Bat Eater by Kylie Lee Baker

Bat Eater by Kylie Lee Baker

From Sunday Times bestselling author Kylie Lee Baker comes a sharp and propulsive horror thriller, perfect for fans of Mexican Gothic and She is a Haunting.

'Gory' PAUL TREMBLAY

'Bat Eater will swoop in like a bat out of hell, swallow you whole and leave no crumbs' Alice Slater

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.

PRAISE FOR BAT EATER

'A profound reminder of the true horrors that lurk in the world'
Tori Bovalino, author of My Throat an Open Grave

'A serial killer mystery and a heartbreaking portrayal of grief'
Kirsty Logan, author of Things We Say in the Dark

'This book dug its claws into me and would not let go'
Ling Ling Huang, author of Natural Beauty

'Body horror and female rage fiction combine in a powerful novel that will leave you quaking'
Alma Katsu, author of The Fervor

'A poignant, searing portrait of the hostility and violence that plagued pandemic-era NYC'
Veronica G. Henry, bestselling author of The Canopy Keepers

'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

This is what it felt like to live in New York City during lockdown: haunted, absurd, terrifying, ridiculous, and full of hungry ghostsThis book shook me in all the best ways -- GRADY HENDRIX
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 * Publisher's Weekly *
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
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
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 *
Bat Eater 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
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
There's a lovely touch of humour 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. Bat Eater 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
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
Viscerally haunting. Bat Eater 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
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
A haunting social horror that focuses on anti-Asian hate and harassment * Library Journal *
Stylish, propulsive, occasionally shocking and fuelled 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
Fantastic... this astonishing work of speculative crime fiction blends mystery with horror, rage with grief, to memorable and moving effect * Irish Times *
I highly recommend this addictive and unsettling read if you're in the mood for horror * Cosmo *
Reading this novel is like having an extended panic attack . . . It's a vibrant, pulsatingly righteous response to the horrors around us, and it's masterfully done * SFX *
This is a gore-filled spectacle and extremely entertaining, yet the authenticity of grief and fear, culture and beliefs, hammer home. Bat Eater is an unforgettable wild ride of a tale, it truly deserves to fly * LoveReading *
Uniquely powerful * Crime Monthly *
Operating on the ragged edge of obsession, madness and rage, never has the phrase darkly compelling felt more appropriate * Daily Mail *
It's an energetic, grimy and spooky tale, powered by indignation * Financial Times *
Folk-horror meets crime thriller in a witty, gory, genre-defying novel that takes readers on an exploration of Chinese-American heritage while observing the racism rampant in New York during COVID-19 * House of Books & Friends Manchester *
If you only read one book this year - writers, booksellers and critics pick titles to entice * Guardian *

Kylie Lee Baker is the Sunday Times bestselling author of adult horror novels Bat Eater and Japanese Gothic, and YA novels The Keeper of Night duology and The Scarlet Alchemist duology. She grew up in Boston, but lived in Atlanta, Salamanca and Seoul before returning to Massachusetts. Her work is informed by her heritage (Chinese, Japanese 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 an MS in Library and Information Science from Simmons University. In her free time, she plays the cello, watches horror movies and bakes too many cookies.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781399729826
ISBN 10	1399729829
Title	Bat Eater
Author	Kylie Lee Baker
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Hodder & Stoughton
Year published	2025-01-07
Number of pages	304
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.