Savvy's Reviews
Not sure you want to dig into that new book? Let Savvy do the hard work for you! Here's her latest review!
Pet by Akwaeke Emezi
[Content Warning: Child abuse]
Pet is here to hunt a monster.
Are you brave enough to look?
There are no more monsters anymore, or so the children in the city of Lucille are taught. With doting parents and a best friend named Redemption, Jam has grown up with this lesson all her life. But when she meets Pet, a creature made of horns and colours 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?
In their riveting and timely young adult debut, acclaimed novelist Akwaeke Emezi asks difficult questions about what choices a young person can make when the adults around them are in denial. - GoodReads.com
A beautiful, heartbreaking, fiercely important book. This story about a black transgender girl doesn’t mind carrying a heavy message. In a world where monsters haven’t existed for a long time, children are saddled with the question, “What do you do when the adults in your life refuse to acknowledge the danger around them?” This fantastic work of fiction really holds a mirror to our society today and says, “do you not see yourself in me?”
This book is heavy. It was an honor to be in the presence of a book that could change the world the way this one could. Thick with metaphor but done right, this book talks about monsters… all around us, next to us, inside of us. This book takes the horrible society we live in and paints a picture of gorgeous colors so that we can finally understand what some of us choose not to see. Only then can we make the change from monsters to angels.
Read this book with an open mind and opened eyes and then, never blink again.
This book will haunt you long after you put it down. Although, I’m curious as to whom this book really speaks to. While it’s marketed as YA and I’m always an advocate of “teach the children to create a better world,” some of the strong themes in this book seem to lend themselves to more of a crossover novel into the adult shelves. When evil can exist in plain sight, ignored… that’s when the monsters win.
This book is all about seeing the unseen and recognizing hidden signs. It is about showing our children what is right and wrong even if we think wrong no longer exists. We must always give them the power to say no and speak up.
An excerpt from a letter written by Christpher Myers feature in the front of Pet by Akwaeke Emezi:
“On television, in movies, villains are easily recognizable. The bad guys wear long dark robes and have no noses, or wear tight-fitting suits and have red eyes. There is something comforting in this idea, that when you see evil, you will know it. That it cannot be hiding in the everyday faces of people you ride the bus with, or go to school with, or share a sandwich with at lunch.
“Hannah Arendt, the political philosopher, coined the phrase “the banality of evil”--that evil is very often “terrifyingly normal.” She knew, as many who have suffered do, that the worst things can happen in the blandest of places -- between the lines in a textbook omitting large swaths of history or in the hushing of a child who has something important to say. All these things are done in the name of keeping our world safe, consistent, banal.
“And when our villains have new costumes and haircuts in the latest styles, where will we say that evil lives? Will it be in the voices that dare to disturb that peaceful illusion? Pet asks precisely these questions. In a voice that is as clear and poetic as in any of their work for adults, Akwaeke examines the journey that evil has made, from monstrosity to mainstream. This adventure, set in anyplace America, thinks about language and communication, for versatility in listening and speaking is essential to understanding where we are in the world, to see past the lie that there are no longer any villains. Akwaeke asks us readers to reconsider our monsters, to look past the comforting illusions and, along with Jam and Redemption, hunt for the true villains in our midst.”
“‘...Angels could look like many things.’ So can monsters.”
Pet by Akwaeke Emezi
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