Book Review: "Bat Eater" by Kylie Lee Baker

This book has been quite literally everywhere. I've seen it on Amazon, on social media and even in real life. I've wanted to read it for a while but obviously, had to wait for it to become a price I could afford. Finally, it came down to something reasonable and I got it on my Kindle. Not able to sleep, I stayed up to read this book and honestly it was hilarious, underlined with deep social commentary and I think I saw a lot of myself in the young Cora at the beginning of the book. I would highly recommend everyone who wants a huge ride through the pandemic in a whole different way to read this book. It is fantastic.

Cora and her sister, Delilah, are waiting for a train in New York to take them home on a rainy day. Cora notices the train coming and someone grab Delilah's hand. He pushes her in front of the train which decapitates her. The writer's focus on gore and the disgusting nature of the crime is intense and bordering on over-the-top. I enjoyed that the writer was making it look darkly comedic rather than horrifying. I liked the writer's choice of wording because she can make it both really upsetting and darkly comedic at the same time and this is honestly a real talent.

Cora is a fantastic character - a woman who like me, is running on empty and her mental health is in the gutter. She has no dreams, no prospects and has no emotion towards her own life. As someone who often feels the exact same way, Cora at the beginning of the text really pulled me in. She's interested in finding out what happened to her sister as well, unable to detach herself from the situation. She feels too much and therefore, wants to feel absolutely nothing. By the end of one of the earlier chapters, she chugs a drink even though she doesn't really feel like it in order to quell her mental and emotional pain.

"None of them can help her because she can't tell them the truth. Whenever anyone gets a glimpse of what Cora's mind is truly like, they always have one hand hovering above the panic butting, ready to send her away, make her someone else's liability. No one wants to help her untangle her mind; they want her to disappear."

During the rising violence against Chinese people during the pandemic, Cora remains cautious due to her heritage. However, she still remembers how that man who grabbed her sister's hand to pull her on to the train tracks called her: Bat Eater. Her work involved drawing chalk outlines around the dead and she notices that there are an increasing number of Chinese women being killed lately. Thinking that this may be linking back to that unknown man who killed her sister, she tries to get on the trail without putting herself into danger. But, she might have to step into danger's way if she really wants to find out what's going on here.

She doesn't listen to her aunt's claims that a spirit that isn't fed turns into an entity called a 'hungry ghost' and, with that predictability - Cora starts to see things that she cannot explain. Things start to happen and things get more gory. In the afterword, the writer states that the first chapter is the scariest in her opinion because Cora and Delilah have no idea what is coming. But in my opinion the scariest chapter is where Cora's friend is talking to her about her fear of death and does that long, terrifying and really upsetting speech about not wanting to die but also not caring about life. It is so resonant with many people who have passive (s__) ideation. They don't want to live, but they also don't want to die. It's really deep and adds to the gore and social commentary.

All in all, this book really did have it all. It had moments of dark comedy, a protagonist you could really attach yourself to, horror and gore, and even a good and deep social commentary. I would recommend this book to absolutely everyone, it has to be one of the best books of the year.