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Pet
275 pages
A fierce, tender fable about the courage it takes to hunt the monsters hiding in plain sight within a supposed utopia.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like stepping into a sunlit room where the shadows are just a little too sharp. It wraps you in a deeply tender, affirming atmosphere—a utopian world where trans youth are loved and community care is the norm—before slowly introducing a creeping, visceral dread. The prose is lyrical and sensory, painting a world of vivid colors and tactile warmth that makes the sudden intrusion of hidden darkness all the more chilling. It is a steady, atmospheric read that asks heavy, unflinching questions about complicity and the danger of believing a society has been cured of evil. This is a perfect match for readers who crave fierce, compassionate speculative fiction that trusts its audience to face ugly truths with a hopeful, unyielding heart.
- Mood
- tender
- unsettling
- surreal
- shadowed
- Tone
- earnest
- urgent
- compassionate
- unflinching
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- the danger of denial · community responsibility · trans joy and acceptance · confronting hidden darkness · protecting the vulnerable
- The writing
- Lyrical, sensory, and deceptively simple, weaving poetic imagery with direct, striking truths.
- The arc
- Moves from a place of sheltered, utopian warmth into a chilling confrontation with hidden darkness, ultimately arriving at a fierce, protective empowerment.
- Who it's for
- Readers who appreciate deeply empathetic, socially conscious speculative fiction that trusts young people to grapple with complex moral questions.
Content notes
- child abuse (implied)
- gaslighting
- blood
- violence
About the book
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.
Description from Open Library.
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