belleand_books 's review for:

Pet by Akwaeke Emezi

3.0

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TW: sexual abuse of a child (inferred), brief mention of several kinds of abuse

This is a good story- it’s a dark utopia where “monsters” are “extinct” until they aren’t. The MC is a black transgender girl who becomes friends with a mysterious creature and together they hunt down the monster that isn’t supposed to exist. Honestly, the entire premise was super promising and intriguing but I couldn’t get with the wiring style. Because Pet and Jam talked a lot in their heads and thus, dialogue quotations were used, my brain had a hard time realising it WAS a conversation and I would accidentally read over it without reading it. I also think it could be longer. This book had so much build up about Jam coming to terms with the idea that monsters do exist that I felt like the world wasn’t really explored. It talks about biblical angels in the beginning, and while that kinda comes into play, it really doesn’t and I didn’t see how it all related? There was a lot of pieces to this puzzle, unfortunately only like a third of them fit into the larger picture.

I will say that I loved the idea of making an example out of the monster instead of just hunting him down and killing him. It really brought to life the issues that (even in the real world) come about when someone takes justice into their own hands- it makes it harder for others to be heard.

In all, I think this story is important and needed to be told this way BUT I just did not enjoy how the writing was executed.