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

Cora Zeng: Haunted Crime Scene Cleaner and Grieving Sister

Overview

Cora Zeng is the protagonist of Kylie Lee Baker's 2025 novel Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng. She is a 24-year-old art history graduate who, after being laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic, works as a crime scene cleaner in New York City. The story opens with the racist murder of her half-sister Delilah, an event that shatters Cora's already fragile sense of self. Over the course of the novel, Cora navigates severe grief, obsessive-compulsive disorder, germophobia, and the terrifying emergence of hungry ghosts—including Delilah's. Her journey moves from passive avoidance to active confrontation, both against the systemic racism that allowed her sister's killer to go free and against the supernatural forces haunting her.

Plot Role

Cora is the first-person narrator and central consciousness. Every event is filtered through her perceptions, which are often unreliable due to trauma, dissociation, and alcohol use. Her decisions drive the plot: her refusal to burn joss paper for Delilah triggers the ghost's appearances; her choice to follow Yifei and Harvey into the subway sets the trio on a path to uncover a serial-killer network; and her final act of leading hundreds of hungry ghosts to Gracie Mansion and setting it on fire is the novel's climactic act of rebellion. Cora's transformation from a victim who "isn't a person" into someone who reclaims the slur "bat eater" and acts for justice is the emotional spine of the story.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

Motivations:

  • Guilt and unresolved grief: Cora avoids discussing Delilah's death, throws away joss paper her aunt gives her, and refuses to visit the grave. This avoidance stems from the unbearable pain of loss and the feeling that she contributed to Delilah's death by failing to save her.
  • Fear of being institutionalized: Multiple times Cora resists seeking help or acknowledging the ghosts because she worries others will think she is insane. This fear drives her to suppress supernatural experiences until they become undeniable.
  • Desire for normalcy: She attempts to be "the kind of person who creates things" but fails, feeling like an echo of Delilah. She tries praying at church, socializing at restaurants, and pretending everything is fine.
  • Need for justice and closure: By the novel's end, Cora moves from passive acceptance to active confrontation, driven by the revelation that Delilah's murder was part of a broader pattern of anti-Asian violence and police cover-ups.

Traits shown through actions:

  • Obsessive-compulsive tendencies: Cora performs elaborate shower rituals, checks her fridge obsessively, and is terrified of contamination. She drinks alcohol to tolerate being near train tracks.
  • Self-destructive coping: She numbs herself with alcohol, refuses psychiatric help, and isolates herself from family.
  • Loyalty and protectiveness: Despite her fears, she defends Yifei and Harvey. She eventually takes in Yifei's belongings and builds an altar for her friends.
  • Growing courage: She jumps into the closed subway station, confronts a racist man by publicly reclaiming the slur, and lights a fire at the mayor's residence.

Chronological Arc

April–August 2020 (Chapters 1–3): Cora witnesses Delilah's murder. She starts working as a crime scene cleaner, where she sees multiple Asian women killed. She begins noticing bats in drains and vents, symbols of the racist blame associated with COVID.

August 2020 (Chapters 4–9): Cora's mental state deteriorates. She sees hungry ghosts, including a figure at the train tracks. She visits her aunt on Ghost Month but refuses to engage with death rituals. A brick is thrown through a restaurant window where she eats with friends, and a stranger spits on her.

Late August 2020 (Chapters 10–13): Delilah's ghost appears in Cora's apartment. Cora, Yifei, and Harvey break into the subway to find Delilah's skull. They discover a serial-killer network and decide to leak evidence.

Late August–early September 2020 (Chapters 14–20): Cora steals shredded case files from a police station. The trio attempts to pacify Delilah with a feast, which results in the deaths of Yifei's roommates. Harvey is killed in a dry-cleaning machine. Yifei dies in a car crash while fleeing.

Late September 2020 (Chapters 21–24): Cora, believing she is with Delilah, is tricked by an impostor ghost. With Auntie Zeng's help, she decrypts a USB revealing police cover-ups and a network of copycat killers. She leads hundreds of ghosts to Gracie Mansion and sets it on fire.

April 2021 (Chapter 25): Cora lives with Auntie Zeng, grieves her friends, gets her first vaccine dose, and builds an altar. In a final ritual, she offers an orange to a ghost and reclaims agency over fear.

Relationships

  • Delilah Zeng (half-sister): The defining relationship of Cora's life. Delilah was beautiful, confident, and made decisions for Cora. Her death leaves Cora feeling like "only an echo." Delilah's ghost guides Cora toward justice but also forces her to confront her avoidance. Cora's guilt is immense—she never burned joss paper or visited the grave.
  • Auntie Zeng: A source of spiritual wisdom and tough love. She gives Cora a jade bracelet, burns paper houses, and scolds Cora for hearing but not listening. Auntie Zeng is the one who reveals the impostor ghost and helps Cora survive Ghost Month.
  • Auntie Lois: Cora's Christian aunt who forces forgiveness and ignores the systemic racism. Cora feels abandoned by her aunt's "surface-level niceness."
  • Yifei Liu: A coworker born in China who adopts a fake English name. Yifei is pragmatic, angry, and proactive. She leaks evidence to a reporter. She admits she would let Cora die to save herself, yet she risks everything to help Cora. Her death in a car crash is a major loss.
  • Harvey Chen: A crime scene cleaner who uses video games to dissociate from his traumatic childhood (he was confined to a basement). He is loyal, childish, and deeply affected by his own ghost. His brutal death in a laundry machine shocks Cora and fuels her determination.

Key Decisions and Consequences

  1. Refusing to burn joss paper for Delilah: This decision causes Delilah's spirit to become a hungry ghost that haunts Cora. It also forces Cora to eventually confront her grief through supernatural means.
  2. Agreeing to break into the subway to find Delilah's skull: This decision deepens Cora's involvement with the supernatural and the serial-killer investigation. It leads to the discovery of Officer Wang's USB.
  3. Stealing the shredded evidence from the police station: Cora does this to uncover the truth about Delilah's murder and the broader cover-up. The USB reveals ten suspect profiles and evidence of police corruption.
  4. Choosing to lead the hungry ghosts to Gracie Mansion and set it on fire: This is Cora's ultimate act of defiance against systemic injustice. It results in public protests and exposes the mayor's complicity.
  5. Accepting Auntie Zeng's help and performing the final ritual with the orange: Cora moves from avoidance to acceptance, reclaiming agency over her fear and honoring the dead.

Theme and Symbol Connections

  • Anti-Asian Racism During the Pandemic: The slur "bat eater" recurs throughout the novel. Cora is constantly targeted: a man spits on her, a brick is thrown through a Chinatown restaurant window, and police deprioritize crimes against Asian women. Cora eventually reclaims the slur as a source of power. See the anti-Asian racism theme page.
  • Grief and Unresolved Trauma: Cora's refusal to mourn properly leads to supernatural consequences. Her elaborate shower rituals and drinking are coping mechanisms. The novel shows that unresolved grief can consume a person, both literally and figuratively. See grief and unresolved trauma.
  • Hungry Ghosts and Chinese Spiritual Traditions: The Ghost Month framework drives the plot. Auntie Zeng's beliefs about hungry ghosts, joss paper, and jade bracelets are contrasted with Cora's skepticism. The ghosts represent forgotten victims. See hungry ghosts and Chinese spiritual traditions.
  • Systemic Injustice and Police Cover-Up: Officer Wang's USB exposes how police and the mayor suppressed evidence of a serial killer targeting Asian women. Cora's arson is a desperate response to a system that refuses to protect her community. See systemic injustice and police cover-up.
  • Survival and Found Family: Despite losing Yifei and Harvey, Cora finds a new family with Auntie Zeng. The novel ends with Cora building an altar and eating half an orange with a ghost, showing that survival means making peace with the dead and the living. See survival and found family.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why does Cora refuse to burn joss paper for Delilah?
Cora's refusal stems from her unresolved grief and fear of fully acknowledging Delilah's death. She finds her aunt's rituals "pretend" and wants to avoid the pain of remembering. This avoidance directly causes Delilah to become a hungry ghost.

2. What is the significance of the jade bracelet Auntie Zeng gives Cora?
The bracelet is a protective talisman meant to ward off ghosts. It matches one Delilah wore, symbolizing the bond between the sisters. Later, Cora learns the bracelet says "hope" instead of "strength," highlighting how she misinterpreted its meaning and revealing the impostor ghost.

3. How does Cora change from the beginning to the end of the novel?
At the start, Cora is passive, self-destructive, and defined by Delilah. She drinks to numb pain, avoids her feelings, and feels like "no one." By the end, she publicly reclaims the slur "bat eater," leads an army of ghosts to burn down the mayor's residence, and learns to pray sincerely. She takes agency over her life and fear.

4. What is the role of the bats in Cora's story?
Bats appear repeatedly: in drains, vents, and as symbols of the racist "bat eater" slur. They also appear at crime scenes, including the murder of Yuxi He and the final serial killer scene. Bats represent how Asian people were blamed for the pandemic and how that blame led to violence. Cora's confrontation with bats mirrors her confrontation with racism.

5. Does Cora find justice for Delilah?
Justice is ambiguous. Cora's arson and the leaked evidence spark protests and expose the cover-up, but Delilah's specific killer is never captured. Cora's resolution comes through spiritual closure—she performs a ritual, offers an orange, and prays for the first time. The novel suggests that justice may be impossible within a corrupt system, but Cora's transformation and defiance are forms of empowerment.

For a full breakdown of the ending, see the ending explained. For more discussion on plot and themes, visit the questions and answers page.