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

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng Quiz: 20 Questions to Test Your Knowledge

If you have finished reading Kylie Lee Baker's haunted novel set during the COVID-19 pandemic, use this 20-question quiz to review the main events, character motivations, symbols, and big ideas. The quiz mixes multiple-choice and short-answer formats. After you try the questions, check the answer key to see how you did.

For more help, see the full book summary, the questions and answers page, or the ending explained.

Quiz Questions

Plot / Sequence (8 questions)

  1. (Multiple choice) What event sets Cora’s story in motion?

    • a) She loses her job as an art history grad.
    • b) Her sister Delilah is pushed onto subway tracks and killed.
    • c) She moves to China with her father.
    • d) She catches COVID-19.

  2. (Multiple choice) Who is the first victim Cora cleans who has a bat in the drain?

    • a) Zihan Huang
    • b) Yuxi He
    • c) Ai Wu
    • d) Officer Wang

  3. (Short answer) In which chapter does Cora find Delilah’s hungry ghost eating her coffee table?

  4. (Multiple choice) What object does Cora use to feed the hungry ghost she initially mistakes for Delilah?

    • a) A dumpling
    • b) An orange
    • c) Joss paper
    • d) Rice

  5. (Multiple choice) What is the password on Officer Wang’s USB drive?

    • a) 123
    • b) 325
    • c) 911
    • d) 0420

  6. (Multiple choice) Where do Cora and Yifei find Harvey’s body?

    • a) In the subway tunnel
    • b) In a dry cleaning machine
    • c) In his apartment
    • d) In a crypt

  7. (Short answer) What does Cora do with the propane tanks she retrieves from the church crypt?

  8. (Multiple choice) Who dies in the car crash caused by a bat swarm?

    • a) Harvey
    • b) Delilah
    • c) Yifei
    • d) Auntie Zeng

Character Motivation (5 questions)

  1. (Multiple choice) Why does Delilah decide to move to China at the beginning of the novel?

    • a) To escape anti-Asian racism
    • b) To pursue a modeling career and live with their father
    • c) To help Cora with her cleaning job
    • d) To study Chinese opera

  2. (Short answer) Why does Yifei adopt a different name from a TV actress?

  3. (Multiple choice) What is Harvey’s motivation for using video games to dissociate?

    • a) He flunked out of college.
    • b) He was confined to a basement as a child.
    • c) He lost his family in a fire.
    • d) He suffers from a phobia of trains.

  4. (Multiple choice) Why does Auntie Lois insist on forgiving Delilah’s murderer?

    • a) She is a devout Christian who believes in forgiveness.
    • b) She doesn’t want to upset her church.
    • c) She fears retaliation from the killer.
    • d) She thinks Delilah deserved it.

  5. (Short answer) Why does Cora refuse to burn joss paper for Delilah initially?

Theme / Symbol (4 questions)

  1. (Multiple choice) What does the bat symbolize in the novel?

    • a) Hope and renewal
    • b) The COVID-19 pandemic and anti-Asian xenophobia
    • c) Family ties
    • d) The American Dream

  2. (Multiple choice) What does the jade bracelet represent?

    • a) Wealth and status
    • b) Protection and hope
    • c) A romantic gift
    • d) A reminder of Delilah’s murderer

  3. (Short answer) What concept does the repeated motif of “bat eater” represent?

  4. (Multiple choice) The act of cleaning crime scenes is symbolic of what for Cora?

    • a) Her desire for cleanliness and control
    • b) She uses it to process her own trauma by cleaning others’ messes
    • c) Her career ambition
    • d) Her love for Harvey

Synthesis (3 questions)

  1. (Multiple choice) How does Cora reclaim the term “bat eater” in Chapter Twenty-Four?

    • a) She writes a viral article.
    • b) She shouts it back at a white man who harassed her.
    • c) She gets it tattooed on her arm.
    • d) She uses it as a password.

  2. (Short answer) What is the significance of the number 325 in the novel?

  3. (Multiple choice) Which group does Cora lead to Gracie Mansion at the end of the book?

    • a) The police
    • b) Hungry ghosts of murdered Asian women
    • c) Her coworkers from the cleaning crew
    • d) Her aunts

Answer Key

  1. b – In April 2020, an unnamed man pushes Delilah onto the tracks at East Broadway station, killing her instantly (Chapter One).
  2. b – While cleaning the apartment of Dr. Yuxi He, Cora pulls a bat from the bathroom drain (Chapter Two).
  3. Chapter Nine – In Chapter Nine, Cora returns home and finds a gaunt ghost woman (actually Delilah’s hungry ghost) eating her coffee table.
  4. b – Cora offers the ghost an orange from her fridge, which it devours (Chapter Ten).
  5. b – Cora enters the password 325 after hearing a three-two-five knocking pattern; the USB contains evidence of a cover-up (Chapter Twenty-Two).
  6. b – Harvey’s face appears in the window of an industrial dry-cleaning drum filled with red water (Chapter Nineteen).
  7. She sets Gracie Mansion on fire – Cora leads the hungry ghosts to the mayor’s residence and starts a fire with the propane tanks (Chapter Twenty-Four).
  8. c – After the car crash, Cora finds Yifei dead (Chapter Twenty-One).
  9. b – Delilah announces she wants to be a model and live in China with their father (Chapter One).
  10. Because she was never given a name – Under China’s one-child policy, Yifei’s parents never named her, so she chose a name from a TV actress (Chapter Twenty).
  11. b – Harvey reveals he was confined to a basement as a child and used video games to cope (Chapter Five).
  12. a – Auntie Lois publicly forgives the murderer in church, reflecting her strict Christian beliefs (Chapter Four).
  13. She is avoiding grief / suppressing her trauma – Cora throws away the joss paper Auntie Zeng gives her because she refuses to confront Delilah’s death (Chapter Three).
  14. b – The bat is directly tied to the racist “bat eater” slur and the pandemic panic that fuels anti-Asian violence throughout the book.
  15. b – Auntie Zeng gives Cora a jade bracelet inscribed with the character for “hope” to protect her (Chapters Sixteen and Seventeen).
  16. A racist slur against Asian people – “Bat eater” is used by the attacker and others to dehumanize Chinese Americans, linking them to the pandemic’s origin.
  17. b – Cora’s job cleaning crime scenes mirrors her inability to clean up her own grief and trauma; she remains an “echo” until she finally confronts her loss.
  18. b – When a white man calls her a “bat eater,” Cora shouts it back at him, reclaiming the word and asserting her power (Chapter Twenty-Four).
  19. It is the password to Officer Wang’s USB – The number 325 appears as a knocking pattern in Cora’s dreams and unlocks files that expose a serial killer cover-up.
  20. b – Cora walks through the subway tunnel followed by hundreds of hungry ghosts—the murdered Asian women from the photos—and leads them to Gracie Mansion (Chapter Twenty-Four).