Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng

 

Stars: 5, not for its ability to be used in the classroom, which is why I give 5 stars, but more because it reawakened my teen obsession with horror novels. 

My Thoughts:

Non-white ghost stories are MUCH scarier. There, I said it. Sorry, not sorry. I am not being reverse racist. I am speaking from experience. The obake stories I grew up with in Hawaiʻi, like the faceless woman in the bathroom of the old Kahala drive in theatre, or the other long haired faceless women in kimono in the black and white movies at the Japanese theatre in Chinatown.  .  . horrifying. Then there are the forests and coastlines of Hawaiʻi where as young children we are warned to ignore the voice calling your name. Do not turn around. Even the rocks that do not want to be moved. Try moving it with your heavy equipment. Your tractor breaks, or you move it and it goes back home. 

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng is that kind of asian horrifying. Put the lights on. Leave the lights on. Look for hands crawling out of the shadows. Don't feed the ghosts. They will come back. 

This story takes place in COVID New York where someone is killing Asians and ripping bats up near them or calling them bat eaters and shoving them into trains so that their faces explode onto the tracks. Things that white people do are scary enough, but that is just the inhumane part of living in a racist society.

What is absolutely terrifying are the ghosts that will not settle and cannot leave. When I was a young girl, I would visit my grandparents on another island and I would bring these flowers for the grave. We called them obake anthuriums and they are only found on Hawaiʻi island. Once my grandfather told me that I don't have to bring as many because someone steals them from the grave. I told him that whoever is stealing the flowers will get "batchi." It is a Japanese term for bad luck and negative karma. He told me something that makes sense when thinking about this book. He said batchi only happens when you believe in it. So why are the ghosts not haunting this killer that takes pictures of the victims with the bats and posts it on some hate sight? Why do the hungry ghosts not haunt the people who comment on these pictures and say that these victims deserve it because of the "China virus"? Why do they only come to Cora? Because, like my grandfather said, she believes in it.  I guess I believe too because I could not read this at night. Too many shadows. Not enough light. 

If your students like this, give them:

Man Made Monsters by Andrea Rogers

She is a Haunting by Trang Than Tran

and Tran's new book on my TBR list They Bloom at Night

What all of these horror stories have in common, including this one, is that from the lens of a non-white author, the horror is not just about monsters, but about monsters that walk in the light. Meaning, these are novels about social injustice, colonisation, racism, and all the things that haunt this society.

From the Publisher:

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.

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

Publication Information:

Author: Kylie Lee Baker

Publisher: MIRA (April 29, 2025)

Hardcover: 304 pages

Fake Date and Mooncakes

 

My Thoughts:

If you have been paying attention to my reading over the years, there are book tropes that I will always fall for, whether I like the cover, know the artist or even like the title. My go to tropes when I want to forget about whatever deadlines I have looming is: fake date romance (any - hetero, gay, multi ethnic, mono ethnic - love is love) AND rom coms with FOOD involved. If the characters are Asian American, Native American, Pacific  Islander, or even not American at all, better yet. I find the generational cultural clashes more interesting.  

Fake Date and Mooncakes fits into all my categories for the perfect recipe for cuddling up and reading. What makes it different is that it has a rich/poor trope in the vein of Crazy Rich Asians where the economic difference for Theo Sommers' family is more egregious than Theo being gay.  Dylan Tang, the other main character and fake date material is so lovable and his values are so solid that it is hard to understand Theo's families worries. Dylan is easy to root for and if he just walks away, I would still cheer for him. 

As for the food part, Dylan has lost his mom and is living with his aunt. He is trying to keep their restaurant open and sees a local Mooncake contest as an opportunity to help his aunt keep her restaurant open. After delivering food and getting a horrible review from someone that seems like Theo's boyfriend, Dylan doesn't think twice about Theo despite the little spark. But Theo comes to the restaurant the next day to apologize and Dylan snags him with xiao long bao. Now that is a great reason to fake date someone. "You had me at xiao long bao." In addition, once Dylan decides to enter the mooncake contest, he chooses a  mooncake his grandmother made. The recipe is one he and his mother were going to make together, but when she dies, the recipe is gone and he needs to recreate it. This is just one example of how Ms. Lee weaves in real emotion and heart to a rom com that could have stayed light and funny. Be prepared to cry.

If your readers like this, try: 

• Café Con Lychee by Emery Lee
• Salt and Sugar by Rebecca Carvalho
• Fires on High by Elizabeth Acevedo
• A Phò Love Story by Loan Le
• An Appetite for Miracles by Laekan Zea Kemp

From the Publisher:

Dylan Tang wants to win a Mid-Autumn Festival mooncake-making competition for teen chefs—in memory of his mom, and to bring much-needed publicity to his aunt’s struggling Chinese takeout in Brooklyn.

Enter Theo Somers: charming, wealthy, with a smile that makes Dylan’s stomach do backflips. AKA a distraction. Their worlds are sun-and-moon apart, but Theo keeps showing up. He even convinces Dylan to be his fake date at a family wedding in the Hamptons.

In Theo’s glittering world of pomp, privilege, and crazy rich drama, their romance is supposed to be just pretend . . . but Dylan finds himself falling for Theo. For real. Then Theo’s relatives reveal their true colors—but with the mooncake contest looming, Dylan can’t risk being sidetracked by rich-people problems.

Can Dylan save his family’s business and follow his heart—or will he fail to do both?

Publisher Information:

Author: Sher Lee

Publisher: Underlined (May 16, 2023)

Paperback length: 272 pages

Grades 7-9

When You Wish Upon a Lantern

 

My Thoughts:

This is listed as a YA romance, but I think it can also work in middle level since the romance scenes are mild. When Liya loses her beloved grandmother and finds out that her family's lantern store is struggling, she is determined to resume the secret wish fulfillment activities that she and her grandmother once did to bring the community together and save her family's store. 

Her parents seem to not care about the store so Liya needs to put away her shame over the embarassing incident that broke her friendship with Kai. Despite the feud between Kai and Liyaʻs fathers, Kai has always been Liya's best friend. Besides that, Liya's grandmother loved Kai. 

The two teens set out on a great wish fulfilling adventure in their community and along the way, they start to fulfill their own secret wishes. Cute, cute, cute! The pacing captures the reader and only forced sleep will stop reading this devour-worthy book in one take. 

I really enjoyed this glimpse of Chinese culture through both the different types of wish lanterns, moon cakes and the different cultural festivals that bring the community together. The fact that Liya and Kai are both interested in helping the elders of their community find love was so cute. Chao's characters are good kids who deserve all the love.

From the Publisher:

Liya and Kai had been best friends since they were little kids, but all that changed when a humiliating incident sparked The Biggest Misunderstanding of All Time—and they haven’t spoken since.

Then Liya discovers her family's wishing lantern store is struggling, and she decides to resume a tradition she had with her beloved late grandmother: secretly fulfilling the wishes people write on the lanterns they send into the sky. It may boost sales and save the store, but she can't do it alone . . . and Kai is the only one who cares enough to help.

While working on their covert missions, Liya and Kai rekindle their friendship—and maybe more. But when their feuding families and changing futures threaten to tear them apart again, can they find a way to make their own wishes come true?

Publication descriptions:

Author: Gloria Chao

Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers (2/14/2023)