"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.
Mexican Gothic meets She is a Haunting in this sharp and propulsive horror thriller!
Cora Zeng is a crime scene cleaner, washing away the remains of brutal murders and suicides in Chinatown. 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.
Before fleeing the scene, the murderer whispered two words: bat eater.
Months pass, the killer is never caught, and Cora can barely keep herself together. She pushes away all feelings, disregards the bite marks that appear on her coffee table, and won't take her aunt's advice to prepare for the Hungry Ghost Festival, when the gates of hell open.
Cora tries to ignore the rising dread in her stomach, even when she and her weird co-workers begin finding bat carcasses at their crime scene clean-ups. But Cora can't ignore the fact that all their recent clean-ups have been the bodies of East Asian women.
Soon Cora 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
