Synopsis
Pet is here to hunt a monster.
Are you brave enough to look?
There are no more monsters anymore, or so the children in the city of Lucille are taught. With doting parents and a best friend named Redemption, Jam has grown up with this lesson all her life. But when she meets Pet, a creature made of horns and colours and claws, who emerges from one of her mother’s paintings and a drop of Jam’s blood, she must reconsider what she’s been told. Pet has come to hunt a monster, and the shadow of something grim lurks in Redemption’s house. Jam must fight not only to protect her best friend, but also to uncover the truth, and the answer to the question-How do you save the world from monsters if no one will admit they exist?
In their riveting and timely young adult debut, acclaimed novelist Akwaeke Emezi asks difficult questions about what choices a young person can make when the adults around them are in denial.
The Good
I won this in a bookcon/bookexpo giveaway that READING (As)(I)AN (AM)ERICA did
Let me start off positive
A. There is a lot of representation that is not usually represented in ya: polyamourous relationship, trans, gender nonbinary, wheelchair usage, signing and all the characters (imo) read as African descendants so there is intersectionality.
B. The representation is integrated smoothly into the story meaning all the rep is made to feel common place
C. Once the story got moving (which was a bit after the second half- past 50% point) it became more enjoyable to read.
D. The overall message is good & world is interesting (which frustrates me because there could have been more to this)
E. Leaving the book not feeling a negative type of way (I was fully expecting to get into a reading slump)
The Bad
From page one I did not like this book (which sucks since I won a review copy). First and foremost among the problems is how the story dealt with its messages.
The way the messages were dealt with….
A. It was heavy handed
B. It was not subtle
There is nothing to analyze/meditate/chew on which is a problem for a book that is mostly #message and recognizing evil that does not look evil.
Honestly, what made me kind of mad is this feeling the story is patting itself on the back for saying basic stuff
B. Lacks a bit of complexity
There are really good insightful things that could be said or questioned but we get the easy simple.
C. Telling not showing
You do not get a chance to interpret things because so much is told to you.
D. Not a lot of story movement
I definitely think you should not come into this book expecting a traditional fantasy story.
The Meh
It brought back a lot of my anger about how young adult books deal with serious issues.
Thoughts
Does this read young? Is this intended for middle grade or younger ya? That may be why the messages are very in your face.
Is this the young adult/middle grade fiction version of literary fiction?
Can this be classified as weird fiction?
*image and synopsis are from goodreads*
themollyweather 