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A review by yvon
Pet by Akwaeke Emezi
2.0
1.5 stars
I'm not sure what exactly went wrong but this book was not for me.
The only semi-positive thing i have to say is that it was short enough to motivate me to finish it. Here goes the rest:
1. The story dragged. I would've probably rated this higher if I only read the first and last 3 chapters.
2. I can't tell what the target audience is. Some say middle grade, yet the topics are too heavy, while young adult doesn't feel right since the MC acts (and is treated) like a child.
2.5. No seriously, Jam is a teenager and her parents treat her like a kid and the amount of "little girl"s from Pet...that amount of infantilization would've driven me mad.
3. The message of the story is kinda vague? Maybe I'm not good with metaphors, but only through reviews I could get a clear idea what this book was trying to tell me.
4. Just not satisfying in general
Onto the more personal:
4. I think I don't like utopias (Tbh I haven't read much of these before) but the whole "everything is perfect except for this little thing which gets fixed immediately" premise was not fun.
5. The queer (trans, non-binary, poly) and ND/physical disabled rep was too casual and so it was hard to connect w it
6. Someone said this book read like a future classic and since I don't enjoy most classics that explains.
7. This might be nitpicky but the characters had unique names (Aloe, Bitter, Redemption, Hibiscus, Moss etc.), yet they didn't hold much symbolism, they were just random unique names
I'm not sure what exactly went wrong but this book was not for me.
The only semi-positive thing i have to say is that it was short enough to motivate me to finish it. Here goes the rest:
1. The story dragged. I would've probably rated this higher if I only read the first and last 3 chapters.
2. I can't tell what the target audience is. Some say middle grade, yet the topics are too heavy, while young adult doesn't feel right since the MC acts (and is treated) like a child.
2.5. No seriously, Jam is a teenager and her parents treat her like a kid and the amount of "little girl"s from Pet...that amount of infantilization would've driven me mad.
3. The message of the story is kinda vague? Maybe I'm not good with metaphors, but only through reviews I could get a clear idea what this book was trying to tell me.
4. Just not satisfying in general
Onto the more personal:
4. I think I don't like utopias (Tbh I haven't read much of these before) but the whole "everything is perfect except for this little thing which gets fixed immediately" premise was not fun.
5. The queer (trans, non-binary, poly) and ND/physical disabled rep was too casual and so it was hard to connect w it
6. Someone said this book read like a future classic and since I don't enjoy most classics that explains.
7. This might be nitpicky but the characters had unique names (Aloe, Bitter, Redemption, Hibiscus, Moss etc.), yet they didn't hold much symbolism, they were just random unique names