Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng

Kylie Lee Baker

#1897 of 8,085 books · #150 in Horror

Won the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel (2025).

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng was a New York Times 100 Notable Books for 2025, a Goodreads Choice Award Finalist for Horror, a USA TODAY Best Books of 2025, a Library Journal Best Books of 2025, a Spotify Best Horror Books of 2025, a Kobo Best Horror Books of 2025, a Book Riot Best Books of 2025, a Los Angeles Public Library Best Fiction of 2025, and a Google Play Best Horror Novel of 2025. In this explosive horror novel, a woman is haunted by inner trauma, hungry ghosts, and a serial killer as she confronts the brutal violence experienced by East Asians during the pandemic. Cora Zeng is a crime scene cleaner, washing away the remains of brutal murders and suicides in Chinatown. But none of that seems so terrible when she's already witnessed the most horrific thing possible: her sister, Delilah, being pushed in front of a train. Before fleeing the scene, the murderer shouted two words: bat eater. So the bloody messes don't really bother Cora—she's more bothered by the germs on the subway railing, the bare hands of a stranger, the hidden viruses in every corner, and the bite marks on her coffee table. Of course, ever since Delilah was killed in front of her, Cora can't be sure what's real and what's in her head. She pushes away all feelings and ignores the advice of her aunt to prepare for the Hungry Ghost Festival, when the gates of hell open. But she can't ignore the dread in her stomach as she keeps finding bat carcasses at crime scenes, or the scary fact that all her recent cleanups have been the bodies of East Asian women. As Cora will soon learn, you can't just ignore hungry ghosts.