"Bat Eater is a compelling, gory, ghostly romp, and it's a righteous battle cry aimed into the racist heart of the pandemic hellscape. You won't be able to stop turning pages while rooting for Cora."
--Paul Tremblay, New York Times bestselling author of Horror Movie and The Cabin at the End of the World

"An adult debut that frightens to the bone, deftly illustrating trauma and paranoia in aching prose and with perfectly timed grim humor."
--Library Journal, starred review

"Kylie Lee Baker's blood-soaked, Chinese folklore-inspired adult debut deftly explores weighty themes of grief, mental illness, collective memory, and Sinophobia (particularly its rise during the COVID-19 pandemic), building as she does to a pulse-pounding finale that will linger long after readers have turned the final page. Essential reading from a new voice in horror."
--Booklist, starred review

"Baker successfully uses fear, both supernatural and human, to shine a spotlight on anti-Asian hate. Fans of creepy ghost stories and social horror will want to snap this up."
--Publishers Weekly

"I smashed through Bat Eater--shocking, visceral and haunted by more than ghosts: trauma, rage, grief, racism, crime scene clean-ups and COVID paranoia. Bat Eater will swoop in like a bat out of hell, swallow you whole and leave no crumbs."
--Alice Slater, Sunday Times bestselling author of Death of a Bookseller

"Bat Eater and Other Names For Cora Zeng possessed me from the first page and haunted me for long after the last. The visceral emotionality of Baker's writing and the specificity of New York through the Asian American experience makes for a powerful exploration of loneliness, community, and belonging in the face of hatred. Singular in every way, this book dug its claws into me and would not let go."
--Ling Ling Huang, author of Natural Beauty

"Unless you are Asian, you cannot know the terror and anger we felt during covid times--but Bat Eater will get you pretty close. Body horror and female rage fiction combine in a powerful novel that will leave you quaking. There has never been a hungry ghost like the one in Bat Eater."
--Alma Katsu, author of The Fervor

"There's a lovely touch of humor intricately woven throughout this otherwise brutal, tense, and daring story. I found myself totally enraptured with these characters, horrified at times and unable to pry my eyes away from the page. For some, there's such delight in the thrill of terror. If that's true for you, Kylie Lee Baker's exceptional book will carve a permanent grin into the face of even the most discriminating horror critic. Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng has everything I look for in a compelling horror novel--strangeness, sensitivity, and empathy. This is easily one of the most exciting and unique books I've read in years."
--Eric LaRocca, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke

"Bat Eater is a poignant, searing portrait of the hostility and violence that plagued pandemic-era NYC. This story of hungry ghosts demanding redemption is in a word...magnificent."
--Veronica G. Henry, bestselling author of The Canopy Keepers

"Viscerally haunting. Bat Eater & Other Names for Cora Zeng is a profound reminder of the true horrors that lurk in the world, the ones that cannot be dispelled by turning on a light or flipping the page."
--Tori Bovalino, author of My Throat an Open Grave

"WOW. Just wow. I am completely obsessed with this book. Bat Eater is a serial killer mystery and a heartbreaking portrayal of grief and a brutal depiction of a Chinese woman's experience during COVID and a genuinely terrifying ghost story, all at once. I loved every single page."
--Kirsty Logan, author of Things We Say in the Dark

"Stylish, propulsive, occasionally shocking, and fueled by a great big beating heart for its characters, Kylie Lee Baker's Bat Eater is a ghost story that exists in its own glorious phylum."
--Nick Cutter, bestselling author of The Troop and The Queen

"Hold on to your hat. Bat Eater is a wild ride from start to finish, an intense examination of the racism toward Chinese people (especially in the wake of COVID-19), and, quite possibly, one of the best horror novels of early 2025."
--Polygon

"In this subversive and darkly comical horror, Cora Zeng contends with her sister's death, hungry ghosts, a serial killer and anti-Asian hate--all during the pandemic. While it speaks to important topics such as systemic racism and police brutality, it also gives you all the gore you're looking for."
--Ms.