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A review by immakingt0ast
Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng: A Novel by Kylie Lee Baker
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Thank you to Netgalley for the advance review copy, in exchange for an honest review.
There's a lot of interesting stuff here. First, the premise. We follow Cora, a Chinese American, and a few of her Chinese American friends in New York during the height of COVID, where they are working as crime scene cleaners. They are noticing that they have been cleaning up a LOT of murdered Asian women... and then they start finding bats at the crime scenes. Oh, and they start seeing ghosts of the murdered women.
I really appreciate what the author was trying to do here. Telling the stories of Asians during COVID who are dealing with all the hate and violence directed at them during that time is SO important and quite frankly I would really like to see more of it. There is also some really cool cultural information shared over the course of the novel and I always love to that.
That being said, as much as I loved the premise, I'm not 100% sure I loved the execution. Cora isn't really that interesting of a character (though I did love Aoife and Harvey). But my biggest gripe was that I really didn't love how the mystery unfolded. The whole book is a slow burn, and the ending feels a little rushed and not very satisfying. That could have been an intentional choice of the author (the character mentions this specifically) so this is probably just me wishing everything could be wrapped up in nice bows. But still, even a vague ending can be a good one and the last 10% just felt rushed for me.
Overall 3.5 stars rounded up and I'd like more Asian ownvoices covid stories please
There's a lot of interesting stuff here. First, the premise. We follow Cora, a Chinese American, and a few of her Chinese American friends in New York during the height of COVID, where they are working as crime scene cleaners. They are noticing that they have been cleaning up a LOT of murdered Asian women... and then they start finding bats at the crime scenes. Oh, and they start seeing ghosts of the murdered women.
I really appreciate what the author was trying to do here. Telling the stories of Asians during COVID who are dealing with all the hate and violence directed at them during that time is SO important and quite frankly I would really like to see more of it. There is also some really cool cultural information shared over the course of the novel and I always love to that.
That being said, as much as I loved the premise, I'm not 100% sure I loved the execution. Cora isn't really that interesting of a character (though I did love Aoife and Harvey). But my biggest gripe was that I really didn't love how the mystery unfolded. The whole book is a slow burn, and the ending feels a little rushed and not very satisfying. That could have been an intentional choice of the author (the character mentions this specifically) so this is probably just me wishing everything could be wrapped up in nice bows. But still, even a vague ending can be a good one and the last 10% just felt rushed for me.
Overall 3.5 stars rounded up and I'd like more Asian ownvoices covid stories please