I flew through this beautiful, powerful little story! There is so much good happening in this story, from the most perfect friendship portrayal I’ve seen in YA in a while, to the beautiful family life that Jam has, to the concept of eradicating “monsters” in our everyday lives on a macro and micro scale, this book has such a strong, wholesome message.
In Jam’s city of Lucille, monsters (and we are talking mostly of human monsters here) have been eradicated and the city maintains that there are no more monsters. Jam has lived her whole life without knowing what it is like to be afraid of others and the crimes that humanity can commit against each other. But when a fearsome creature with fur, horns and a menacing presence crawls out of one of her mother’s paintings claiming to be hunting monsters, Jam must decide if she believes that monsters are still around or not. The creature, who allows Jam to call it Pet, stays by her side and persuades Jam to help it hunt the monster. Throughout the story, Jam and her best friend must come to terms with the idea that the adults around them might be wrong, and that monsters might still be lurking in Lucille.

I can not reiterate enough how touching and beautiful this story is. There is such an important message conveyed in this story, about finding your own truths and always being observant rather than compliant for the sake of being compliant. This story drives home the truth that no matter how much good we create in the world, monsters can still hide in plain sight, and we must always look past other people’s denial.

I was also so happy and touched at the beautiful representation in this story. Jam is a black trans girl and selectively communicates nonverbally, and reading her story of telling her parents she wanted to transition and their accepting and loving attitudes towards her, was just so beautiful. In addition to this, Jam’s best friend, Redemption, has polyamorous parents and the fact that he has three parents is treated with such love and respect.

Overall, this book made me so happy and is also so important. It’s a beautiful YA story that could cross genres and age groups. In this time, when we are all consistently seeing scary monsters around every corner in our world, both political and personal, we need more stories like this. Stories that show us that a teenage girl can change the outcome of a bad situation, no matter how many adults tell her otherwise.

From its distinctive prose to its powerful message, Pet by Akwaeke Emezi is a compelling novel that asks us to be watchful of monsters, especially those that look, act, and smile just like us.

Our story follows Jam, who was born in a world without monsters. During her parents’ youth, the world finally got tired of the political corruption and social degradation, and said enough. Now, the city of Lucille teaches its children that there are no more monsters, that angels—ordinary people who rose to the challenge of saving the world—got rid of the monsters for good, through rehabilitation or otherwise. However, Jam’s understanding of this world is shaken when Pet, a creature with horns, feathers, and claws, emerges from one of her mother’s paintings, claiming it has come to hunt a monster. Jam has to work with Pet to uncover the monster, but she is torn with indecision when she learns it is located in her best friend Redemption’s house—and that none of the adults in her world want to believe that monsters still exist right in front of them.

I utterly love Pet. It’s a quick, digestible story that is at once a teenage adventure of wonder as it is a social commentary with plenty of thoughts and ideas for you to ponder over. Even from Christopher Myers’ editor’s note, I knew Pet wasn’t going to shy away from the questions it wanted to ask you, at the hard look it wanted you to give yourself and the world around you. I’m having a real hard time even choosing a quote from Myers because the entire note is full of power, but I’ll do my best with this:

"They don’t make evil like they used to.

Politicians make policies that put children in cages, or make it easier for big companies to pour poison into our air and water. But they will say that they are just doing it to support business, and that we’ll all reap the benefits of the poison eventually. There are businesses that profit from fear and anger, who package nastiness in skewed news stories and half-thought-out opinions. But they say they are just giving people what they want. There are people who scream their hatred to the skies, and burn torches and mock other folks who are different from themselves. Even they have their excuses, usually something about protecting a “way of life.” There are no villains anymore."

The note also references Hannah Arendt, a name that comes up constantly whenever you study the Holocaust, and her coined phrase “the banality of evil,” which identifies the fact that evil is very often “terrifyingly normal.” It’s the neighbors you live next to, it’s the people you grocery shop alongside, it’s the person next to you at the voting booth.

Evil can look like anyone and anything—including yourself—and it’s up to each one of us to be able to identify it when we see it, something that can be easier said than done and which is a major focus of Pet. I’d almost say this book is worth reading for the editor’s note alone, but luckily, the book takes this message and presents it in such a creative, personal way for the reader.

Emezi starts that presentation instantly with the characters themselves: African Americans in some everyday America. Jam is a transgirl who has selective mutism and often signs with ASL to converse with those around her. Emezi shows this information about Jam in an effortless way, without fuss, as if they are saying, “Here she is. This is Jam.” It’s beautiful, because Lucille is supposed to be part of a more accepting, kinder world, and it shows by Jam’s solid presence. Not that she can’t be uncertain or anxious at times, but Jam will stand firm on her morals and her stubbornness when it comes down to it. I adore her.

Pet is effortlessly feminist and pro-LGBTQA, without fanfare or pandering, because Jam is simply a girl who is fully allowed to be. She’s fully transitioned even as a kid, is unquestioned about it, and we read about her estrogen implant as we would any other notable, physical feature she possesses. This is normal for Jam, but for many, it’s a future that they still long to see. I hope this vision Emezi has for the world becomes true sooner rather than later, and in the meantime, I hope people can take heart and inspiration from Jam.

I also felt the same warmth toward her parents, Bitter and Aloe, as well as her best friend Redemption and his family. (It’s such a minor thing, but I love that Redemption has three parents, one of which identifies as non-binary. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this depicted before in such a wholesome, domestic way as it was here, really driving home how much more we need of scenes like this.) All of these characters breath life onto the page, enriching the narrative as we view them through Jam’s eyes, seeing what she’s always known while searching for the unseen monster.

"Good and innocent, they not the same thing; they don’t wear the same face."

Finally, there’s the titular character, Pet. I love Pet so much, coming out of this painting like some Pan’s Labyrinth horror and being a grumbling mentor/protector of this girl while actively hunting for the true monster in their community. You couldn’t have given me a better dynamic. I won’t spoil anymore about this because so much about Pet and his interactions with Jam is in the reading, and this book is well worth picking up to experience this and so much more.

That more, of course, consists of the narrative being wrapped up in African American experiences and culture, in “callbacks” to the world we currently live in and how much about it is still far less ideal than it should be, in how ordinary people have the responsibility to do good, take care of each other, and eliminate evil as humanely as possible.

That last part is something I truly enjoyed. Pet isn’t a vengeful story. It’s not about ruthlessly hunting down monstrous humans and killing them, or even that all of humanity is terrible and irredeemable. In fact, it shows the exact opposite. That people have an unlimited capacity for good and empathy, but there are those who commit evil acts, and they need to be found, held accountable, and (hopefully) can discover their goodness. The people they’ve hurt don’t have to accept them back, but we still all have a responsibility to take care of our communities and each other.

Pet is at once a story that is as heartbreaking as it is hopeful, the former because terrible things are bound to happen to us in life—if not to ourselves then often to people we know and love—the latter because the world can always get better for all of us, but we each have to put in the work to see it through.

"We are each other’s harvest. We are each other’s business. We are each other’s magnitude and bond."

If you have any doubts about this one—regarding its short length, genre, or subject matter—set them aside as I did. Pet is well worth your time, and Emezi is a strong, unique voice with interesting stories and perspectives that we can all benefit from hearing.

In the world we live in, where truth is becoming more of a slippery notion for more and more people, it does not matter what we feel about it, whether we are afraid of it, because at the end of the day, it is still irrefutable truth. We wish to think that we will someday lock away all of the cruel injustices of the world, but this book shows us what could happen if we were deluded into thinking that we completely succeeded. Optimism is a good thing, but it can also make us ignorant if we are not careful. We must always strive for good in this world, to reconcile ourselves with the truth, to broaden our minds, because even something as innocuous as a simple painting can give added perspective and depth to the world, giving us knowledge in spaces where we believed we knew everything.

3.5/5 - Interesting and very unique story about good and evil among us. Not the kind of monsters I expected to read about, but these "monsters" sadly do exist. I don't read a lot of YA but do tend to pick one up from time to time. This one was a quick read and very well done. I was pleasantly surprised.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy.

**Content Warning: Rape (brief mention), Child abuse (with sexual abuse being alluded to), Gore**

The monsters this book talks about are all humans who have done terrible things. In this town of Lucille all these monsters have been removed, and the town now claims to be completely safe. Which of course all the adults believe, having been part of the generation that removed these monsters. But it gets incredibly frustrating at how in denial they are, and how quick they are to dismiss the kid’s worries.

The main character Jam is predominantly nonverbal, and communicates mostly by using sign language. It was really nice seeing that since her main form of communication is ASL so many people in her life had taken the time to learn it as well, so they could also communicate with her that way. Jam tries really hard to not jump to any conclusions, and does try to focus on getting information first. Even with Pet coming in, she still tries to find other reasons, whether from denial or not she was always very careful with how she went about things. Jam’s healthy and supportive friendship with Redemption was fantastic, and I appreciate how far she’d go to keep him safe. And also just how caring Redemption is to her, that he knows exactly what things could trigger her dissociation or anxiety and makes sure to check up on her.

Pet was honestly just so cool! I’m so big on absolutely horrifying creatures being on the “good” side. I loved Pet’s super creepy design, every description of it was so detailed and it really does make you a tad nervous when you imagine it. Jam and Pet’s connection was excellent, I both enjoyed how caring it was of her and how blunt it was when they would communicate. I definitely found myself wanting so much more information on Pet, and the other dimension as well. But I fully enjoyed the mystery of it all.

So another little detail I really enjoyed was just all the character’s names. They all have very simple names (Jam, Redemption, Bitter, Whisper) but these names carry so much weight and meaning, while also being very unique. Like I said it’s a small thing, but something that really stood out for me.

Overall I loved the book, and part of me definitely wishes it was way longer. I really would love to see something like a prequel to this, that would maybe answer some questions. But if you enjoy odd creatures helping fight the wrongs in a society, then I definitely recommend it!

Akwaeke Emezi speaks to the world and shows the bravery of one to effect change and shine a light on the horrors of the world. I really enjoyed this book and I recommend it to anyone who wants to see the impact of fighting monsters. This author is one to look for.

"You humans and your binaries, Pet said. It is not a good thing or a bad thing. It is just a thing."

Jam is growing up in the town of Lucille in the near future where "monsters" aka All Things Evil are a concept of the past. Or are they? Via the assistance of a canvas-painting-turned-real-life-creature named Pet, Jam discovers that maybe, just maybe, all of the monsters haven't been eradicated after all. And it's up to Jam and Pet to suss out the monster that may be terrorizing Jam's bestie Redemption's house amidst a society that doesn't believe monsters exist anymore.

What a jam-packed (or should I say Jam-packed?) little story this turned out to be. To be fair, I haven't been a YA myself in quite some time (sigh), but this story line seems perfectly geared towards that target audience. It's just imaginative enough without seeming completely implausible. Man, I wish my own brain had a quarter of the creativity that Emezi's seems to possess. The inclusivity piece of this work is very well done here. The protagonist is a trans black semi-mute girl, and her friend's parents are in a loving polyamorous relationship. Emezi quietly shows the reader that all of the characters simply are who they are, without judgement or backlash from fellow residents of Lucille (the way things would be in real life, if it were up to me). Also, I loved how Emezi put words together - their writing paints vivid pictures in my head:

"It was hard to keep secrets; you had to keep track of them, regulate how the moved through your body, make sure they didn't swerve and jump out of your mouth."

Pet is one of the rare occasions where I would have loved to read 50 or 100 pages more of this story. How did Lucille get to be (supposedly) monster-less? What safeguards were put in place to ensure monsters would never return? What other aspects of Lucille society are different from our world today? Since Pet is told from Jam's point of view, and since she herself doesn't know the answers to these questions, I understand why they were omitted from the tale. But my inquiring mind still wants to know, dammit.

The angels who run Lucille kicked all the monsters out before Jam was even born, so she has never known racism, sexism, or transphobia. Her life of perfect love and acceptance comes to an end when she accidentally bleeds on her mother's eerie new painting and summons Pet. Pet is terrifying to behold, but even scarier is its pronouncement: there is a monster in Lucille, and Pet has come to hunt it down. Jam's vibrant home is a splash of life in an otherwise undeveloped setting. An almost fable-like exploration of the monsters lurking inside men.

This was such a different read, and honestly such a different book! It definitely swings more toward the younger side of the YA spectrum, which is fine!

The town of Lucille has been without monsters for years. They were all taken care of by the angels in the uprising. Or so everyone thinks.

Jam is a sweet, transgender main character (who I could 100% believe to be on the autism spectrum, as well) who accidentally brings her mother Bitter's paintings to life. And it's not a sweet painting, either. Pet is what we would consider monstrous, but in a biblical sense, it's angelic (hence why every angel starts with "be not afraid", because they were SCARY). Her best friend, Redemption, is a fighter who doesn't keep violence in his heart.

When Pet says that it's hunting a monster, no one wants to believe it. No, all the monsters-the corrupt, the cruel, the evil-are all gone. Send Pet back to its home, please and thank you.

Pet is right.

This story is short, but also so thought-provoking. What would a world without evil look like? What would have to happen for all the "bad guys" to go away?

An interesting read for sure, I give Pet 4 out of 5 razors. Thank you to NetGalley and Make Me A World for providing a copy in exchange for review.

There is so much about this book that I could probably scream about right now. I could go on and on about the wonderful characters, the interesting and almost too-relevant past of the world of Lucille, and Pet themselves. But instead, I will urge everyone to read this very important book when it's published September 10th.

From the very first blurbs before the story even began, I knew that this book had an important message to get through to people of all ages.

It is said that there can be no darkness without light, Pet is here to prove that saying absolutely correct.

HOW DO YOU SAVE THE WORLD FROM MONSTERS IF NO ONE WILL ADMIT THEY EXIST?

This book poses such an amazing question, one that history has proven time and again, that ignorance is not bliss. Take the Soviet Union, they said that there was no murder in the utopia of the Soviet Union, and because of that, a child serial murderer by the name of Andrei Chikatilo killed at least 50 people (mostly young children).

In Pet, Akwaeke Emezi proves to be a powerhouse in progressive, push the envelope, and trip out awesome storytelling. Trust, you haven't read anything like this book. Meet Jam - a black transgender teen who lives in a town called Lucille with their parents, Bitter and Aloe. Jam lives in a town purported to be a utopia that has eradicated corruption, murder, sexual predators, prejudice, et all.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." -JFK quoting Edmund Burke who in turn was paraphrasing John Stuart Mill. Evil thrives in plain sight when people refuse to look at it.

Akwaeke Emezi is such an amazing story teller. I’ve never read anything quite like it Pet. The concept and the story behind this utopia of Lucille just blew me away. I am still process and working on a stronger view before release, but man! I am highly recommending the read weather you like YA or not. There is so much to unpack and analyze.

Many thanks to Make Me a World and Netgalley for gifting me this DARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to @netgalley and @randomhousekids for the advance copy of this book. It is out next Tuesday! All opinions are my own.
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 for the truly unique story. Jam, a selectively mute transgender teen, lives in Lucille, where all evil has been banished. I mean, at least everyone is pretty sure. But when one of her mother’s paintings spawns Pet, a hunter from another dimension, Jam learns that monsters still lurk in Lucille. The writing felt a touch uneven at times, with Jam reading younger than she is, but I was enraptured with this story and am excited to see what students think of it. It is truly an original. Recommended for mature 7th graders+.

It just didn't get it! Who was the intended audience? There seemed to be a lot of politics shoved in just to be current but had no real relevance to the plot. (Jam's sex change, Polygamous? parents). The "monsters" seemed to address things that are hot button topics in our current political environment but the author was unable to resolve the issues so just left them. Why mention them at all?

The fact that the author/publisher decided not to include a third formatting for internal dialogues made it confusing. Quotations seemed to mean spoken dialogue and italic signed dialogue but sometimes the internal dialogue is in italic and sometimes it's not... It should just be in bold instead or something else. I also didn't understand why Jam's parents didn't speak in a proper English when the other characters spoke fine. Was this a cultural difference that wasn't explained?

I gave the book to my son to read as well to see if it was just me. He didn't make it 1/4 way through before tossing it aside.

Pet reads like a book for younger audiences, but the content is definitely YA. It deals with some difficult subjects, and so it would be ideal for a teen or young adult who is looking for a book with a lower reading level. Jam lives in Lucille, a place free from monsters, who were, as we soon learn, ordinary people who did terrible things, like child abuse or various other crimes. There should have been a little more world-building, I really could not visualize what the world looks like at all. Where Emezi's strength lies is in the characters. The names are fantastic, and the relationships feel very realistic. So many times in children's books, especially YA, parents are either hopelessly incompetent or perfect beings that do nothing wrong. Emezi was able to strike a balance between those two and create believable parents who are loving, but also flawed, as all humans are.
The ending gets a little murky. I'm not sure what the purpose is to call someone a monster, but then propose rehabilitation. I'm not against rehab, of course, but it's contradictory and muddles the moral of the story.
However, even with the uneven ending, Emezi has created a wonderful new character in Jam, and I will be interested to see if she writes more based in the world of Lucille.

I thought this was a nice and interesting novel for a middle school age child. It has a positive message about the importance of speaking out and standing up for those who need help, and that anyone can and sadly does, do bad things. I could see this being a series, and if so, I would enjoy reading more. My largest criticism about about the book is that I would love ot have more back story about the angels that came to save the town of Lucille, and the monsters who were destroying it. It is an interesting and compelling world, as well as the character of Jam, and I would like to know more about it and her.

Firstly, I would like to thank the publishers of Make me a world for giving me an advanced e-copy of this book for my review. I really don’t like giving negative feedback in general because I know the author and a whole team of people take a lot of time to put a book out there. Having said that, I really did not like reading the book and was very disappointing with it.

What I liked about Pet is how it highlights that even an idyllic world could be filled with monsters. Rather than facing the monster, people choose to ignore it and overprotect their loved ones to shield them from pain. I also liked the author’s style of writing, as it was simple and fairy tale like for the most part. I think that was what made me continue reading this book.

My main problem with the story was that it started off very well, but then halfway into the book, it just slowed down and nothing happened. The story just became predictable where you know what is going to happen and how the protagonist is going to save the day. Hence, I didn’t think it was very interesting because there were no twists and turns. The reader finds out who the real monster is, and the main characters just fight him, the end.

Also, I didn’t understand why the author brought up the conversation of Jam undergoing sex surgery when she was young. I guess the idea was to showcase a place and time where the characters could do such things and not feel conflicted over it. However, I did not understand what the point of it was, as it did not add anything to the story.

Moreover, I really had a problem with the names in this story. Initially, there are only 3 or 4 main characters, but halfway into the book, more characters are introduced and all have named like Bitter, Jam, Redemption, Hibiscus, Moss etc. and it was kind of confusion to keep track of who each person was. The names themselves also did not have any relevance to the story or to the personality of the characters. Initially it seemed like fun and interesting, but yeah it soon became just confusing to read. Also, I wish the author provided a backstory Jam’s parents before she was born as it was interesting.

If the author had focused more on the plot, I think this would have been much better. Overall, Pet was disappointing to read and I would give it only 2 stars.

In Pet, a black trans teenage girl named Jam lives in a utopian town, Lucille, where monsters have been eradicated by angels:

"It was the angels who took apart the prisons and police; who held counsels prosecuting the former officers who shot children and murdered people, sentencing them to restitution and rehabilitation. . . the angels banned firearms . . . the angels took the laws and changed them, tore down those horrible statues of rich men who'd owned people and fought to keep owning people."

But one day, Jam's mother's painting comes to life in the form of a literal avenging angel, Pet. Pet isn't your pop-culture image of a blonde, hunky Renaissance angel; Pet is a biblical angel, whose appearance is terrifying enough to warrant the common command "Don't be afraid." Pet is in Lucille to hunt a monster, one who apparently hasn't been eradicated. Jam recruits her best friend, Redemption, to help her track down the monster threatening the peace in their town.

There were things I liked about this book, namely its magical realism elements, its lovely figurative language, and how it points towards restorative justice as a way towards healing. But I felt like the book was a little unclear on its message about the relationship between humans and monsters. (It didn't help that those fighting for justice are called angels--I assumed figuratively--and then there is a literal angel in the form of Pet.) From the worldbuilding quote above, it seems like monsters are monsters, statically so. They do something bad/oppressive, they're monsters who need to be eradicated and "hunted" by angels like Pet. At the same time, Pet (the apparent center of moral truth in the book) says that human actions are neither right nor wrong, they're just something that are done. This dissonance made it hard to pin down what Emezi had to say about humans who do horrible things--should they be rejected? Rehabilitated? What's the line between an angel, a human, and a monster? Is it really productive to use such heavily religious / moral language to describe human actions? The book is certainly thought-provoking in this regard.

As a YA novel, which this is marketed as, I think that Pet has some interesting moral questions and a likable protagonist, though I'd have liked to see more of Jam's character developed in the book. Towards the end, when they find the monster and uncover their crimes, it gets pretty dark (definitely a CW for abuse), but its themes would resonate with older or more mature readers.

Sometimes the picture you paint is always what it seems. What an interesting and very eye opening way to deal with family issues. The presentation of monster and good and evil to extract out underlying issues is nothing short of extraordinary.

PET is a YA novel marked by some very adult themes. I really appreciate the authors ability to blend very real world difficulties and challenges into a monsters and hunters storyline that should appeal to the demographic at which it is aimed. Reading this story I found it engrossing. In main character Jam we have an interesting, unique character who seems to posses some otherworldly intuitive abilities. Jam provides us with an interesting perspective as a transgender character. Living in a world that is so heavily tainted by issues such as racism and bigotry and in some cases pure evil, it would be nice to imagine that a place like Lucille exists, and that real world monsters don’t exist anymore. This is an appealing story that I would recommend to any age group above 13.