Haunting Horror Mini-Reviews Pt. I: Bat Eater by Kylie Lee Baker & We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer

 Since Halloween is just a day away, I though I'd share some thoughts on some of my most recent horror reviews. Although I'd usually share my favorite reads for last and to share on Halloween, I liked these two books too much to wait, so I'm sharing them first!

Bat Eater by Kylie Lee Baker

MIRA(US)/Hodder & Stoughton(UK)
Publication: April 29th, 2025

Hardcover. 304 pages.

About Bat Eater:

"In this explosive horror novel, a woman is haunted by inner trauma, hungry ghosts, and a serial killer as she confronts the brutal violence experienced by East Asians during the pandemic.

Cora Zeng is a crime scene cleaner, washing away the remains of brutal murders and suicides in Chinatown. But none of that seems so terrible when she’s already witnessed the most horrific thing possible: her sister, Delilah, being pushed in front of a train.

Before fleeing the scene, the murderer shouted two words: bat eater.

So the bloody messes don’t really bother Cora—she’s more bothered by the germs on the subway railing, the bare hands of a stranger, the hidden viruses in every corner, and the bite marks on her coffee table. Of course, ever since Delilah was killed in front of her, Cora can’t be sure what's real and what’s in her head.

She pushes away all feelings and ignores the advice of her aunt to prepare for the Hungry Ghost Festival, when the gates of hell open. But she can't ignore the dread in her stomach as she keeps finding bat carcasses at crime scenes, or the scary fact that all her recent cleanups have been the bodies of East Asian women.

As Cora will soon learn, you can’t just ignore hungry ghosts."

Bat Eater completely exceeded my expectations. I had heard pretty much nothing but good things about it, but it hit so much harder than I thought it would and is one that has really stuck with me.

This story takes place during the peak of COVID (so if you don’t want to read about COVID times, I’d steer clear) and touches on a lot of social issues that sparked during that time and still retain effects today. There are two threads of plots running through this one, and while I don’t think they were exactly given equal weight--or simply could’ve used more development in some ways--I think they did what they needed to for this story and I don’t have too many complaints about how Baker handled them.  There are supernatural and folklore elements at play that hit the horror note hard and created some really spooky scenes, as well as an abundance of real-life horror that I’d argue hit harder and was much, much worse than anything else imagined.

Kylie Lee Baker touches on themes of racism, Asian-hate, the isolation of the pandemic, identity, trauma, and more, and it all feels like an incredible gut punch. I was incredibly impressed by how the author managed to tell an entertaining horror story while also maintaining an incredibly thoughtful approach to such difficult topics. There is also some focus on our protagonist's own mental health issues that I found just as vivid as the other topics discussed, and felt disturbingly authentic. 

Bat Eater is also extremely graphic, visceral, and raw in its depictions of gore and especially our protagonist’s experience as a crime scene cleaner (as you might expect). This book is definitely not for the squeamish, and I found myself wanting to look away a few times from the mental images it created, as Baker really excels in her vivid, detailed descriptions. If you’re ready for some heavy themes, graphic descriptions of violence and gore, and a thoughtful, hard-hitting story, then Bat Eater should be next on your TBR.

**Note: I read the Illumicrate edition of this book and since I love the cover for it so much, it's the one I've posted here. The US and UK editions have alternate standard covers, and are published under different titles--Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng and Bat Eater, respectively. 

We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer

Atria/Emily Bestler Books
Publication: June 18th, 2024

Hardcover. 312 pages.

About We Used to Live Here:

"As a young, queer couple who flip houses, Charlie and Eve can’t believe the killer deal they’ve just gotten on an old house in a picturesque neighborhood. As they’re working in the house one day, there’s a knock on the door. A man stands there with his family, claiming to have lived there years before and asking if it would be alright if he showed his kids around. People pleaser to a fault, Eve lets them in.

As soon as the strangers enter their home, inexplicable things start happening, including the family’s youngest child going missing and a ghostly presence materializing in the basement. Even more weird, the family can’t seem to take the hint that their visit should be over. And when Charlie suddenly vanishes, Eve slowly loses her grip on reality. Something is terribly wrong with the house and with the visiting family—or is Eve just imagining things?

This unputdownable and spine-tingling novel “is like quicksand: the further you delve into its pages, the more immobilized you become by a spiral of terror. We Used to Live Here will haunt you even after you have finished it” (Agustina Bazterrica, author of Tender Is the Flesh)"

I’ve been wanting to read this book for a really long time, and my desire to read this only continued to grow as I heard more and more people’s reviews for it saying how weird it is and polarizing and so many keywords that made me feel so strongly that I was going to love this one. And ya’ll--it was exactly what I was hoping for!

The structure of this story is on the slower side with a sort of creeping unnerving feeling that slowly permeates and then it absolutely leans a bit more into the ‘weirder’ territory rather than straightforward haunted house-like tropes, and it’s everything I love. It reminded me a bit of Benson and Moorhead films like The Endless, and I think fans of their work might be more inclined to appreciate this book as well. There’s some slow burn, some oddness, and lots of lingering unease with occasional bursts of surprise.

This isn’t really a story that’s going to hold your hand and explain everything, but honestly I never expect horror to do that, personally, so it wasn’t something that really bothered me. The ending also seems like one that could be a bit polarizing, but I personally thought it was the perfect way to end this story. If you like your horror to be a bit unexpected and every so slightly mind-bendy, then you should definitely pick this one up.

 

Can't-Wait Wednesday: The Place Where They Buried Your Heart by Christina Henry, Aphrodite by Phoenicia Rogerson, & Outlaw Planet by M.R. Carey

        

 Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released! 

The Place Where They Buried Your Heart by Christina Henry
Publication: November 4th, 2025
Berkley
Hardcover. 320 pages.
Pre-order: Bookshop.org | Amazon

From Goodreads:
"A woman must confront the evil that has been terrorizing her street since she was a child in this gripping haunted house novel from the national bestselling author of The House That Horror Built and Good Girls Don’t Die.

On an otherwise ordinary street in Chicago, there is a house. An abandoned house where, once upon a time, terrible things happened. The children who live on this block are told by their parents to stay away from that house. But of course, children don’t listen. Children think it’s fun to be scared, to dare each other to go inside.

Jessie Campanelli did what many older sisters do and dared her little brother Paul. But unlike all the other kids who went inside that abandoned house, Paul didn’t return. His two friends, Jake and Richie, said that the house ate Paul. Of course adults didn’t believe that. Adults never believe what kids say. They thought someone kidnapped Paul, or otherwise hurt him. They thought Paul had disappeared in a way that was ordinary, explainable.

The disappearance of her little brother broke Jessie’s family apart in ways that would never be repaired. Jessie grew up, had a child of her own, kept living on the same street where the house that ate her brother sat, crouched and waiting. And darkness seemed to spread out from that house, a darkness that was alive—alive and hungry."

In all honestly, some aspects of this premise feel a bit... 'been there, done that,' but Christine Henry is a fantastic author and I feel like in her hands, this story will be anything but that and I can't wait to check it out!

Aphrodite by Phoenicia Rogerson
Publication: November 11th, 2025
Hanover Square Press
Hardcover. 480 pages.
Pre-order: Bookshop.org | Amazon

From Goodreads:
"From the award-winning author of Herc, an enrapturing feminist tale that brilliantly reimagines the story of Aphrodite and how she transformed herself from a lowly outsider to the darling goddess of love, for readers of Madeline Miller and Jennifer Saint.

Aphrodite saw the gods on Mount Olympus and decided she wanted a piece of what they had. Only problem is, she’s not a goddess, just a lowly being who's supposed to remain in a distant cave, keeping the threads of Fate woven neatly. But Aphrodite’s never let anyone tell her what to do…

Weaving herself a web of lies and careful deceptions, she convinces everyone she’s the goddess of love and that her rightful place is among the Olympians, who lord it over everyone else at the top of the world, but under the stifling rule of Zeus. For the first time, she has the best of everything, as well as friends, peers, even loved ones. Only, being a goddess isn’t quite like she thought. Those who oppose Zeus tend to disappear, or worse. And one day, Aphrodite decides she’s had enough…"

This is my obligatory 'here's another Greek myth retelling' head's up--and although part of me is tired of them, as usual, the Classics part of me can't get enough. 

Outlaw Planet by M.R. Carey
Publication: November 18th, 2025
Orbit
Paperback. 464 pages.
Pre-order: Bookshop.org | Amazon

From Goodreads:
"Sometimes the fate of entire worlds can be decided by a woman with nothing to lose, and the smartest gun in the multiverse in her hand . . .

This is the story of Bess - or Dog-Bitch Bess as she came to be known. It's the story of the gun she carried, whose name was Wakeful Slim. It's the story of the dead man who carried that gun before her and left a piece of himself inside it. And it's the tale of how she turned from teacher, to renegade, and ultimately to hero.

This is also the tale of the last violent engagements in an inter-dimensional war - one of the most brutal the multiverse had ever seen.

This is how Bess learned the truth about her world. Came to it the hard way, through pain and loss and the reckless spilling of blood, and carried it with her like a brand on her soul. And once she knew it - knew for sure how badly she'd been used - she had no option but to do something about it. From one of genre fiction's most original and revolutionary voices comes a space opera adventure like no other. Vengeance always comes with a price . . ."

M.R. Carey is a little bit of a wild card these days for me, but I'm definitely curious enough about this premise to want to check this one out.

Can't-Wait Wednesday: The Villa, Once Beloved by Victor Manibo & The Breath of the Gods by Simon Winchester

       

 Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released! 

The Villa, Once Beloved by Victor Manibo
Publication: November 25th, 2025
Erewhon Books
Hardcover. 352 pages.
Pre-order: Bookshop.org | Amazon

From Goodreads:
"Some legacies are best left buried…

Villa Sepulveda is a storied relic of the Philippines’ past: a Spanish colonial manor, its moldering stonework filled with centuries-old heirlooms, nestled in a remote coconut plantation. When their patriarch dies mysteriously, his far-flung family returns to their ancestral home. Filipino-American student Adrian Sepulveda invites his college girlfriend, Sophie, a transracial adoptee who knows little about her own Filipino heritage, to the funeral of a man who was entwined with the history of the country itself.

Sophie soon learns that there is more to the Sepulvedas than a grand tradition of political and entrepreneurial success. Adrian’s relatives clash viciously amid grief, confusion, and questions about the family curse that their matriarch refuses to answer. When a landslide traps them all in the villa, secrets begin to emerge, revealing sins both intimately personal and unthinkably public.

Sifting through fact, folklore, and fiction, Sophie finds herself at the center of a reckoning. Did a mythical demon really kill Adrian’s grandfather? How complicit are the Sepulvedas in the country’s oppressive history? As a series of ill omens befall the villa, Sophie must decide whom to trust—and whom to flee—before the family’s true legacy comes to take its revenge . . ."

I love this setting and this premise and I've been meaning to check out Victor Manibo's work, so this sounds like a great place to start!

The Breath of the Gods: The History and Future of the Wind by Simon Winchester
Publication: November 18th, 2025
Harper
Hardcover. 416 pages.
Pre-order: Bookshop.org | Amazon

From Goodreads:
"New York Times bestselling author Simon Winchester returns with a thought-provoking history of the wind, written in his edifying and entertaining style.

What is going on with our atmosphere? The headlines are filled with news of devastating hurricanes, murderous tornadoes, and cataclysmic fires affecting large swaths of America. Gale force advisories are issued on a regular basis by the National Weather Service.

In 2023, a report was released by atmospheric scientists at the University of Northern Illinois, warning that winds—the force at the center of all these dangerous natural events—are expected to steadily increase in the years ahead, strengthening in power, speed, and frequency.

While this prediction worried the insurance industry, governmental leaders, scientists, and conscientious citizens, one particular segment of society received it with unbridled enthusiasm. To the energy industry, rising wind strength and speeds as an unalloyed boon for humankind—a vital source of clean and “safe” power.

Between these two poles—wind as a malevolent force, and wind as savior of our planet—lies a world of fascination, history, literature, science, poetry, and engineering which Simon Winchester explores with the curiosity and vigor that are the hallmarks of his bestselling works. In The Breath of the Gods, he explains how wind plays a part in our everyday lives, from airplane or car travel to the “natural disasters” that are becoming more frequent and regular.

The Breath of the Gods is an urgently-needed portrait across time of that unseen force—unseen but not unfelt—that respects no national borders and no vessel or structure in its path. Wind, the movement of the air, is seen by so many as a heavenly creation and generally a thing of essential goodness. But when it flexes its invisible muscles, all should take care and be very afraid."

Simon Winchester has a way of taking some really mundane-sounding topics and making them ridiculously interesting and compelling, so I have no doubt he can make a book about the wind and its impacts a fascinating one. 

Review: Girl Dinner by Olivie Blake

Girl Dinner by Olivie Blake

Tor Books
Publication Date: October 21st, 2025
Hardcover. 349 pages.

About Girl Dinner:

"Good girls deserve a treat. 

Every member of The House, the most exclusive sorority on campus, and all its alumni, are beautiful, high-achieving, and universally respected.

After a freshman year she would rather forget, sophomore Nina Kaur knows being one of the chosen few accepted into The House is the first step in her path to the brightest possible future. Once she's taken into their fold, the House will surely ease her fears of failure and protect her from those who see a young woman on her own as easy prey.

Meanwhile, adjunct professor Dr. Sloane Hartley is struggling to return to work after accepting a demotion to support her partner's new position at the cutthroat University. After 18 months at home with her newborn daughter, Sloane's clothes don’t fit right, her girl-dad husband isn’t as present as he thinks he is, and even the few hours a day she's apart from her child fill her psyche with paralyzing ennui. When invited to be The House’s academic liaison, Sloane enviously drinks in the way the alumnae seem to have it all, achieving a level of collective perfection that Sloane so desperately craves.

As Nina and Sloane each get drawn deeper into the arcane rituals of the sisterhood, they learn that living well comes with bloody costs. And when they are finally invited to the table, they will have to decide just how much they can stomach in the name of solidarity and power."

Olivie Blake is one of those authors whose books always seem like something I might like, but end up not quite working for me (The Atlas Six in particular left me quite disappointed when I read it a number of years ago). Her writing style has never quite worked for me, but when I saw the premise for Girl Dinner I was so intrigued and had really high hopes that after all this time, maybe this would be the book to make me finally like Olivia Blake’s work. Unfortunately, this optimism did not work out for me and I think I can safely and officially say that Olivia Blake’s work simply isn’t for me.

We follow Nina, new sorority member hopeful, and Dr. Sloane Hartley, a new mom and adjunct professor, as they each deal with their own issues relating to womanhood and adapting to new lifestyles. Both characters brought a lot of depth to the story and were well-developed, but weren't overly captivating. I did enjoy seeing how they leaned into their new roles and how certain revelations affected their choices down the line, as well as how their roles intertwined in various ways.

Girl Dinner really has an intriguing concept and a premise with a lot of potential, but the story itself felt slow and ultimately disappointingly anticlimactic.  I kept waiting for something more intense, more unsettling, or truly unexpected to happen, but it never really did. There wasn’t enough momentum building in the first half to make me want to really keep reading, and then by the halfway point I was starting to feel like it was a slog. It’s not until near the end that things get marginally more exciting, and even then it felt lacking.

Blake has a very distinct prose style, and for me it is just far too convoluted and wordy. Her sentences often feel bloated and overfilled with unnecessary words and descriptors. I’m not opposed to authors who take liberties with ‘purple prose,’ but this writing just didn’t flow and caused more disruptions than anything else. I often found myself re-reading lines because they just felt awkward or extended. I don’t mean for this to sound too harsh, but it often comes across as faux intellectualism, which could be okay if it was purposeful to the story, but as it shows up in most of her work, I’m pretty sure it’s just her writing at this point and not on purpose.

I think Blake does a lot of interesting things in this book and talks about some really relevant and compelling topics. For instance, feminine rage, traditional roles and ‘tradwives’ vs. those who rebel against that, feminine values, how women are policed, etc. are all prominent topics, and I think she explores these with a lot of depth. However… in some ways, I think she rambled on about this a bit too much without having as much actual… happenings. It’s a little hard for me to explain in some ways, but I just feel like there was so much talk from our characters about, for instance, motherhood and how much she feels like a horrible mother, or how she worries about fitting in with the sorority and all the issues around that, and somehow this book just ended up feeling so boring and so slow. If I recount everything that actually happened in this book, I don’t understand how it was as long as it was.

Lastly, Girl Dinner is pitched as horror, so I was expecting more, well, horror--especially given the cannibalism themes. Cannibalism is generally a frightening and disturbing concept to most people, but unfortunately the general concept of cannibalism alone doesn’t make something a good horror story. I think this feels more like fiction with a slightly dark twist, which isn’t a bad thing, but it was not quite what I expected, and therefore it felt like a disappointment.

Overall, Girl Dinner has moments of intrigue here and there and shows a lot of potential, so I can see where some readers might really enjoy it, especially if they already like Olivia Blake’s writing. Unfortunately for me, it was too slow, overwritten, and not all that compelling, so it didn’t quite work for me. I still think I like the idea of it more than the actual reading experience. I’d recommend this to those who already enjoy Blake’s writing, but if you are someone on the fence about her, I’m not sure Girl Dinner is going to be enough to convince you.

*I received a copy of Girl Dinner courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This has no effect on my rating.*

Buy the book: Bookshop.org | Amazon

Mini-Review: Midnight Timetable: A Novel in Ghost Stories by Bora Chung, transl. Anton Hur

Midnight Timetable: A Novel in Ghost Stories by Bora Chung, transl. Anton Hur

Algonquin Books
Publication Date: September 30th, 2025
Paperback. 208 pages.

About Midnight Timetable:

"From the author and translator of the National Book Award finalist and Booker Prize shortlisted Cursed Bunny, comes a new novel-in-ghost-stories, set in a mysterious research center that houses cursed objects, where those who open the wrong door might find it’s disappeared behind them, or that the echoing footsteps they’re running from are their own…

The acclaimed Korean horror and sci-fi writer’s goosebump-inducing new book follows an employee on the night shift at the Institute. They soon learn why some employees don't last long at the center. The handkerchief in Room 302 once belonged to the late mother of two sons, whose rivalry imbues the handkerchief with undue power and unravels those around it. The cursed sneaker down the hall is stolen by a live-streaming, ghost-chasing employee, who later finds he can’t escape its tread. A cat in Room 206 reveals the crimes of its former family, trying to understand its own path to the Institute’s halls.

But Chung's haunted institute isn't just a chilling place to play. As in her astounding collections Cursed Bunny and Your Utopia, these violent allegories take on the horrors of animal testing, conversion therapy, domestic abuse, and late-stage capitalism. Equal parts bone-chilling, wryly funny, and deeply political, Midnight Timetable is a masterful work of literary horror from one of our time's greatest imaginations."

Bora Chung never fails to deliver the weird and unpredictable, and Midnight Timetable is no exception. I read Bora Chung's Cursed Bunny a while ago and had been to get to her collection Your Utopia, but then Midnight Timetable showed up at my door and I knew I had to check this one out as soon as I could.

 Unlike her previous collections, Midnight Timetable is a series of interconnected ghost stories set within a mysterious institute, a setting which suits Chung's eerie, layered storytelling perfectly. These stories are all generally tied together by our narrator, a new night watchman, as he learns all about his new job and how to correctly--and safely--make his nightly rounds checking doors and encountering (or rather, trying not to encounter) unexplained things.

What I liked: Each story has its own sense of being quietly unsettling, and I think Chung did a great job of maintaining a subtly haunting atmosphere across each story in different ways. I liked a lot of these stories, but I think Tunnel is one that stands out most to me. I love how Chung's writing feels deceptively simple in a way, yet is actually deeply complex and is filled with so many different ideas, thoughts, and themes. Even when meanings feel more elusive or uncertain, the general hauntingly contemplative quality of these stories lingers even after finishing. I particularly enjoyed getting to find out some of what was actually going on behind those doors, and even things going on elsewhere within the institution, though I equally appreciated that there was still much mystery leftover for readers to sit with. This is, overall, a very thoughtful collection, and one I am really glad I had a chance to read. 

What I didn't like: I don't have too much to say here as I think this was a really solid set of stories. I'd say there were a few moments here and there where I found myself feeling a bit confused and had to re-read some passages, but I'm not sure if this is more to do with the stories themselves or the translation, so I can't say for sure on that. As with most collections, I found some stories stronger than others and there were one or two that I didn't particularly connect with, but overall it's a solidly haunting collection that I'd absolutely recommend. 

*I received a copy of Midnight Timetable in exchange for an honest review. This has no effect on my rating.*

Buy the book: Bookshop.org | Amazon

Can't-Wait Wednesday: Snake-Eater by T. Kingfisher & Slow Gods by Claire North

      

 Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released! 

Snake-Eater by T. Kingfisher
Publication: November 11th, 2025
Titan Books (UK)/47North (US)
Hardcover. 208 pages.
Pre-order: Bookshop.org | Amazon

From Goodreads:
"In an isolated desert town, a young woman seeking a fresh start is confronted by ancient gods, malevolent supernatural forces, and eccentric neighbours. A witty horror-tinged fantasy, perfect for fans of Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Chuck Tingle, and Rachel Harrison.

When Selena travels to the remote desert town of Quartz Creek in search of her estranged Aunt Amelia, she is desperate and short of options. Fleeing an unhappy marriage, she has exactly twenty-seven dollars to her name, and her only friend in the world is her dog, Copper.

On arrival, Selena learns Amelia is dead. But the inhabitants of Quartz Creek are only too happy to have a new resident. Out of money and ideas, Selena sees no harm staying in her aunt's lovely house for a few weeks, tending to her garden and enjoying the strange, desolate beauty of the desert. The people are odd, but friendly, and eager to help Selena settle into her new home.

But Quartz Creek's inhabitants share their town with others, old gods and spirits whose claim to the land long predates their human neighbours. Selena finds herself pursued by disturbing apparitions, visitations that come in the night and seem to want something from her.

Aunt Amelia owed a debt. Now her god has come to collect."

I'm always ready for more horror from T. Kingfisher. :) (Also, quite note: at the time I made this post, I somehow was not aware that I had mixed up the US/UK covers/dates/etc.--UK is out November 11th, but the US has a release date of December 1st! Apologies for the mix-up! My affiliate links will take you to US sites)

Slow Gods by Claire North
Publication: November 18th, 2025
Orbit
Paperback. 448 pages.
Pre-order: Bookshop.org | Amazon

From Goodreads:
"My name is Mawukana na-Vdnaze, and I am a very poor copy of myself.

Slow Gods is the galaxy-spanning tale ​of one man's impossible life charted against the fate of humanity amongst the stars—a powerfully imaginative space opera from multi-award-winning author Claire North.

In telling my story, there are certain things I should perhaps lie about. I should make myself a hero. Pretend I was not used by strangers and gods, did not leave people behind.

Here is one out there in deep space, in the pilot's chair, I died. And then, I was reborn. I became something not quite human, something that could speak to the infinite dark. And I vowed to become the scourge of the world that wronged me.

This is the story of the supernova event that burned planets and felled civilizations. This is also the story of the many lives I've lived since I died for the first time.

Are you listening?"

Claire North is a little hit or miss, but I'm always down to try her work.