A gory horror novel following a girl with mysophobia working as a crime scene cleaner after watching the brutal death of her sister. This mixed with a murder mystery story trying to find a serial killer, and tackling racism toward Asian Americans during the covid pandemic.

I absolutely loved this novel. The last half I devoured in an evening!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.75

Genre: Horror
Tropes: Murder Mystery

‘The thing about hungry ghosts is they don’t care if you believe in them.’

‘She’s still Chinese and no one will let her forget it.’

‘They were never supposed to be her friends, but they didn’t give Cora a choice.’

There are many fears in Cora’s life, these are raised tenfold when a deeply traumatic event happens. Cora feels lost and alone, in a world where the Covid pandemic is at the forefront of the media, covering up all the other despicable things that are happening around her. Whilst at her crime scene cleaning job Cora & her co-workers start to see a pattern in the scenes… Bats…

A politicly charged and suspenseful horror story. This book had me in chokehold, I couldn’t put it down! It’s also relatively short, so basically you have NO excuse not to read it!

The underlying themes are hard hitting and incredibly effective, the writing also allows you to seep into the mind of Cora & understand exactly how she is feeling. Initially I was unsure how I felt reading about a Covid theme, but I actually felt quite seen with how the pandemic has affected Cora & her behaviours. I think it’s safe to say it’s affected most of us in one way or another.

The last third of the book, I felt like I losing my mind (Cora I feel you girl), WTF.
It’s one of those books that leaves you thinking about it long after you finish it.
I wish I could say more, but I’m at a loss for words.

PS. I also really appreciated the author’s note as the end 🫶🏻

I started reading the book because I'd read and loved the author's previous book for young adults, Scarlet Alchemist, a fantasy book. I was surprised by the radical change of genre: this book is very gory and has a lot of descriptions that make you feel like you're right there in the story – I've even been scared. The story is written from Cora's point of view, but she's a narrator we can't trust because she doesn't even trust herself, which makes the whole book shrouded in mystery, which I loved. I also loved the part of the book about Chinese culture with the ghosts, but I was a bit disappointed by the ending.
The book deals with some very complex issues, such as racism in the USA during the pandemic, the identity problems of an interracial main character who is trying to connect with her two cultures, childhood abandonment, mental illness, and childhood abuse.

Thank you Netgalley, Kylie Lee Baker and Hodder & Stoughton for the eArc of Bat Eater.

Cora Zeng is a crime scene cleaner in China Town and dealing with the Pandemic. More so, while walking home, witnesses her sister being pushed under a passing train. While dealing with the Trauma of losing her sister, Cora comes to the conclusion that someone maybe targeting Asian people and having a close call herself.

This book. tackles the darkness of trauma, the claustrophobic manner of a pandemic and systemic racism. Not just on a general basis but also through the origins of this virus and being the accusations of asian people being " Bat Eaters" Even though there are some elects of dark and funny humour. This book taps into the psyche. I loved Kylie's writing style in which she is building dread, paranoia, sleuthing skills, all while dealing with Cora's job, which, in fact would affect anyone's mental health after a while.

The pacing of the book is medium which ebbs and flows but doesn't sputter out. Both the character and world building around China then made it easy to envisage where Cora was,

I also listened to the audio version of this book which was done by Natalie Naudus who suited the pacing and the ominousness of this book.

4 Stars

Wow oh wow, this book. It’s dark. It’s vicious and vengeful.

It’s so so brilliant.

This book really put me through my paces! There’s so many twists and turns, reveals, and so much gore! It’s gruesome. I was really impressed with how this book put me on my toes and shook me to my core…I was mildly (a lot) afraid to read this with the lights out because I began to think something weird was staring at me from the shadows…(turns out it was one of my cats).

The writing in this is so vivid and evocative and Baker does an excellent job at crafting an atmosphere of paranoia and fear and grief and anger. Everything was so tangible. It all really hit extra hard knowing that a lot of suffering due to racism that Cora went through is what a lot of Chinese/Asian people experienced and do still experience because of Covid.

I couldn’t believe, maybe stupidly, the amount of death in this. No one, and I mean, no one was safe. It was so unsettling but it really added to the brutality of the situation and the world.

I think Baker did something really excellent here.

Also, as someone with OCD, specifically contamination OCD, I related a lot to Cora and so seen. There’s a passage at the beginning of the book that echoes thoughts and sentiments similar to what I was having during the lockdowns that it startled me (in a good way).

The only reason this isn’t a five stars is because the ending felt a bit too disjointed and messy for me. I know I had to suspend my disbelief a lot anyways due to the paranormal and supernatural elements of the novel, but I feel like a lot of things were glossed over for convenience and to make it easier to wrap the book up which is a shame.
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I wasn't too sure what to expect from Bat Eater as the blurb was pretty open ended on whether it would be crime-leaning or horror, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it was in fact a hybrid of the two genres, on one hand we have Cora and her crime-scene cleaner friends trying to unpick the murders of several Asian women all who appear to be found with bats corpses present in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic and on the other we have the supernatural in the format of 'The Hungry Ghost' a spectre that has clung to Cora and is drawn from Chinese mythology, I don't want to say too much as I fear I might spoil the plot, but if you enjoy thrillers that will leave you questioning how everything is entwined (almost Christiesque at times with the red herrings), the supernatural a la the ring, with the combination of social commentary albeit an uncomfortable truth of how sinophobia became a massive issue during the pandemic then this book is as must read.

Thank you Netgalley & Hodder & Stoughton for the ARC.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I thought it was well paced, entertaining and I couldn't put it down!

I loved the authors writing style.

Thank you to the publisher for this advanced reader copy.

Normally I don't really like reading thrillers, I'm just easily scared. But "Bar eater" really intrigued me, I liked having an insight in the different perspectives of people living through the pandemic.
I liked the plot and it was interesting how the author visualized the racism against asian people.
I liked how the main character trusted her coworkers and that they came friends and tried ti solve each others problems.
The fact that in the end you couldn't really tell the difference between real life situations and Cora's mental sickness added to the story and made it even more suspenseful.
A real page-turned with important side information.

This was a brutal and unflinching look at grief and anti-Asian hate crimes in COVID-era NYC. I absolutely flew through this one - it had me gasping for air by the end. I think everyone should read this one as soon as they can!

I wasn’t sure if I was ready for a book centered around COVID-19, but Bat Eater masterfully blends horror, supernatural elements, and the harsh realities of what Asian Americans endured during the pandemic. The story doesn’t just use the pandemic as a backdrop—it weaves it into the tension and fear, making the horror feel all the more visceral.

From the very first page, this book starts with a bang and never lets up. I was completely drawn into Cora’s journey as she navigates life after her sister’s death. Her grief is palpable, and I loved how the author explored her reluctance to connect with others. Watching her slowly open up to people who truly see and accept her added an emotional depth that balanced out the supernatural terror.

This was such a gripping, well-crafted read, and I can’t wait to see what the author writes next!

5 star ⭐️

Harrowing, gripping and deeply creepy throughout.

From the first chapter I was hooked, letting out gasps in shock and desperate to continue.

We follow Cora, a Chinese American, throughout the time of COVID, who cleans crime scenes, these scenes ultimately start uncovering a creepy and mysterious string of events.

Along the way Cora finds herself tangled up with her two colleagues-to-pals to uncover some mysteries which take a creepy paranormal turn.

Each character stood out to make a great trio, I loved their interactions, developments and opening up to one another.

The book features some incredibly creepy scenes and when I found myself feeling like a I had predicted the next moment suddenly we take a twist and dive headfirst into a horror story worth remembering.

I loved kylies other series, the scarlet alchemist so when I found out she’s writing horror I was incredibly excited and had to read it ASAP, I absolutely was not disappointed!

Thank you Netgalley for an ARC!

My first 5 star read of the year. I’ve been handselling this by simply saying ‘the writing is so visceral it makes your skin sticky’.

Set during the COVID pandemic, the narrative follows Cora. Cora witnesses the brutal murder of her sister which leads her down a twisted trail of grief, fear and love. At work she’s noticing patterns, Asian women are turning up dead at a rapid rate and each have bats near the bodies, a harrowing reminder of what her sisters murderer shouted before killing her: Bateater. To add to everything else, the shadows are moving, the darkness is creeping in and Cora needs to feed her hungry ghosts before they come too far from the shadows.

If you have to give one COVID-19 pandemic fiction a chance, I beg you to consider Bat Eater as your choice, because this novel is so much more than a more terrifying 2020 setting (which btw, it’s not by much).
It wasn't an easy read; grief, loss, fear, and anger permeate the novel from beginning to end, a result of unfortunately nothing close to fiction as the title itself suggests. The delivery is raw, powerful and brutal in the depiction of hatred, violence, and dehumanisation in the name of racism; the evil? Nothing more than human.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that I teared up during the last chapter and I ended up literally sobbing because of the author's note.

Cora herself is a relatable struggling mess, her characterisation so much more than mere representation. She's desperately longing for identity, for a community, a culture, and a society to belong to but none seems to want, accept, nor claim her fully. From her Chinese American eyes we experience Chinese culture in its traditions, beliefs, and rituals (and even food), to Cora unknown and ungraspable. It was a pleasure to experience it with her, a breath of fresh air in the sea of cultural appropriation of the passive media consumption world.

And it doesn't stop here. I LOVED the horror elements (multiple, supernatural and not) in the story. Horror is my favourite genre across all media, and it's the first time a novel managed to put me on edge and make my heart tighten out of sheer tension. The build up is slow but masterfully paced to surface when it can hit the hardest, also as a result of well developed characters impossible not to attach to and the eerily descriptive narration. Heads up for some gory stomach-churning imagery.

I could sit on writing this review for years and I'd still probably never be able to write one that would give this novel justice. There is so much I didn't even get to talk about. Please read it.
I've never been more honoured and grateful to have been granted access to an advanced review copy as I was after finishing Bat Eater. I'm definitely buying a physical copy of the book and no I won't stop raving about it for a very long time.

I'd like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I can’t tell you how happy I am to have gotten this book. To be honest, it’s probably going to end up in my top 10 of the year—and we’re barely finishing January!
Bat Eater by Kylie Lee Baker is a fantastic novel that intertwines two different kinds of horror: the supernatural entities haunting the main character and the very real racism and xenophobia toward Asians during COVID. I’m not American, and there isn’t a large Chinese expat community where I live, so most of my understanding of this context comes from the news. This book feels like an insider’s perspective on what the Chinese community endured in such a polarized society - and add ghosts to boot!
As for the supernatural elements, I loved the inclusion of authentic Chinese folklore and mythological creatures—it’s a refreshing take on the ghost genre.
5/5 time to explore Baker's other works!

A heavy novel which deals with a heavy topic. I found this a tough read with some of the depictions of mental health being quite intense, and the depiction of such violent racism was a lot at times, but unfortunately felt not too distant from our reality.
I loved the writing style in here, you are inside Coras chaotic mind and you really feel the isolation and paranoia that comes with that.

A heavy and challenging read, but feels like one of those books that should be required reading for anyone who wants to be a human.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher Hodder and Stoughton for the digital ARC, it has not affected my honest review.

TW: racism, COVID-19, OCD, grief, death, murder, blood, gore, ghosts, mental illness, horror, injury, animal abuse and death


After witnessing the murder of her sister Delilah, pushed in front of a train by a man yelling ‘bat eater’ in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cora Zheng is struggling to cope. Having started working as a crime scene cleaner in Chinatown, she sees the aftermaths of murders and suicides every day but nothing is as horrifying as the memory of Delilah’s murder. Her OCD worsened by the ongoing pandemic, Cora is more terrified of the germs in the subway, the possible hidden viruses on every surface and the constant reminder of the words uttered before Delilah died. However, apples start going missing from her fridge and there are bite marks on her coffee table, driving Cora to doubt even further if she can trust her own mind to know what is real. Her aunt advises Cora to recognise the Hungry Ghost Festival by burning joss paper because that’s when the gates of hell are open and the unhappy dead are free to roam. She ignores her and soon enough Cora is haunted by terrifying visions of Delilah’s starving ghost, while also finding dead bats at crime scenes where East Asian women have been killed. Forced to face Delilah’s murder and the serial killer massacring women during a pandemic Asian people are being blamed for, Cora teams up with two of her workmates, Yifei and Harvey, to discover the truth and stop the ‘Batman’ before he can kill anyone else.

I can honestly say I’ve never read a book like ‘Bat Eater’ before- it is raw and unapologetic in its brutality, its deeply disturbing and terrifying from the very first chapter as the reader witnesses Delilah’s death while also weaving together themes of racism, identity, belief, religion, mental illness and grief. I found it nearly impossible to stop reading once I started, it’s such an engrossing and dark book with moments of humour that really helped with the horror. I made the mistake of reading a lot of this at night, the scenes with the ghosts and Cora’s visions were so creepy and well written. This seamlessly combines murder mystery, thriller, horror and the supernatural without ever going too far in either direction, all while retaining the theme of sisterhood that constantly haunts Cora. Her perspective and the way she’s written is beautiful but stark, she lived her entire life in Delilah’s shadow and now doesn’t know how to function without that label. I spent a lot of the early part of this book questioning Cora’s sanity as much as she does, all up until that moment when she sees Delilah’s ghost for the first time. Her experiences with religion, racism (she’s half Chinese, half American) and her family are truly distressing and in some ways more horrifying than the actual ghosts. What she and the other people of Chinatown, particularly the women killed by the ‘Batman’, go through in this book is disgraceful. The descriptions and language are some of the best I’ve read. I haven’t read any COVID-19 based horror before, this was an exception because I so loved the author’s fantasy works, but I can’t imagine it could top this. I genuinely can’t think of another horror book that has handled the issues of racism, murder and OCD with such grace and skill. There aren’t any books out there like ‘Bat Eater’ and I’ll never forget this one, I hope the author writes more horror.

I LOVE Kylie Lee Bakers writing! I have only read her fantasy in the past but this one really sucked me in.
Its my first covid 19 book and i was dubious about that when starting but i ended up loving the emphasis on how it focused on how covid effected mental health and it hit really hard with the narrative of racism towards Chinese people in the aftermath of what had happened. I loved the culture in this and the comparison you get with American life.

Kylie Lee Baker is becoming and auto buy author for me

Bat Eater follows Cora Zeng as she navigates a pandemic-stricken world where people who look like her are being blamed and discriminated against. Through her job as a crime scene cleaner, Cora and her colleagues become privy to the often hidden extremes of this very prejudice.

I’ll start by saying that this is very much a Covid-centric book, so approach it with care if you find such themes triggering. As someone who has largely avoided Covid-related narratives, I’m glad I took the risk with this one.

While I occasionally felt that the pacing was slightly off, I was quickly drawn back in, which is a testament to Kylie Lee Baker’s skill as a writer. In Bat Eater, Baker masterfully combines beautiful prose with unpredictable, gruesome moments and the pervasive fear of the unknown. This is interwoven with a painfully authentic portrayal of real-life horrors such as racism and misogyny.

When I say the gruesome moments are intense, I’m not exaggerating. Personally, I appreciated what these visceral elements added to the story, but it’s worth noting that they might be challenging for readers who struggle with graphic gore.

I recommend going into this book knowing as little as possible, whilst being mindful of the trigger warnings. I truly believe I enjoyed it more because I went in with minimal knowledge.

Thanks to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the e-ARC. All opinions are my own.

TWs/CWs
Graphic: Gore, Hate crime, Mental illness, Racism, Grief, Murder, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Self harm, Sexism, and Violence
Minor: Gun violence, Vomit, Police brutality, and Sexual harassment

With a title and cover like this, I was always going to be intrigued by this book. Almost as soon as I started reading, I understood the true meaning of the title and in fact the tone of the rest of the pages. Spiky, punchy and unbelievably icky, Bat Eater was a crazy ride.

Cora is a crime scene cleaner and since witnessing the horrific murder of her sister at a tube station, she isn’t fazed by the gory nature of her work. But recently, she realises that all of the scenes she’s cleaning up appear to be of the murders of East Asian women and for some reason, there are bats at every one of them. Her sister’s killer still hasn’t been caught and Cora can’t forget the fact he shouted ‘bat eater’ as he fled. Is the same guy behind this recent spate of murders?

Obviously this book is set against the backdrop of COVID-19 and the widespread racism towards Chinese culture that followed. There is a sense that the killer could be any nameless, faceless white man and this is perhaps representative of where racist ideas originate -they could come from literally anyone.

Some parts of the writing was really thoughtful and beautiful. However, most of the time, the book didn’t seem to have time for this. As a reader who loves interesting turns of phrase and spending time analysing my surroundings, I really missed this in Bat Eater. However, I adored it when we got it. It is a thoughtful book with some very firm ideas, so I wanted more of Cora’s slow reflections.

This philosophical tone returned when Harvey was ruminating on his own mortality. He feels that he’s not living life to the full and that video games have played a role in his disregard for life. I’d never considered that having several lives in video games might affect gamers’ thoughts on the sanctity of real life but I guess it could!

I also really enjoyed learning more about the Hungry Ghost festival. I have read about it in other books but not in as much detail as it is here. I’d also never realised how truly dangerous leaving food out for hungry spirits truly is. The scene in Yifei’s kitchen with her roommates was horrendous and I think those images will stay with me for a long time. I was genuinely scared of the spirits in this book.

Of course, the book is also about grief. Cora is still grieving Delilah and it’s natural for her to wonder whether the same fate awaits her. To be honest, I was almost waiting for it to happen. It was really sad to realise that there seems to be such a lack of people who value the lives of Asian women that even Asian women themselves (Cora) question whether their lives are really worth living.

Bat Eater is a unique, incredibly dark and gory horror. It has a lot to say about the darkest pits of our society and the real world horrors that East Asian people face. However, you need a strong stomach for certain scenes and the ability to roll with the twists and tragedies.

Bat Eater by Kylie Baker delivers a striking and harrowing opening that hooks the reader immediately, setting a chilling tone that lingers throughout the story. I really enjoyed Cora's job as a crime scene cleaner too and the thriller elements of the killer.

However, as the narrative progresses, the pace slows, and the initial intensity diminishes, which may leave some readers yearning for the earlier momentum. I wasn't as fond of the ghostly elements that get added in later on.

Would recommend for those drawn to dark, atmospheric stories.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.