The main protagonist is Cora, an Asian-American woman of mixed heritage. She recently suffered the loss of her sister Delilah after a hate crime and has severe PTSD. To pay her bills she takes on a cleaning job, which soon becomes a crime scene cleaning job. While at the job she notices a pattern of Asian women being murdered violently. Cora is at sea without Delilah and is on her own for the first time. She is struggling with her beliefs (Chinese religious customs and Christianity), this duality makes her unsure of herself, especially when she starts to sense a weird presence. Due to previous experiences, she is afraid of seeking help and its implications. This book is a great conversation starter, tackling Asian hate during the pandemic, the experiences of people of mixed-race, mental health and how intolerance can lead to violence. I would highly recommend to lovers of horror.

I received this ebook ARC from NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton in exchange for a free and honest review

cora zeng, a young chinese american woman, is living with her half-sister in new york city when covid-19 hits and turns her world upside down. laid off from their jobs, her sister decides she wants to go and live with their dad in china for a while. or at least, that was her plan. she unfortunately never made it to china, having been pushed by a white man into the path of a train— right in front of cora.

riddled with anxiety, her ocd at an all time high, and struggling to make rent payments, cora ends up taking a job as a crime scene cleaner. she can’t help but notice an alarming amount of the crime scenes they are called to are for asians, and what is with all the bats? someone is killing these people and cora and her friends are determined to get word of this out there.

what follows is an incredible story of grief, faith and resilience in the face of insurmountable turmoil. baker is an incredible writer. the way she was able to weave such strong supernatural elements into a tale that started off so grounded in reality was so well done.

this book has it all, you will be scared at times and grossed out at others. highly recommend.

‘Father Thomas points to several empty spaces in the walls, where there is only gaping darkness instead of doors. “For the children they never had,” Father Thomas says, his voice low. “Imagine if all of us built crypts for our dreams.”

I have NEVER in my life related to a character like I did Cora Zeng. Think of that what you may but my god I honestly found myself nodding and agreeing with some of her thoughts and found myself thinking yep, exactly.

Cora Zeng is a germaphobe with OCD who works as part of a crime scene clean up crew during the 2020 COVID pandemic and she's being haunted by hungry ghosts.
After a devastating even Cora finds herself adrift in life, the pandemic changed everyones world but the death of Delilah brought Cora's world crashing down around her. The sisters bond gave the impression they were twins, they had a complex relationship but the bond and the love they held for each other was undeniable but it did have the feel of one of those obsessive girl friendships.

Cora suffers with mental health issues which have only gotten worse since the death of her sister, now the lines of reality are becoming blurred and she can't quite figure out what's real and what's not.. although the bite marks on the coffee table definitely weren't there yesterday.

With the help of her clean up crew mates, Cora tries to figure out how to get her sister to stop haunting her.. but the hauntings aren't the only thing that's going on. with each clean up the crew are sent to it's clear someone is killing Asian women in gruesome and terrifying ways. There's a serial killer on the loose and no Asian woman is safe, the prejudice and blatant racism towards to Asian community is another level of horror added to an already horrific tale but it is also a slap in the face of reality and shows once again that humans are the really horror of this world.

This book had so many layers, from Cora's mental illness to Hungry ghosts, living in a global pandemic a city rife with hostility and racism topped off with a serial killer? this book consumed me and had me white knuckling my Kindle. The author created the heavy and claustrophobic atmosphere of the unknown during the pandemic reminding us of how people really were unhinged hoarding toilet paper and the like it brought 2020 crashing back around me.

This is an exceptional horror book and narrative of Asian racism that I recommend to everyone- provided you can handle the gore. It's so unbelievably gory and terrifying at the same time it will have you cringing but also the friendship between the crew was the shining light of this story brining a hint of laughter and a smile in the darkness.

The twists had be SHOOK and I could not believe somethings that happened, my heart was broken and I did not see some of the events of this book coming what so ever.

Beautifully written, impactful and terrifying Iv'e struggled reading anything since I finished it.

What could be a more fitting read than a horror novel filled with death and fear, inspired by the author’s own experience of the 21st century's largest pandemic – COVID-19? Drawing from the devastation of the outbreak and its related societal aspects, Baker has crafted an impressive and spine-chilling story that radiates unease.

The book follows Cora Zeng, who tragically loses her sister in a train accident. A mysterious stranger pushes the girl in front of an oncoming train, leaving chaos in its wake. Just before the fatal moment, two ominous words echo through the station: “Bat eater.” As Cora struggles to move on, she finds work at an Asian-owned cleaning company. However, due to the ongoing pandemic, the firm’s primary business shifts to cleaning up crime scenes. Once the forensic team has taken their photos and evidence, and the bodies have been removed, it’s Cora’s job—along with her team—to scrub away everything that remains.
However - it soon becomes clear that the victims are predominantly Asian women, and at every crime scene, there’s a bat left behind. Is there a serial killer on the loose? Or is something far more sinister at play?

Yet the terror isn’t confined to the city’s streets—Cora begins to sense that even her home is no longer a safe haven. At first, she suspects memory lapses. But when she discovers a hole gnawed into the couch and bite marks on the dining table, her doubts evaporate. Whoever—or whatever—is behind this, is no human.

How do you escape something that moves through walls, glides like the wind, and never makes a sound? How do you save your own skin when faced with a hungry ghost that shows no mercy?

This haunting story is a truly unsettling read that will send chills down your spine. While the book’s opening delivers a lightning bolt of action, the following 100+ pages adopt a slower pace. However, don't be deterred—the meticulous descriptions and rich backstory allow readers to understand Cora’s mindset, her family’s complex history, and their cultural traditions surrounding death and the afterlife.

Around the 200-page mark, the novel shifts gears into an adrenaline-fueled race against time, resembling a heart-pounding thriller where survival hangs by a thread. If you can endure the slower start (which some might find atmospheric rather than sluggish), the final act will more than reward your patience.

One of the novel's greatest strengths lies in its terrifyingly realistic social commentary. The pandemic not only brought sickness but also unveiled the ugliest sides of humanity—xenophobia, scapegoating, and unchecked hatred. In Baker’s world, life is cheap, and vigilante justice becomes the new norm.

Chilling, thought-provoking, and painfully relevant—Bat Eaters is a book that lingers long after the last page is turned. If you’re seeking a horror novel that blends the supernatural with unsettling reality, this one will haunt your dreams.

This is such a great horror story. but when you look past the guts and gore, ghost and bats you realise that the real horror here is the systemic discrimination, the horrors of the Covid 19 pandemic and the racism faced by Asian people when this was classified as the 'China disease'. I wouldn't say i 'enjoyed' this one - the imagery doesn't hold back on it's gruesomeness and the story is quite stressful., but i loved reading a horror based in Asian cultural beliefs and i think the underlying message of this book is an important one.

It feels odd that 5 years later the Covid 19 pandemic has been turned into fiction. It was a great book to read and the emotions that were portrayed through the book were easy to transport yourself back too (albeit a bit scary and surreal) but it’s fantastic accounts have been produced like this!

4.5 stars!
Very thought provoking - the racism the characters face breaks your heart. The cruelty done to the victims makes you feel sick that those humans exist.
Really well written, fast paced and harrowing story

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.