Review: Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng

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A tough read but one I can recommend. I almost DNFed it but came to my senses and realized what the author was saying.

This Is the sort of horror I prefer, i.e. where horror is used to frame social, personal, and political issues. Ring Shout, of which I will post a review later also does this well.

This is the story of a half-white American born Chinese woman living in New York City during the covid pandemic and having to deal with the suspicion and hostility toward Asians as if they are responsible for and carriers of the “Chinese disease”. She witnesses the horrific murder of her sister on a NY subway platform by a masked man who utters the words “bat eater” before shoving her in front of a train.

Bat Eater is a layered horror story; the horrors take several forms. She is a crime scene cleaner dealing with the gross, messy aftermath of murders which would be a horror to most of us. She observes that Asian women have been all the victims lately and bats found around the crime scene. Is there a racially motivated serial killer at work in the city? The authorities don’t seem to pick up on it.

Horror takes another form in the month-long Hungry Ghost Festival which takes place during the course of the story. During the festival, rituals are performed to placate wrathful ghosts. This includes feeding the ravenously hungry ghosts. Here, a cultural celebration becomes an actual threat to Vera’s life and sanity. It is fascinating the way the author weaves this traditional, important cultural celebration into the story.

The bigger horror is what Cora faces in herself. She lives between worlds, Asian and white, and doesn’t fit into either. She’s desperately lonely, has no real friends, and is almost debilitatingly fearful. The author makes Cora’s pain, trauma, and fear real as she faces racial hatred toward Asians which a serial killer may be acting upon and the hungry ghosts.

It’s difficult to describe how Cora’s first person narrative pulled me into her state of mind and created real empathy for Cora.

Review: Ring Shout by P Djèlí Clark

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Ring Shout is horror mixed with magical realism and historical events. To me, it’s a perfect horror story: it uses horror to frame something bigger. It’s set in 1922 in Macon, Georgia and follows Black female monster hunters as they confront the evil and horror of racial hatred embodied in the KKK. They face the everyday racism of the Klan but fight what they call Ku Kluxes, demons from another dimension who feed off hatred.Only some people can see the demons for what they are. These demon Ku Kluxes were responsible for the Tulsa race massacre in 1921, a real event. In this world, D. W. Griffith’s 1915 film, the Birth of a Nation, carries a magic that expands its influence over the second rise of the KKK. In our world it was used as Klan propaganda.

Several things come together to make it a perfect horror:

The characters — the women in this story are fully realized, three dimensional characters with both strength and flaws. They show courage, heroism, self-sacrifice and strong bonds of friendship. There isn’t one I wouldn’t want to know.

Emotions — Ring Shout engenders heightened emotions as the women battle evil and face loss and defeat. There are others to affect the reader: the sensual atmosphere in a night club and the ecstatic power of music in the religious ring shout dance.

Language — the language used isn’t forced but a natural part of the characters. Spoken Gullah and Gullah culture are also used effectively.

Story — This isn’t a long book(192 pages) and I read it in one sitting but from the strong opening chapter through to the end it has a flowing narrative that pulled me into the story. The way it blends fact and fiction contributes significantly to the story.

Horror — There is intense visceral gore so beware but it is necessary to the story and well written

Clark is a terrific writer. If you can handle some gore I recommend this book for its story telling and the story it tells and the characters in the story.

Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant

 

Science fiction and horror

Seven years ago, a ship filming a mockumentary about mermaids over the Mariana Trench was found abandoned, with no sign of the crew. Horrific found footage shows the ship being attacked by creatures from the sea. The footage is generally written off as fake but some people believe it was real, among them Victoria Stewart, now a marine scientist, whose sister was on the previous expedition. Now the Imagine Network is sending a second ship to the area, not for entertainment, but a legitimate scientific expedition. This time the ship is armored and has armed security that includes a husband/wife team of lethal and remorseless bug game hunters. The ship arrives on station and the scientists find what they are looking for but these mermaids ain’t Ariel. Teeth, lots of teeth.

I read this 438 page book in one day, so yeah, it pulled me in hard. Besides being fast paced and thrilling with characters you’re invested in, the story is founded on hard science. The author avoids the pitfalls of the info dump while showing the reader how science is done. There are multiple POVs but the MFC specializes in interpreting sonar signals, i.e. she interprets signals returned from beneath the surface.

When the story cranks up it is a heart racing thriller but it’s the science that pulls it together. What is the biology that allows the “mermaids” to exist at the crushing depths in the Trench? What kind of society do they have? How do they communicate? The story also has fun with scientists’ egos and how graduate students are treated. The two big game hunters are blatant caricatures but that didn’t bother me, they are mostly fun to watch. I did think the ship security was pretty bad but I think that was deliberate since they were hired by an entertainment company. I would have been looking for combat veterans myself.

I recommend this if you want a solid, fast paced horror story, grounded in science, with scientists doing science stuff, and awash in a significant amount of splatter gore. It was a fun read for me.

The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica trans. by Sarah Moses

Bazterrica writes horror that can be enjoyed by fans of horror as well as readers who don’t think they like horror. The writing and themes are just that beautiful. Sarah Moses also translated Tender is the Flesh and she delivers a smooth, fluid translation.

The Sacred Sisterhood is a “religious” order in a world where ecological collapse has destroyed civilization. Within the walls of a former monastery, the sisters practice a debased faith that rejects the tenets of Christianity and dehumanizes the sisters . Most of the sisters fall among the group known as the Unworthy and are ruled with total life-and-death control by the Superior Sister who is more like the commandant of a concentration camp than a religious leader. There is only one male, He, never seen, and the "spiritual" leader.

The story is told in the form of illicit journal entries by an Unworthy. She shows the reader the depths to which an extreme religious cult can be taken. The Unworthy are so conditioned that they vie to be the one to devise horrible punishments for other sisters.

When a new and charismatic sister is accepted, the power dynamic within the Unworthy is upset. I imagine this society is like that of a prison where guards control the prisoners and the prisoners create their own hierarchy to give themselves some semblance of control of their lives. The brutalized pass that brutality on to the weaker.

The Unworthy is a story of survival in the face of brutal rituals and punishments in the name of faith that are more akin to torture than atoenment. It is especially chilling because the extreme conditioning  it shows is all too possible. 

This is a compelling, thought-provoking, and well written story that explores power using faith to exercise that power and strip away the humanity of those within that faith.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind translated by John E. Woods

 

Perfume was first published in 1986 and the Viking edition I read in 2001 so it’s been around for a while. 

To use 1984 Newspeak, it’s probably a doublepluscilantro book: love it or hate it. In parts Marmite if you're British. it is gross, distasteful, offensive, and horror. It also utterly fascinated me.

This is a historical crime novel set in the 1750s and ‘60s. It opens with a lyrical, even poetic description of the unbelievable stench that pervaded the cities at that time, specifically Paris, and the sources of the stench. My first reaction is that I’ll probably never look at a film set in this period in the same way again. Sure the actors and costumes are beautiful but imagine how they smelled back then.

Our protagonist, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, is born in a fish stall amid fish heads and guts and unaccountably survives the horrifying conditions of his early years. Orphans in a Dickens novel lived in luxury compared to Jean-Baptist.

Grenouille is notable for several reasons: first, as mentioned, he survives; second, he has a supernatural sense of smell and is able to catalog and instantly recall all the smells of the city; third, he has no scent of his own, something that makes people around him uneasy. His sense of smell is so acute that he can follow the faintest trace through the crowded city.

His obsession with scents leads him to the shop of a perfumer Giuseppe Baldini, whose glory days are behind him. Baldini sees a way to reclaim his status and employs Jean-Baptiste who quickly takes over the formulation of new scents. For his part, Jean-Baptiste is willing to put up with the trivial matter of concocting scents for the well-to-do as long as he can learn the techniques of the perfumer and pursue the ultimate scent.

After some years as an apprentice, Grenouille convinces Baldini to release him and he heads south to Grasse where they practice a technique to extract the essence of scents that Grenouille believes will enable him to achieve his goal.

Darker themes and horror have strong appeal for me and this well written story certainly satisfies that appeal.

Before I go, further let me bring up the aspect of the book that will most likely offend sensibilities: Grenouille finds that harvesting the essences of virginal young women is how he will develop the ultimate scent, one that would allow him to rule the world if he desired, and he becomes a serial killer. This is where I’d say the story slips into horror and horror has a tradition of exploiting women. As horror, I don’t think the story could have been constructed otherwise and as someone who enjoys well done horror, i.e not the splatter variety, I appreciate how the author carried it off.

Perfume is a translation from German and I think it’s beautifully done. I wouldn’t have known it wasn’t written in English. I'm not sure how to explain it but the words flow across the page even if they are disturbing words.

Süskind moves the plot along nicely and the scene setting, character development, and background information don’t bog down the flow of the narrative. For me, those elements enhance the story. Grenouille is shown as completely amoral and everything and everyone around him are but means for him to achieve his goals. He is not in the least sympathetic and his amoral nature is captured perfectly.

I was most fascinated by the author’s descriptions of the techniques for extracting essences and combining them to form an appealing scent. I don’t know how the techniques are applied today since they aren’t applicable to mass production but I was completely captivated by the process of recognizing, extracting, and layering of scents. This is probably my favorite part.

Perfume was made into a film and it is one of the best book-to-film adaptations I have seen. The screenwriters capture the essence (see what I did there) of the story including the rather amazing scenes at the end. I recommend reading the book first so you can see how expertly the words are translated to action.

Bunny by Mona Awad

After finishing Rouge I decided to reread Bunny and I’m glad I did because I’d forgotten much of it..

To summarize, Samatha (Sam) Mackey, a scholarship student at an elite, highly selective New England university, finds herself inexplicably drawn into the circle of the other 4 members of the all-female cohort of a MFA program in narrative arts. These are the self-named Bunnies who are everything Samatha is not and who she finds repelling, even hates. When they invite her to join them, she is unable to resist and her insecurities win out. She finds that the Bunnies are not only the mean girls clique she imagines but a cult and she finds herself taking part in some pretty disturbing rituals. As she becomes enmeshed in the cult she drifts away from her best friend Ava. Can she escape the Bunnies or will she lose herself?

Awad’s writing is stunning. razor sharp, flowing, witty, and funny. I was grabbed from the opening pages where Samatha and Ava are at the Narrative Arts Department’s welcome back Demitasse (nothing as low class as a party) observing, mocking, and scoffing at the Bunnies. Sam’s made up dialog of what the Bunnies are saying to each other is wonderfully snarky. As she falls under the influence of the Bunnies and some elements of horror appear, the writing becomes more hypnotic and trance-like as Sam’s sense of self starts to slip away. You also see this in Rouge. I wondered if the events were real or happening in Sam’s mind or made up by Sam. I think I know but to say more would be a spoiler...maybe..

Bunny satirizes girl-cliques and pretentious academia and is often very funny but it also looks at Sam’s need to belong even if it means becoming what she says she hates. Bunny doesn’t have the body horror of Rouge but there are a few ewww moments.

With Bunny and Rouge, Awad has become one of my favorite and always read authors. I’m looking forward to the sequel, We Love You, Bunny, which will be published September 2025. It’s told from the viewpoint of the Bunnies and I hope  answers some of my questions.

Rouge by Mona Awad

A large part of the book shows us how disturbingly cultish the beauty industry can be. It’s not a straightforward portrayal but surreal. Someone said it has a David Lynchian atmosphere and I agree.

The narrator Belle has been obsessed with much of her life. Now in the present she is addicted to Dr. Marva’s skin treatment videos. She returns to California after her mother dies from a fall from a cliff into the sea. She is barely hanging on as she tries to make sense of her mother’s and how she racked up so much debt. And what are all these red jars in her condo?

A woman in red is at the funeral and later Belle receives a mysterious video on her phone from ROUGE asking “Is grief affecting your skin barrier?”. The same woman from the funeral is in the video. Days later Belle is at her mother’s place and finds herself in one of her mothers dresses and wearing her mother’s red shoes.which seem to lead her along the cliffs to the gates of a huge manor, La Maison Meduse.

There she is apparently expected and welcomed as a special guest. Within the mansion is a tank passing below and through the upper floors in which jellyfish-like creatures swim. ROUGE promotes beauty treatments. Later Belle is offered a free treatment which makes her the target of envy among paying guests. Oddly, Belle is asked to select a jellyfish which is with her during the treatment. Afterwards, Belle's perceptions are confused, there are gaps in her memory, she mixes up words. But the treatments are giving her an unearthly beauty that stuns people.

After the treatments start, the story enters into David Lynch territory. The reader can’t help but be drawn into the dreamlike, surreal state along with Belle.

Lots of questions. What are the treatments and what is happening to her? Why is “her”jellyfish with her during the treatment? What was her mother’s connection with Rouge and why do the embrace her as her mother’s daughter? What is ROGUE's real goal and is it really to help you achieve your best self?

The ending is both stunning and imaginative and shows the true horror within La Maison Meduse. I loved and now need to read the author’s Bunny.

Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica, translation by Sarah Moses

 

First sentence: “Carcass, Cut in half. Stunner. Slaughter line. Spray wash.”

Tender is the Flesh is a horror story set in a world where an infectious virus has infected all animal meat  making the meat lethal to eat or even be around (supposedly). To adjust to this reality, the governments instituted the “Transition” which allows for the consumption of human flesh, euphemistically referred to as “special meat”. The meat industry has retooled itself to breed and slaughter human beings who are merely called “head”.

Marcos is a supervisor in a slaughtering facility who oversees the receiving of new head, processing, and making sure the breeders are delivering quality head. He is weary from dealing with family issues and tries to not think too much about what he does and maintain an emotional detachment. Then one of the breeders servicing his facility sends him a prime female head delivered to his remote home. Marcos begins to relate to the woman as a human being and treats her like one. This is forbidden and could result in Marcos himself being sent to slaughter.

This is my first book by Bazterrica and won’t be my last. She has a new book coming out in March 2025, also translated by Sarah Moses, which I have pre-ordered. Bazterrica and Moses are a good team. The prose is clean and sharp and flow allowing the reader to immerse themselves in the story.

There are two aspects to the horror within the book. The first is the treatment of humans like so many head of cattle and the acts of breeding, slaughtering, and packaging them. The second, and to me more horrible, is the way these acts are normalized, treated as an everyday part of life. I’m not exaggerating when I say that it was a “jam a knuckle in the mouth” reaction to the images brought forth by the matter of fact way the “special meat” industry is conducted. It is thought provoking and raises the question, could this become a reality in the face of climate change and threats to food supplies. I think of Tender is the Flesh as an extension of Soylent Green which I thought of as pretty horrible when the movie came out but this is much worse. Unfortunately I don’t now see it as a stretch to think consumers would quickly adjust.

The actual motivations and practicalities of institutionalized cannibalism are left to the reader's imagination.But could the governments really pull it off aren’t really important. Marcus himself has doubts that the virus really exists. He refuses, unlike everyone else, to carry an umbrella in case a bird should poop on them.

Tender is the Flesh is a well written work of horror that should repulse the reader that also makes the reader question if we could descend to this level. I loved it but would need to know someone well before recommending it to them.

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White

First let me say that this is a terrific title and it is one reason I picked up the book. If you decide to read it, keep in mind that there might be more than one spirit.

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth is set in 1883 in an alternative Victorian England. Decades before, the veil separating the spirit from the physical world thins and at the same time people are born with violet eyes. These people can lift the veil and see into and exploit the spirit world. In England at least, people with this ability are rigorously controlled through acts of parliament and the Royal Speaker Society. Anyone practicing spirit-work without being sanctioned could be executed or sent to an asylum. Women are not allowed to lift the veil, ostensibly because of their constitutions; they are subject to veil sickness. In reality, men realize the power that comes from being able to see beyond the veil and want it for themselves. Women born with violet eyes are relegated to the role of brood mare, to be married off to wealthy men in order to produce violet-eyed male babies.

In this misogynistic world we meet our protagonist, Gloria/Silas, a neurodiverse 16 year old born female who only wants two things: to live her life as a man and to become a surgeon. Her brother, George, is a surgeon and indulges Silas (as I will henceforth refer to him), in both her desires. Under George’s tutelage she develops an extensive knowledge of anatomy and surgery.

In an attempt to avoid marriage and her horror of pregnancy and being a mother, Silas attempts to join the Royal Speaker Society by pretending to be someone else. She is discovered to be female. She would likely have been executed for this crime but for the intervention of Lord Luckenbill, the president of the society, who wants her for his son, Edward.

To save her, Silas’ parents agree to Luckenbill’s suggestion to send Silas to Braxton's Finishing School and Sanatorium to be broken in spirit and turned into a good and subservient wife. Really, it’s the Victorian version of a conversion. This is where the story gets going. All is not as it seems at Braxton’s, girls disappear completely and are not heard from in the outside world again. Silas is determined to find out what happened to the missing girls.

I picked up this book after one of my favorite booktubers, Willow Talks Books, flashed the cover in her tier ranking of 267 books; it’s in her A tier. I loved the cover and title, but I didn't read much about the book before I checked it out. I was 103 pages in before I knew it, slowed down, and realized that it’s a YF book. I hadn’t noticed that in the description. I confess I might have let it go had I known. But a 100 pages had flown by and I was loving it. I have to say that YA has come a long way since I was a yute. I can’t imagine themes of transgenderism and body horror in books I read back then.

Something that struck me is that had it been aimed toward an older audience it would have been longer and developed in a more detailed manner. Instead it’s more “this is the way it is and let’s keep moving”. This isn’t a criticism and doesn’t take away from the book. White is a very talented writer whose words flow across the page.

I like White’s style of writing. I find it smooth and flowing. Like I said above, after starting the book I was 100 pages in before I came up for air. I also finished it in a day and that’s without skimming. I like the way the author writes Silas and how he generates empathy in the reader.as Silas deals with his neurodiversity and frustration at not being able to live his own life the way he wants, as a man and surgeon. Later in the book Silas finds an ally in another trans character, Daphne, a biological male desiring to live as a female. I’m an old, white, CIS guy but I felt that the author does a good job of conveying the deep needs of the two trans characters particularly within the moral strictures of Victorian England.

This book is horror and potential readers need to anticipate they will experience intense misogyny, psychological, emotional, sexual assault, revenge, and body horror. Trigger warnings apply. The author hits hard on the misogyny and how the patriarchy had no compunctions to declaring someone ill who flaunts societal standards. In the book this is called veil sickness which is treated by institutionalizing, brainwashing, and in extreme cases death. The stakes for survival are high for Silas and his ally, Daphne. This may be YF but the author doesn’t hold back. The reader is repulsed by the Victorian misogynistic treatment of women and lifted up by the resilience of the main character to meet the terrors they face.

I don’t know if the author intends this to be a standalone but I would really like to see more of these characters and this world.