Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

PET by Akwaeke Emezi

51 reviews

anaheeta's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Quite a short read, the author managed to use a powerfully imaginative and crafty metaphor to describe a really difficult subject. 


“The truth does not change whether it is seen or unseen, it whispered in her mind. A thing which is happening happens whether you look at it or not. And yes, maybe it is easier not to look. Maybe it is easier to say because you do not see it, it is not happening. Maybe you can pull the stone out of the pool and put the moon back together.” 
(There were too many incredible quotes to choose from)

This book really left me heartbroken. It is powerfully written, the story and pacing is gripping and makes you read it in one day, the characters are very diverse, and the setting is in a futuristic utopia of sorts. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, War, Violence, Pedophilia, Blood, Child abuse, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Mental illness

ebp's review

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

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

Minor: Physical abuse

queerafictionado's review against another edition

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? No

5.0

Sometimes it’s hard to distinguish who is a monster and who is an angel. Because looks can be deceiving, and our interpretation and perception is always influenced by the world and people around us. 

In this story, Jam accidentally brings a creature to life from her mom’s painting. A monstrous looking creature not of this world. And its name is Pet. By looks alone, it is something we would be told to fear. Something we would be told is a monster. But Pet came to hunt monsters. The monsters the world doesn’t realize still exist. Monsters that don’t look monstrous. I loved the juxtaposition of these things in the story, the way Emezi took concepts of monsters and angels and presented them in this unexpected way. It really got me thinking about things like transphobia and homophobia, namely the “phobia” parts of those words. And how trans* and queer people have been painted by the world as something to be feared, while the real monsters remain hidden, protected by power, privilege, and politics.

Emezi poignantly addressed heavy topics in this book. Using magical realism, they crafted a story that speaks to the nature and reality of our world, to the existence of monsters hidden in plain sight, to what it takes to uncover the truth, and to take those monsters down. It was an absolutely brilliant book and we need more stories like this in our world! 

I am also very glad I listened to the audiobook of this because Christopher Myers did a phenomenal job bringing this story and all these characters to life!

🏳️‍🌈✊🏿Rep: black trans FMC with selective mutism, black SCs

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Violence

Minor: Sexual assault and Pedophilia

child sexual abuse is a prominent theme of this book, it is discussed and referenced but occurs off page

ranjanireviewsreads's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, and Child abuse

Minor: Pedophilia and Blood

fieldfarmer's review

dark emotional medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

Moderate: Pedophilia and Injury/Injury detail

summerb's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Grief, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Murder, Transphobia, Alcohol, Panic attacks/disorders, Gun violence, Rape, Vomit, Racism, Violence, Cursing, Hate crime, and Homophobia

hobbithopeful's review

emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

Lyrical, magical, I love Emezis' style of storytelling and writing. I had read Bitter awhile ago, and finally got around to reading this one. (I know going backwards!) I really love the message of this and the writing style. Check your content warnings, a lot of the subject will hit very close to home for a lot of people. The differences in how Bitter and Jam each approach "their monster" is very interesting and I want to go reread Bitter again to compare, and see how the characters used to be.
Perfect for all ages, highly recommend.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child abuse

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

Minor: Rape

julieyael's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

This was absolutely not what I was expecting (I bought it as a horrir book. Well, it’s about another, more real, kind of horror)
I enjoyed the way it’s written bringing tension to the story. 

I would have liked a deeper character building, but the novel is quite short, so maybe there was not space for it. 

I also felt that the particularities of the characters were a bit forced. It’s interesting and nice to find such a diverse set of characters and families, but sometimes it felt a bit artificial. 

Maybe if it had been written as an adult novel, not YA, it would have been more to my taste. 

Overall, the book finds its purpose and is a good read, and I am sure it will find a good audience and be useful and meaningful to a lot of people. 
It just didn’t « click » for me. 
I am glad I read it once, but it probably wonnt go on my list of novels that I can read twice (or more). 

Also, the subject is pretty heavy and the warnings should be taken seriously. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, and Child abuse

Minor: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mass/school shootings, Panic attacks/disorders, Domestic abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Rape, and Violence

breadbummer's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful tense fast-paced

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

4.0

More fast-paced than I was expecting, but that might just be because I'm not used to listening to audiobooks, nor am I used to getting through a book in two days lol; I guess it might also be that books for younger audiences tend to be faster reads in my experience. In any case, I don't think I've ever read a book quite like this, probably because Black queer stories are so often under-celebrated by the whole of society. It was very refreshing to see a type of utopia centered very specifically around these two intersecting identities, especially with biblical fantasy elements tied into it. For how dark this book could get, it was an amazingly colorful read/listen!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: Pedophilia and Rape

Being a book more suited for older children, Emezi descriptions of abuse are by no means extensive, but rather provide an easy introduction into the topic via phrases like "monsters monstering" for

rape

or providing framework *just* vague enough to describe

a certain character's pedophilic tendencies

.