csmall73 's review for:

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker

3.0

dark funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Bat Eater 

 

Entering into this tale of horror you smack face first into the horrific death of Dehlila. Much like how she is cut short. A misleading intro. Excellently executed. 

 

This definitely expanded my knowledge of racial slurs. Stuff I’d heard in passing but never realized what it was. Unsettling. Bat eater for example. Absolutely in love with the dark humor throughout this book. Spot on, makes you laugh then shudder internally, “oh that was dark.” Cora is stuck in a bizarre state of trauma. Her sisters gruesome death and subsequent job has her essentially reliving it as well as an awful glimpse of her own death as the cadavers of conveniently Asian (doubt Chinese only) are coming up in her work AO as a crime scene cleaner. 

 

I don’t know how to feel about the ghost. Unsettling to say the least. Well executed but unsettling to read and envision. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Pandemic/Epidemic