Scan barcode
lolajh's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
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? Yes
5.0
Perfectly conveying racism and police brutality through fantasy themes and referring to the bad people in this world as monsters. Jam is a trans girl who uncovers an unfortunate mystery in her family with the help of the morally grey fantasy being: Pet. Pet acts as a guardian and protector of Jam and her community whilst having horrific and extreme motives that are what make it a morally grey character that I still adore. This book is quite reflective, because it makes you wonder if people who have done bad things like those that are done in this book do deserve to be dehumanised as monsters and be sentenced to death, which I can understand as a solution because of the objectively immoral things done by humans in this book. It opened my eyes to how much of the world is full of bad people, and how not all of them can be noticed as such straight away or are even conscious of it themselves. Very scary thought that Akwaeke illustrated so well.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Rape, Incest, and Sexual assault
valereads's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
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? Yes
5.0
Jam likes in a utopian city where there are no more monsters. Or so she thinks. Until a creature climbs out of her mother's painting looking for a monster, a monster that may be in her best friend's house.
This little book packed a punch. It's short length meant the narrative was very focused in on the main plot with no real room for subplots. It might be on the shorter side for some people but I felt it was the perfect length for what it wanted to do.
I love Emezi's prose style in this book just as much as I did in their first book, Freshwater. It's told very beautifully but would still be accessible to the target audience of teens. I especially loved the audiobook read by Chris Myers. I felt it really added something to the story but I needed to read along with the physical book as it could be a bit confusing which parts were signed, spoken out loud and thought with just the audio.
I also really like the casual diversity in this story. Jam is trans and selectively mute (it's not mentioned in the book, but I remember seeing somewhere that she's autistic) and neither of these elements are the focus of the story but still remain relevant to the story and are important for young audiences to see. I especially appreciated that Jam's disability wasn't treated as a negative and characters naturally accommodated for it. I wish people treated non-vocal autistic people like that more often in real life.
The themes of this novel are important especially for young people. Being aware of the signs of something wrong and not ignoring them and not taking things for granted are ones that are important for them to hear. Along with the importance of looking out for each other and taking care of each other.
This book was beautifully written and important for young people and adults alike. I especially liked how the speculative themes were incorporated into the narrative. I highly recommend it and can't wait to read Bitter when it releases in 2022.
Content Warnings: implied sexual abuse, implied csa, child abuse, violence
This little book packed a punch. It's short length meant the narrative was very focused in on the main plot with no real room for subplots. It might be on the shorter side for some people but I felt it was the perfect length for what it wanted to do.
I love Emezi's prose style in this book just as much as I did in their first book, Freshwater. It's told very beautifully but would still be accessible to the target audience of teens. I especially loved the audiobook read by Chris Myers. I felt it really added something to the story but I needed to read along with the physical book as it could be a bit confusing which parts were signed, spoken out loud and thought with just the audio.
I also really like the casual diversity in this story. Jam is trans and selectively mute (it's not mentioned in the book, but I remember seeing somewhere that she's autistic) and neither of these elements are the focus of the story but still remain relevant to the story and are important for young audiences to see. I especially appreciated that Jam's disability wasn't treated as a negative and characters naturally accommodated for it. I wish people treated non-vocal autistic people like that more often in real life.
The themes of this novel are important especially for young people. Being aware of the signs of something wrong and not ignoring them and not taking things for granted are ones that are important for them to hear. Along with the importance of looking out for each other and taking care of each other.
This book was beautifully written and important for young people and adults alike. I especially liked how the speculative themes were incorporated into the narrative. I highly recommend it and can't wait to read Bitter when it releases in 2022.
Content Warnings: implied sexual abuse, implied csa, child abuse, violence
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Child abuse, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
Minor: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Transphobia
starccato's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-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? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Violence, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Blood, Vomit, and Gore
julesadventurezone's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Gore, and Pedophilia
Moderate: Blood, Rape, and Sexual assault
Minor: Medical trauma, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Racism, Slavery, and War
ciebrie's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
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? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse and Pedophilia
Moderate: Gore
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders
tascaraudo's review
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
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
This book explores what it's like for one girl, Jam, to look past the niceness and comfort of believing everything to be safe. It is a story about what it can take for justice to be served, and whether justice means punishment for the monster or protection for the victim.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Violence
Minor: Child abuse and Vomit
Main character is what we would call trans. She does not face any transphobia during the book's journey. She dissociates at least once.talonsontypewriters's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
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? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, and Violence
Moderate: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Incest, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Blood, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Gun violence, Police brutality, Child death, Murder, Suicide, and Hate crime
Minor warnings mostly apply to backstory/worldbuilding information provided early on. Child abuse (emotional, physical, and implied sexual) is heavily discussed and thematically relevant but not actually shown on-page, nor is it described in explicit detail.gem114's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
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? It's complicated
5.0
This is the best book I've read so far in 2021.
Pet is a rather friendly name for a 7 foot fall, horned and clawed monster hunter, but this creature is not as scary as the real monster who lurks unseen in the town of Lucille.
When Pet arrives in Lucille with the help of 15-year-old Jam, the two go on the hunt together along with Jam's best friend, Redemption.
The novel is about the quest for a monster, but the lesson below the surface is that our refusal to see the unseen, our preference to live in blissful ignorance, makes us complicit with the monsters themselves. Like Jam, Redemption, and the people of Lucille, we need to be willing to shed our comfort and our denial in order to better our society.
I really can't say enough about this powerful novel. Now I just have to find a way to sneak it into my curriculum!
Pet is a rather friendly name for a 7 foot fall, horned and clawed monster hunter, but this creature is not as scary as the real monster who lurks unseen in the town of Lucille.
When Pet arrives in Lucille with the help of 15-year-old Jam, the two go on the hunt together along with Jam's best friend, Redemption.
The novel is about the quest for a monster, but the lesson below the surface is that our refusal to see the unseen, our preference to live in blissful ignorance, makes us complicit with the monsters themselves. Like Jam, Redemption, and the people of Lucille, we need to be willing to shed our comfort and our denial in order to better our society.
I really can't say enough about this powerful novel. Now I just have to find a way to sneak it into my curriculum!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual violence, and Torture
Minor: Vomit
spiritedfaraway's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
What does a monster look like? Jam asked.
Her mother focused on her, cupping her cheek in a chalky hand. "Monsters don't look like anything, doux-doux. That's the whole point. That's the whole problem.”
Evil takes many forms and shapes and monsters don't look or seem like monsters, until suddenly they do. Monsters are people and can be anyone: your neighbor you say good morning to, the little old lady you sit next to on the bus, a favorite family member.
And in Lucille, where it is taught that there are no more monsters? Where the adults refuse to believe that there are any bad people left?
What do you do when you have to reconsider everything you’ve ever been taught? And that, in fact, there is still a monster and it’s in your friend’s house.
“The problem is, when you think you’ve been without monsters for so long, sometimes you forget what they look like, what they sound like, no matter how much remembering your education urges you to do. It’s not the same when the monsters are gone. You’re only remembering shadows of them, stories that seem to be limited to the pages or screens you read them from. Flat and dull things. So, yes, people forget. But forgetting is dangerous.
Forgetting is how the monsters come back.”
Jam is horrified when Pet, a being of colors and claws, tells her there is a monster lurking near her best friend. She's determined to figure out the truth, no matter what any of the adults have to say on the matter. Because the adults are sure that there couldn’t possibly be anything wrong.
But as Jam discovers, refusing to look and see the truth doesn’t fix anything. It doesn’t mean something isn’t happening. Denying the truth doesn’t make something any less true.
“A thing which is happening happens whether you look at it or not.”
This was an absolutely riveting and reflective read that truly packed a punch. I honestly have so many thoughts and feelings about this book, but not the words to describe how amazing this book was. I will definitely be thinking about this for quite a while.
Her mother focused on her, cupping her cheek in a chalky hand. "Monsters don't look like anything, doux-doux. That's the whole point. That's the whole problem.”
Evil takes many forms and shapes and monsters don't look or seem like monsters, until suddenly they do. Monsters are people and can be anyone: your neighbor you say good morning to, the little old lady you sit next to on the bus, a favorite family member.
And in Lucille, where it is taught that there are no more monsters? Where the adults refuse to believe that there are any bad people left?
What do you do when you have to reconsider everything you’ve ever been taught? And that, in fact, there is still a monster and it’s in your friend’s house.
“The problem is, when you think you’ve been without monsters for so long, sometimes you forget what they look like, what they sound like, no matter how much remembering your education urges you to do. It’s not the same when the monsters are gone. You’re only remembering shadows of them, stories that seem to be limited to the pages or screens you read them from. Flat and dull things. So, yes, people forget. But forgetting is dangerous.
Forgetting is how the monsters come back.”
Jam is horrified when Pet, a being of colors and claws, tells her there is a monster lurking near her best friend. She's determined to figure out the truth, no matter what any of the adults have to say on the matter. Because the adults are sure that there couldn’t possibly be anything wrong.
But as Jam discovers, refusing to look and see the truth doesn’t fix anything. It doesn’t mean something isn’t happening. Denying the truth doesn’t make something any less true.
“A thing which is happening happens whether you look at it or not.”
This was an absolutely riveting and reflective read that truly packed a punch. I honestly have so many thoughts and feelings about this book, but not the words to describe how amazing this book was. I will definitely be thinking about this for quite a while.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders and Violence
Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Incest, Medical content, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, and Torture
Minor: Rape
A character does dissociate in a scene and thinks about it a couple times as well.horizonous's review against another edition
dark
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, and Violence
Minor: Child abuse, Gun violence, Rape, and Sexual violence