Bat Eater is exactly my type of horror sub genre!! Explores scary things like supernatural, things that go bump in the night, but also the horror of racism, violence against women, and contamination OCD during the start of COVID. The story also did a great job depicting grief and insecurity.

Some amazing quotes that hit me hard and made me love the characters even more. They’re well developed and I loved Harvey, Cora, and Yifei! The plot itself had me on the edge of my seat, equal parts disgusted (both at the gore and hate crimes) and tense with fear.

I also loved the exploration of Chinese beliefs that tied into the horror aspect! It was fascinating and I’d love to read more books with those elements.

Even though it’s set in august it’s perfect for Autumn! Could occasionally be telling over showing-but I loved the storyline, world building, and characters so much that it wasn’t enough to make me want to rate it lower.

This novel paired with the authors note makes me want to read everything Lee Baker has ever written!!

DNF at 198 pages

I’ve enjoyed a couple of Lynn’s books in the past but this one failed to hook me like the others. I tried for nearly half the book but never felt fully engaged. The pacing is painfully slow and the writing was flat. There were moments that were repetitive or contradictory so unfortunately it’s a DNF. I love Greek myth retellings but this one didn’t hit the mark for me.

Thank you NetGalley and sourcebooks landmark for the eARC.

I loved learning about the brujx’s, Dia de Muertos, and the story of Xibalba and Bahlam! All of it was fascinating and the descriptions for Dia de Muertos were so atmospheric.

I also found the characters to be well written for the most part. I loved them and thought the conversations around Transness and Yadriel’s family trying their best to be heartfelt and realistic! I also found Maritza’s and Yadriel’s friendship fun, their humor had me smiling and laughing (even though Maritza is a ninja turtles hater I’m willing to forgive her).

There were a lot of things that fell flat though and make me have a lot of mixed feelings for the novel as a whole. First, the writing makes it very obvious it’s a debut (no shade some debuts are amazing but this read more like a first draft). There were so many things repeated within a few paragraphs of each other, even using the exact same wording sentences later. By the end I was getting annoyed like “YES WE KNOW YOU JUST SAID THAT?!”

I felt like the romance was unnecessary. Listen they were cute but it took over the entire plot which only made the revelations about the mystery/twist underwhelming because it was more of an afterthought to the romance in the second half. It felt like the novel was trying to do too much and as a result none of it worked particularly well for me.

Adding onto my last point, the villain and that whole plot line was incredibly predictable! You see it coming from a mile away so by the time it was revealed it wasn’t exciting and the story lacked tension for the most part because you knew exactly what was going to happen 😭

Lastly, the pacing was a little all over the place. It was going great and had some tense moments but then it slowed way down in the middle before briefly picking up again, only to have the climax and resolution be rushed?! It had me thinking “oh so that was it?” because I was so underwhelmed and just wanted to be finished reading it. Until the last 5 chapters it was a four star read 😶

Overall it had so much potential and while I enjoyed the first half it slowly started to lose me by the second half. I’m not sure yet if I’ll read book 2 but I absolutely want to read more about Dia de Muertos and the folklore around Xibalba/Bahlma!

TW/CW: death, death of parent, misgendering, grief, deportation, car accident, abandonment, child abuse, racism

This had me intrigued from the start; you know what’s happening immediately for the initial start and think "well what’s left then if it’s so straightforward" with nearly 300 pages left? But oh boy is there a lot more to this story! The twists and revelations as we get to know the characters more, with secrets coming to light to show us that that’s more to the story than meets the eye.

Such a complex story with complicated characters that you both sympathize with but also hate 😂 I can see why one of my mutuals, Xanthi, recommended it to me after I had finished (and enjoyed) The Hole by Hye-Young Pyun!

The last 10 pages had me speed reading with my jaw on the floor; highly recommend if you want a slow burn mystery set in Korea with unlikeable characters whose secrets will have you reeling!