Pet by Akwaeke Emezi
A New York Times Best Book of the Year
A Time Best Book of the Year
An NPR Favorite Book of the Year
A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year
A BuzzFeed Best YA Book of the Year
Stonewall Book Award Winner
A Walter Dean Myers Honor Book
"[A] beautiful, genre-expanding debut. . . . Pet is a nesting doll of creative possibilities." -The New York Times
The award-winning, genre-defying novel by the New York Times bestselling author of THE DEATH OF VIVEK OJI that explores themes of identity and justice and asks: How do you share the truth when the world around you is in denial?
Pet is here to hunt a monster. Are you brave enough to look?
There are no monsters anymore, or so the children in Lucille are taught. Jam and her best friend, Redemption, have grown up with the lesson that the city is safe for everyone. But when Jam meets Pet, a creature who some might call monstrous but, in reality, is anything but, she must reconsider what she's been told. Pet has emerged from one of her mother's paintings to hunt a true monster--and the shadow of something grim lurks in Redemption's house. No one has encountered monsters in years, though, and Jam's quest to protect her best friend and uncover the truth is met with doubt and disbelief.
This award-winning novel from a rising-star author asks: What really makes a monster, and how do you save the world from something if no one will admit it exists?
"Like [Madeleine] L'Engle, Akwaeke Emezi asks questions of good and evil and agency, all wrapped up in the terrifying and glorious spectacle of fantastical theology." -NPR