Reviews tagging 'Dysphoria'

Pet by Akwaeke Emezi

17 reviews

iseefirede's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

The pacing of the book felt off. The first part was pretty slow and uninteresting, but then everything seemed to happen in the last few chapters of the book.
Beyond that, it was a wonderful read filled with diverse characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing

Moderate: Child abuse and Dysphoria

Minor: Pedophilia, Police brutality, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

gwenswoons's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

So unusual and truly marvelous in the most literal sense. I LOVED You Made A Fool Of Death With Your Beauty, one of my favorites of the last many years, and thought Vivek Oji was amazing too; but this is my first YA of Emezi’s, and I wasn’t sure what it might be like. But it’s gorgeous - their writing always stuns me and leaves me breathless and this is no different. I thought it was truly incredible, in a work that is so accessible for younger readers, to have language so eloquent and perfumed in the way Emezi’s always is, and to be able to approach the heaviest and most devastating topics of humanity with a light enough touch that a younger reader could live inside this story. I’m not someone who loves fantasy  - I don’t read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy, and sometimes supernatural elements lose me a little bit - but Emezi’s writing is just so beautiful and so compelling at every turn that I didn’t even give a thought to whether or not I believed what was happening (I just: did). Same, somehow, too, with the allegorical/archetypal elements: these could be so obvious and heavy-handed on another writer’s desk, and yet Emezi’s world building and story crafting are so exquisite that every element of the story - every word, every turn of phrase and plot - feels inevitable. Such a gorgeous read, and I thought the audio was gorgeously narrated, too, by Christopher Myers (something about this book as a dark fairytale/ parable worked really beautifully for me in audio format and I feel like Myers really captured for readers that feeling of listening to a story - so good).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Gore, Blood, Grief, Gaslighting, and Dysphoria

Minor: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, and War

ebp's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Gaslighting, and Dysphoria

Minor: Physical abuse

guessgreenleaf's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Body horror, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Transphobia, Blood, Grief, Gaslighting, and Dysphoria

te_ss_i's review against another edition

dark emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Transphobia, Violence, Gaslighting, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape

softgalaxy's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This was a very short read, which is my biggest criticism. But overall, a solid read. 

It’s a very haunting story to read when you live in a world that has the very popular phrase “fake news”. This book was much larger than itself. Literally, like Pet. As you read, you feel the real world loom over you. 

I really liked the lack of emphasis on Jam’s trans identity. Sometimes in books, there has to be a whole chapter dedicated to a character and their struggles being trans. Jam was just transgender and that was that. Trans people just exist.

Pet was a bizarre ‘monster’ - you sadly don’t get to understand where Pet comes from - like why did it come out of a painting? Obviously there’s a lot of symbolism to unpack, but you really could be here all day.

The reason this review is not a full 5 stars is because of the ending - it seemed to backtrack on everything the book was saying.

Making an evil character have a physical flaw is a harmful ableist trope.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Body horror, Gore, Blood, and Dysphoria

oddlyghoul's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Violence, Blood, and Dysphoria

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Colonisation, War, and Classism

bookishfaye's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.75/5

This was so fricken cool??? I will absolutely be picking up more by this author because I’m so obsessed with this. So unique & I have so many thoughts in head. I just wish I owned a copy so that I could have annotated it because wow. 

TW: child abuse/SA (off screen/just alluded too, some gore and violence 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Dysphoria

amre23's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Body horror, Confinement, Deadnaming, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual violence, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

Minor: Cursing, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Suicide, Police brutality, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and Dysphoria

jediprincess's review

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

What an absolutely brilliant book. Everyone needs to read this. I wish there had been a bit more background information provided about the revolution but otherwise perfection.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual violence, and Violence

Minor: Transphobia and Dysphoria