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This unsettling adult debut from Kylie Lee Baker follows a biracial crime scene cleaner whos haunted by both her inner trauma and hungry ghosts as she’s entangled in a series of murders in New York City’s Chinatown.

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 shes 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 dont really bother Corashes 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 cant be sure what’s real and whats 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 cant just ignore hungry ghosts.

For fans of Stephen Graham Jones and Gretchen Felker-Martin,Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zengis a wildly original, darkly humorous, and subversive contemporary novel from a striking new voice in horror.