INFORMATION ABOUT THIS BOOK
Publisher : MIRA
Publication date : April 2025
Format: Hardcover, Paperback, audiobook, and ebook
Print length : 303 pages
Genre: Horror - Ghost Fiction
WHY DID I CHOOSE THIS BOOK?
I’ve had this book on my TBR for a long time and waited in Libby for months. I have heard about this book a lot from YouTubers who especially enjoy horror books. Reading horror books has become one of my favorite genres, next to satire. I have a book on my bookshelf, also written by Kylie Lee Baker, Japanese Gothic, and I want to read it soon, before the end of this year. This book, from what I heard, was very graphic, involving serial killers, hungry ghosts, and COVID. And yes, it had all three of those things.
MY PERSONAL OPINION OF “BAT EATER AND OTHER NAMES FOR CORA ZENG”
Shocking!. That is the best way to describe this book, especially after reading the first few pages. I had to close the book and give it a minute to understand just what had happened… Oh boy, from that point on it was nonstop unsettling and scary. Choosing and picking what to be more scared of: the hungry ghosts? The serial killer? The social hate? This was an incredible read, it was unstoppable, but at the same time, I had to stop to process what I was reading.
The book tells the story of Cora Zeng, who after tragically loosing her sister, falls into the depths of grief, which is only, exacerbated by her loneliness due to COVID isolation. Cora Zeng is chinese, and therefore, targeted as a social pariah and blamed constantly for the COVID virus rampage.
As Cora is coping with her grief, her new gross and creepy new job, her isolation due to her own germaphobia, she finds herself realizing there is a serial killer on the loose, a serial killer with a specific target: asian women. As the Ghost Month starts, and hungry ghost roam the city, Cora finds herself with no way out, but to face her fears, and take action.
This was incredibly horrifying, it was scary to the bone, it was gross, and unsettling, in the best possible way.
An absolute must-read.
This was a 5-star read for me.
PREMISE OF THE BOOK AS FOUND IN AMAZON / GOODREADS:
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.
MY RATING: 5.0
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: KYLIE LEE BAKER
Kylie Lee Baker grew up in Boston and has since lived in Atlanta, Salamanca, and Seoul. Her work is informed by her heritage (Japanese, Chinese, & 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 is pursuing a master of library and information science degree at Simmons University. In her free time, she plays the cello, watches horror movies, and bakes too many cookies. The Keeper of Night is her debut novel.
Bibliography:
- The Keeper of Night
- The Empress of Time
- The Scarlet Alchemist
- The Blood Orchid
- I’ll Find You Where the Timeline Ends
- Hell to Pay
- Japanese Gothic
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