![]() The cast of characters is wonderfully diverse. With Pet being a literal manifestation of art as a means of confronting life’s difficulties, and our heroine quickly heading to the library to read up on monsters to equip her with the knowledge she’ll need to face one, there’s a subtle though excellent thread throughout about the value of the arts its ability to document, educate, and empower. ![]() It becomes clear to the reader very quickly precisely what kind of “monster” we’re dealing with, and Emezi strikes an excellent balance between due reverence for the big themes being tackled and an avoidance of gratuity – especially considering the book’s relatively young target audience. With that in mind, I’ll start by talking about Pet’s merits, because I do think it has a lot to admire. ![]() It’s frustrating when you have such mixed feelings towards a book that is so widely revered – especially when you hoped to love it too. Worse still, it tells her that the monster lurks within the home of Jam’s best friend, Redemption. Calling itself Pet, it tells Jam that a monster lives among them once again and that they must hunt it down together. She soon finds herself confronted, however, with a strange creature that has emerged from one of her mother’s paintings. In this singular new offering from Emezi, we follow Jam, a teenage girl who lives in a world that has supposedly rid itself of “monsters”. ![]()
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