Akwaeke Emezi makes their young adult debut with Pet on the inaugural Make Me a World list. A 2018 National Book Foundation "5 Under 35" honoree, their adult debut, Freshwater, continues to receive critical acclaim, following rave reviews from the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New Yorker, and the Los Angeles Times, among others. Their sophomore adult novel, The Death of Vivek Oji, is forthcoming in 2020 from Riverhead Books. Born in Umuahia and raised in Aba, Nigeria, Akwaeke currently resides in liminal spaces. You can find them online at akwaeke.com. You can find more of my reviews of books on TIME's Top 100 YA Books of All Time list here.
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 Jem 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?
Pet is a book with such grabbing concept: what if your mom's painting came to life and completely wrecked the world around you? Jam lives in a utopia, who she has always been accepted for who she is, and felt safe surrounded by her family and friends. But one day, this creature emerges out of her mom's painting (after some sacrificial blood, of course) and tells her that there's a monster in her midst—and not just her midst, but in her best friend's house. Jam's journey to uncover what monster lurks in her monster-free world is full of beautiful language and a timeless story of good triumphing over evil. But it also goes into the weeds about how evil can disguise itself very well, and how so many things can slip through the cracks, despite the best of intentions. Pet is chockfull of timeless themes, and will make it a powerful read no matter who reads it when.
What I adored about Pet was the language. There were some beautiful phrases and paragraphs, and I loved the metaphoric/allegorical set-up to the world. I felt that it made Pet accessible to younger audiences, while also appealing to older audiences, who could read a bit deeper into it. While I was reading, I had the thought that this book would be perfect in classrooms for that exact reason. I have a feeling that because of the way the book straddles different age groups, it couldn't get as dark as it could have (this coming from someone who has read some truly dark things), but I believe the horror is perfectly written for young adult audiences. I felt that the audience was taken entirely into account in the writing, which is a powerful thing to feel while reading. That, on top of the masterful command of language, made for a great reading experience. Some of Emezi's sentences and messages were so moving, I sent screenshots to my friends (something I hardly do). I think no matter how old you are, you could read this and find an element of it to be moved by.
The one thing I wanted more of was world building. I felt that the concept was unique in its simplicity. The utopia of Lucille, the downfall of monsters at the hands of angels, the revolution were all interesting nuggets that allow Jam to live the way she does. I personally wanted to know a bit more of the history of the world, and how it became this utopia. I also wanted more clarity on the ways in which the uncle's behavior could have fallen through the cracks despite this utopia having put systems in place to prevent the behavior. I felt that the ending was rushed, and would have liked to see a bit more resolution as far as what exactly happened to the perpetrators, and if any other monsters were uncovered. Part of the reason I would have liked more history of Lucille pre-revolution was because it would have been so interesting to draw parallels from history-Lucille to what Jam experienced.
You can find Akwaeke online at akwaeke.com. You can find more of my reviews of books on TIME's Top 100 YA Books of All Time list here.
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
Comments
Post a Comment