coffee table. Of course, ever since Delilah was killed in front of her, Cora can’t be sure what's real and what’s in her head.
She pushes away all feelings and ignores the advice of her aunt to prepare for the Hungry Ghost Festival, when the gates of hell open. But she can't ignore the dread in her stomach as she keeps finding bat carcasses at crime scenes, or the scary fact that all her recent cleanups have been the bodies of East Asian women.
As Cora will soon learn, you can’t just ignore hungry ghosts.
For fans of Stephen Graham Jones and Gretchen Felker-Martin, Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng is a wildly original, darkly humorous, and subversive contemporary novel from a striking new voice in horror.
THE AUTHOR
Kylie Lee Baker is the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Keeper of Night duology, The Scarlet Alchemist duology, and the forthcoming adult horror Bat Eater. She grew up in Boston and has since lived in Atlanta, Salamanca, and Seoul. Her writing is informed by her heritage (Japanese, Chinese, and Irish), as well as her experiences living abroad as both a student and teacher. She has a BA in creative writing and Spanish from Emory University and a master of library and information science degree from Simmons University.
MY REVIEW
*****
Thinking of the Covid pandemic with all the testing and masks and everyone panic buying toilet rolls, it feels like another lifetime ago. I sometimes wonder if it actually happened at all!
In general, I don’t really like reading books set in the pandemic as it still feels a little too fresh, but when I saw the synopsis of Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng I knew I had to pick it up. Focusing on the hate the Chinese population received from the ‘China Virus’, this novel is part horror, part crime thriller and I was hooked throughout!
The first thing I noticed when reading this book is how beautiful the prose is, it was simply a joy to read. The opening chapter set in the train station introduces you well to Cora and her sister Delilah and their complex relationship, before throwing in a shocking curveball which grabbed me instantly. This book does deal with a lot of sometimes disgusting and gory subjects (Cora is a crime scene cleaner after all), and the writing does such a good job of describing everything vividly and making you feel like you are truly there in the moment.
After the first chapter, the book leaps forward in time, focusing on Cora’s new job of a crime scene cleaner, where she starts discovering that a serial killer with a hatred towards the Asian population may be on the loose. This part of the book focuses on the friendships she has with her colleagues as they try and get someone to believe them or care about the killings. It’s truly sad in places and the hate that is pictured feels sadly believable in the context of the pandemic.
The book is also interspersed with Cora being haunted by hungry ghosts. I love a bit of horror, and this is done so well - the depiction of these apparitions is genuinely chilling and I was a little apprehensive reading with the lights off. This also brought into focus Chinese folklore as well, which I didn’t know much about but was very interested to learn.
Overall, Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng is a fantastic book and a Kindig Gem for 2025. It’s part horror, part crime thriller - instantly gripping and so well written. Thank you to NetGalley & Harlequin – Mira for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
LINKS TO BUY
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