Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng, Kylie Lee Baker (Review by Bruna Looby)

Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

This is a true horror book – any book that takes us back to COVID times is the worst kind of horror. Doesn’t it feel like it was all a nightmare, or an episode from Black Mirror?

There are some pretty gruesome scenes here, but nothing is as gruesome as the way people treated Cora, just for being Chinese. Seriously.

Cora is having an extra rough time in April 2020 – her sister is brutally killed, she’ll be out of a job, and she can’t find toilet paper. The solution? She starts working as a crime scene clean-up.

During COVID, move and more clean-ups are needed, but things get really weird when she notices most victims are Asian women. Another weird thing? Bats are found in strange ways in the crime scenes (and let me tell you, it gets really gruesome!)

Cora thinks someone’s targeting Asian women, at the same time she starts getting paranoid about her surroundings. Feels like someone’s been inside her apartment? Is she being followed?

And, seeing that she’s in the middle of the apocalypse, who can help her solve these murders, in a scenario where Asian people are (unfairly) seen with different eyes?

This was a pretty gut-wrenching book. Not only are the murder scenes detailed and gross, but also because of the social aspect as well.