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⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ I'm pretty sure I’ll be a hungry ghost after I die. Not because of an untimely, gruesome death that leaves my spirit restless and seeking closure, but because I’m just always hungry. Even when I’m not hungry, I’m hungry. I stress eat, and I’m guessing dying will be stressful. Anyway, about this book… it was good. It was really good. Kylie Lee Baker's "Bat Eater: A Cora Zeng Mystery" was beautifully written, chock-full of prose that just begs to be highlighted. The story went to unexp...

Honestly terrifying, rage-inducing, depressing, and incredibly gory – *Bat Eater: A Cora Zeng Mystery* was WAYYY crazier than I was expecting. One scene (where we first meet Officer Wong) literally gave me a nightmare. Like, when I fully realized the implications of what was actually happening, it disturbed me more than anything I’ve read recently. It’s about Cora Zeng, who’s struggling to find her identity after the brutal death of her sister at the height of anti-Asian hate during COVID. She ...

Title/Author: Bat Eater: A Cora Zeng Mystery by Kylie Lee Baker Page Count: 304 Publisher: MIRA BOOKS Format: NetGalley/eBook Other Books I Enjoyed by This Author: First time reading Affiliate Link: https://bookshop.org/a/7576/9780778368458 Release Date: April 29th, 2025 General Genre: Horror, Suspense & Thriller, Crime Sub-Genre/Themes: Dark Comedy, Crime Scene Cleanup, COVID-19 Pandemic, Asian Hate, Serial Killer, Grief/Death of a Sister, Gory & Violent, Ghost/Paranormal, Chine...

There's a moment near the end of Bat Eater: A Cora Zeng Mystery where the main character stands on a New York City subway platform wearing two face masks. As Cora waits for her train, a man in a Yankees cap rushes past, sneers at her, and calls her a “sheep,” presumably for “masking up” in the post-vaccine era of the Covid-19 pandemic. For anyone who followed safety measures when the pandemic was at its peak, these interactions felt inevitable as a growing number of people began to see the virus...

ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley “Everyone wants Asian girls to look pretty. No one wants them to talk.” Before I type anything – please know that *Bat Eater: A Cora Zeng Mystery* is a dark story, and if you're Asian, it's going to be even more difficult to read. This book (and review) discusses hate crimes against Asian people during the peak of COVID here in the States. Please use caution going into this book and make sure you're in an okay headspace to read about that. I hope you...

Kylie Lee Baker's best work yet! I fear if I don't get my hands on a physical ARC of this, I'll die and come back as a hungry ghost. I don't even know what to write for this review; I'm still speechless days after reading. This was utter perfection. How do you describe perfection?This was EVERYTHING!I'm afraid so many of the 5-star reviewers before me have done such an amazing job detailing the merits and nuances of this book that anything I have to say will pale in comparison. Please go check ...

I usually avoid pandemic-themed novels like I avoid the plague *and* group chats with 47 unread messages, but *Bat Eater: A Cora Zeng Mystery* is the rare exception. Kylie Lee Baker uses that time as a lens to explore how fear metastasizes into bigotry, laying bare the ugliest parts of humanity that fester beneath the surface, waiting for a moment of collective vulnerability to erupt. As a brown girl born in Australia to South Asian immigrant parents, my lived experience isn’t quite the same as...

2025 Goodreads Choice Awards (Mai's Version) - Readers' Favorite Horror🏆🏆 2025 Goodreads Choice Awards | Finalists | Readers' Favorite Horror🏆 2025 Goodreads Choice Awards | Opening Round Nominees | Readers' Favorite HorrorHoly shit. What a ride.I notoriously don't like horror films because I'm a big baby who hides behind my hands, but leaves just enough space between my fingers to see, thus furthering the problem. This doesn't span formats. I enjoy the genre in books. Asian horror is particu...

Wow!!! What a read 🥹 Anna Jane, you were so right!I was hooked from the very beginning. Even though I knew this would happen to Delilah 😭, reading that scene still wasn’t easy at all.‼️ If anyone’s planning to read this, pleaseeee check the trigger warnings first! It has lots of heavy stuff and gore. ‼️I’m honestly so impressed by how Kylie Lee Baker portrayed everything 🥹🫶 This was not an easy read. There are some fun moments and jokes between friends, but overall it’s a really heavy story,...