"Provocative and profound, this exquisitely unique horror story of discrimination, murder, and ghosts during the Covid pandemic deserves to fly and has been chosen as a LoveReading Star Book.
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It’s almost too easy to describe this spine-tingling, provocative and powerful novel as horror, as this is a read that encourages thought while it sends a thunderbolt of shock through emotions. It reaches inside and pulls out the darker side of humanity, the side that is capable of hatred, murder, discrimination, and yet it touches joy, caresses love, and tickles laughter. As Covid hits Chinatown in New York, Cora finds herself cleaning up crime scenes and re-lives the moment her sister was pushed in front of a train. As she and her colleagues realise East Asian women are being targeted by a killer, the month of the Hungry Ghost Festival arrives. Author Kylie Lee Baker writes with the most beautiful balance, at no point do the scales tip too far in one direction. This story feels real even as the fantastical roam the streets, it’s intimate as Cora lives inside her thoughts, it sits on an epic scale as Covid shuts down the world and the dangers of blame and discrimination are laid bare for all to see. This is a gore-filled spectacle and extremely entertaining, yet the authenticity of grief and fear, culture and beliefs hammer home. I just had to add this novel as a Liz Pick of the Month as well as a LoveReading Star Book. Bat Eater is an unforgettable wild ride of a tale, it truly deserves to fly. Highly recommended.
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.
But the killer was never caught, and Cora is still haunted by his last words: bat eater.
These days, nobody can reach Cora: not her aunt who wants her to prepare for the Hungry Ghost Festival, not her weird colleagues, and especially not the slack-jawed shadow lurking around her doorframe. After all, it can't be real - can it?
After a series of unexplained killings in Chinatown, Cora believes that someone might be targeting East Asian women, and something might be targeting Cora herself.
Soon, she will learn . . . you can't just ignore hungry ghosts.
'Essential reading from a new voice in horror' BOOKLIST 'Gory' PAUL TREMBLAY 'Bat Eater will swoop in like a bat out of hell, swallow you whole and leave no crumbs' ALICE SLATER 'Easily one of the most exciting and unique books I've read in years' ERIC LAROCCA
PRAISE FOR BAT EATER
'A profound reminder of the true horrors that lurk in the world' TORI BOVALINO
'A serial killer mystery and a heartbreaking portrayal of grief' KIRSTY LOGAN
'This book dug its claws into me and would not let go' LING LING HUANG
'Body horror and female rage fiction combine in a powerful novel that will leave you quaking' ALMA KATSU
'A poignant, searing portrait of the hostility and violence that plagued pandemic-era NYC' VERONICA G. HENRY
