This unsettling adult debut from Kylie Lee Baker follows a biracial crime scene cleaner who’s haunted by both her inner trauma and hungry ghosts as she’s entangled in a series of murders in New York City’s Chinatown. Parasite meets The Only Good Indians in this sharp novel that explores harsh social edges through the lens of the horror genre.

Cora Zeng is a crime scene cleaner in New York City’s Chinatown, washing away the remains of brutal murders and suicides. But none of that seems so terrible when she’s already witnessed the most horrific thing possible: in the early months of 2020, her sister Delilah was pushed in front of a train as Cora stood next to her. Before fleeing the scene, the murderer whispered two words: bat eater.

So the bloody messes don’t really bother Cora—she’s more bothered by the possible germs on the subway railing, the bare hands of a stranger, the hidden viruses in every corner. And by the strange spots in her eyes and that food keeps going missing in her apartment. Of course, ever since Delilah was killed in front of her, Cora can’t be sure what anxiety is real and what’s in her head. She can barely keep herself together as it is.

She pushes away all feelings, ignoring the bite marks that appear on her coffee table, ignoring the advice of her aunt to burn joss paper and other paper replicas of items to send to the dead and to prepare for the Hungry Ghost Festival, when the gates of hell open. Ignores the dread in her stomach as she and her weird coworkers keep finding bat carcasses at their crime scene cleanups. Ignores the scary fact that all their recent cleanups have been the bodies of Asian women.

But as Cora will soon learn, you can’t just ignore hungry ghosts.

Read the first chapter here!

Kylie Lee Baker is the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Keeper of Night duology, The Scarlet Alchemist duology, and the forthcoming adult horror Bat Eater. She grew up in Boston and has since lived in Atlanta, Salamanca, and Seoul. Her writing is informed by her heritage (Japanese, Chinese, and 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 a master of library and information science degree from Simmons University.

Social Links:

Author Website: https://www.kylieleebaker.com/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kylieleebaker/ 

X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/KylieYamashiro 

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20095503.Kylie_Lee_Baker 

Where to buy
HarperCollins: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/bat-eater-and-other-names-for-cora-zeng-kylie-lee-baker?variant=42432011436066  

BookShop.org: https://bookshop.org/a/397/9780778368458

Barnes & Noble: http://aps.harpercollins.com/hc?isbn=9780778368458&retailer=barnesandnoble   

Amazon: https://www.amazon.ca/s?k=9781335041791&tag=hcg-02-20