I admired but didn’t love Bat Eater by Kylie Lee Baker, and that’s more on me than the book.
As with all my reviews, I’ll be objective about the writing technicalities, and specify where I feel something is valid but not to my taste. My final rating will be an average of my objective score and my personal opinion.
There are no spoilers in this review.
So what is it?
short_synopsis
A crime scene cleaner being haunted by ghosts notices a pattern in the murder scenes she cleans and fears she may be next.
plot
The synopsis may make it sound like the murder plot is the main thread, but for about 80% of the book, it’s a subplot to the main character’s run-ins with ghosts, and one spook in particular.
From the start, and for longer than I’d expected, there’s no real goal for our main character beyond living day to day. As the ghost becomes more of a problem, she’s cajoled into taking action.
All the while, the signs accumulate that there’s a racially-motivated serial killer on the loose. It isn’t until late in the story that the decision is made to do something about them, and only when the main character’s railroaded into that position.
Both hesitations makes sense for the main character, but left the story feeling slightly aimless (but not dull) until the thrills kicked in later.
The finale was satisfying without being saccharine, and hit the book’s big themes hard.
people
The story’s lead, Cora, is obsessively compulsive about cleanliness. It’s not just a minor quirk, it’s a major part of her character, and with the story being set during the early COVID lockdown, her constant fear of being infected, and her efforts to prevent it, create an atmosphere of dread that never lets up.
She doesn’t feel like she belongs anywhere, in part due to the strong racism currents running throughout this tale which hit hard and often without being overbearing or preachy.
In what is a relatively small cast, there are two other characters that stand out: Cora’s colleagues. As a trio, they are all clearly individuals, well-rounded, and not caricatures. With Cora being too passive to drive any story forward, she needs the other two to push her, and their reasons for involving themselves are believable.
place
The choice to set this during COVID times is very clever, especially when combined with Cora’s OCD and the racism/white supremacy of the murders – together they permeate everything and give a very strong and consistent atmosphere.
It’s a very “interior” story, focussed inwards at our characters. Comments on the wider world come mostly through character interactions, without much discussion of the general public, until the end when the hammer drops hard.
prose
From the first page, the writing is rich and evocative. The words have clearly been chosen carefully to set a consistent tone, and they match the subject matter perfectly.
The descriptive passages are well-written and nicely balanced, and whilst there’s some gross pictures painted with her words, they were never gruesome enough to cause me to skip.
Some of the banter between Cora and her colleagues was amusing and welcome amongst the otherwise dark goings on.
conclusion
This is a very well structured and put together artwork. The different pillars of plot, people, place and prose all work together and feed off each other, and the whole time I was reading it, I was impressed by how well done it was. From a technical standpoint, I’d give it five stars.
But something about it didn’t click with me. It may be because I’m not a big horror fan and I have very little interest in the paranormal.
Because I didn’t love it, I can’t give it a full five stars, but it was close and I did agonise over it, so I reserve the right to amend my score after further reflection.
My score: 4 out of 5
A list of the book reviews posted to my blog is here.
Arrowmaker Books 