Published: 2019
Genre: Young Adult Fiction; Fantasy
Trigger Warnings: Racism; implications of sexual assault and child abuse.
Official Synopsis:
(from Amazon.com)
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?
A riveting and timely young adult debut novel that asks difficult questions about what choices you can make when the society around you is in denial.
Review:
The beginning of Pet left me with many questions that took a long time to answer, chief among them the nature of the world that Emezi creates in her novel. For example, are the angels of the near past, who snuffed out all of the injustices perpetrated by the monsters, real entities, or simply a metaphor for the humans that committed and rectified injustices? As the story goes on, readers find out that the monsters in Emezi’s fictional world are real, and they are responsible for much of the adversities that minority peoples face in the world.
My favorite part of Pet was Emezi’s choice to feature a transgender girl, Jam, as the main character in the story. Much of chapter one talks about Jam’s childhood struggle to understand her gender identity, as well as her journey transitioning. Beyond this, not much more is said about Jam’s trans identity, which may leave some readers questioning why Emezi - who is gender nonbinary themself - to write Jam to be a trans girl. The beauty of this choice is in the question itself, and one that makes Pet a valuable book for all students: Jam exists on the page to do extraordinary things, rather than to be the victim of the hardships experienced by trans people, as might be the case with other stories that center trans men and women. In reading this book, students - and especially those of the LGBTQIA+ community - can see a trans person simply existing in a fantastical world, which is exactly the kind of story students need as they journey towards empathy and acceptance.
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