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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Sep 2019, 208 pages
Paperback:
Jan 2021, 208 pages
Book Reviewed by:
Catherine M Andronik
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The highly-anticipated, genre-defying new novel by award-winning author Akwaeke Emezi that explores themes of identity and justice. Pet is here to hunt a monster. Are you brave enough to look?
There are no monsters anymore, or so the children in the city of Lucille are taught. Jam and her best friend, Redemption, have grown up with this lesson all their life. But when Jam meets Pet, a creature made of horns and colors and claws, who emerges from one of her mother's paintings and a drop of Jam's blood, she must reconsider what she's been told. Pet has come to hunt a monster, and the shadow of something grim lurks in Redemption's house. Jam must fight not only to protect her best friend, but also to uncover the truth, and the answer to the question--How do you save the world from monsters if no one will admit they exist?
Acclaimed novelist Akwaeke Emezi makes their riveting and timely young adult debut with a book that asks difficult questions about what choices you can make when the society around you is in denial. Refinery29 proclaims, "The word hype was invented to describe books like this."
Chapter 1
There shouldn't be any monsters left in Lucille.
The city used to have them, of course—what city didn't? They used to be everywhere, thick in the air and offices, in the streets and in people's own homes. They used to be the police and teachers and judges and even the mayor; yeah, the mayor used to be a monster. Lucille has a different mayor now. This mayor is an angel; the last couple of mayors have all been angels. Not like a from-heaven, not-quite-real type of angel but a from-behind-and-inside-and-in-front-of-the-revolution, therefore-very-real type of angel.
It was the angels who took apart the prisons and the police; who held councils prosecuting the former officers who'd shot children and murdered people, sentencing them to restitution and rehabilitation. Many people thought it wasn't enough; but the angels were only human, and it's hard to build a new world without ...
The moral and ethical questions addressed by this allegorical novel are relevant today, and approached via a story accessible to young people. Beyond Pet's mission to right a moral wrong, there are also strong and positive elements of diversity. Jam herself is transgender, and her transition process is overwhelmingly accepted by family and the community...continued
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(Reviewed by Catherine M Andronik).
In Pet, Jam is fascinated by angels. Through her mother, an artist, she is aware that monsters do not necessarily look scary, and angels can be visually mistaken for monsters, especially when they are of the avenging variety. Her friend Ube the librarian helps her find books full of artwork depicting angels. Jam is surprised to see that many of these angels appear anything but benevolent, and some are downright frightening. While author Akwaeke Emezi does not identify the exact paintings Jam studies, the descriptions point to a few likely pieces.
One of the pictures Jam describes features an angel whose wings are covered with unblinking eyes. The Cathedral of Notre Dame in Chartres, France, dates back to the 13th century, and many of its...
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