Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng

YA author Baker (The Scarlet Alchemist) puts a supernatural twist on the early days of Covid in her searing adult debut. Cora Zeng is an underemployed art history major-turned New York City crime scene cleaner, eking out a living scrubbing bodies off the walls. In early 2020, she’s disconcerted to notice an uptick in murdered Asian women. Cora, who is mixed-race, does not believe in either Asian ghost stories or Western religion and always does what her aunties tell her to do—otherwise they might place her back in the psychiatric unit. Then her half sister, Delilah, is murdered in a hate crime, and Cora thinks she sees Delilah’s ghost in their shared apartment. As the Hungry Ghost Festival approaches, she starts seeing more and more restless spirits. She confesses these visions to her fellow cleaners, Harvey and Yifei, who help her hatch a plan to hold a feast for the ghosts, even as people around them are picked off one by one. Baker successfully uses fear, both supernatural and human, to shine a spotlight on anti-Asian hate. Fans of creepy ghost stories and social horror will want to snap this up. Agent: Mary C. Moore, Kimberley Cameron & Assoc. (Jan.)