In Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng, Kylie Lee Baker drops us into a world thick with ghosts — literal and figurative — a haunted, pandemic-stricken New York where racism, trauma, and erasure permeate nearly every corner. Cora Zeng is a woman stranded between two worlds — her White and Chinese heritage, her doubts and her desires — battling not only her own paranoia and survivor’s guilt, but the oppressive structures that view her, and people like her, as expendable.

Baker’s writing is raw, intimate, and cinematic, a rich blend of gothic ghost story, thriller, and psychological character study. The style drops you directly into Cora’s mind — into her doubts, her loneliness, her struggles to connect — while tying her internal chaos to a communal experience of racism and xenophobia. There’s something profoundly intimate about seeing this through Cora’s eyes; we feel her fear of contamination, her shame about not fitting in, her disbelief in traditions — until those traditions become the key to honoring the people she’s lost.

The novel wrestles powerfully with the lingering effects of racial trauma and the literal ghosts it leaves in its wake. Cora finds herself battling not just a racist killer, but a system that dehumanises her and her community. Death, disease, and hungry ghosts become rich symbolism for communal pain — a legacy that must be addressed in order for healing to happen. Cora’s story underscores the necessity of honoring those we lose, and of making peace with the ghosts we carry forward.

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng is a piercing exploration of alienation, survivor’s guilt, and the power of communal care — a gothic thriller that feels as intimate as a confession. It’s a book for those who have felt erased, misunderstood, or stranded between worlds, and a vivid affirmation that honoring our ancestors is a form of resistance.

📖 Read this if you love: gothic ghost stories, intimate and eerie character studies, and speculative fiction that wrestles with racism, survivor’s guilt, and community trauma.

🔑 Key Themes: Alienation and Grief, Diaspora and Cultural Heritage, Racism and Violence, Hungry Ghosts and Ancestral Connection, Healing through Confrontation.