The dialogue between adults/of Pet is directly moralistic, which is unfortunate because with so many people around her making observations about the morality of the world, it seems as if Jam has less to discover on her own. In the end, PET is an unsuccessful mélange of A MONSTER CALLS, THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE, and an Aesop fable. Yet, that element of the plot is buried quite deeply underneath the meandering narrative, which is trying very hard to be so many things - a parable, a coming-of-age, a utopia-gone-wrong - that it doesn’t actually achieve any of them. The book is marketed as a tale about young people who need to save the world from monsters, a near-impossible feat when the world doesn’t believe that monsters exist anymore.

Its name is Pet, and it tells Jam that there’s a real monster hiding in her best friend Redemption’s house. However, Jam soon learns that this monster isn’t one of the bad ones of the days of yore, but instead a monster hunter, one who is here to help. Her parents tell her that Bitter’s paintings have come to life before and now Jam must send it back to where it came from. Later, Jam accidentally brings the monster to life when she trips and slices herself on the razor blades. She returns home to her mother, an artist named Bitter, and stays with her in her art studio as Bitter paints a large portrait of a cream-colored creature with razor blades poking out of its fur. These angels are nothing like the people in her town that had conquered the monsters, and she doesn’t like that things don’t appear to the eye as they truly are. One day, Jam is inspired to check out some books in the library about angels and finds old religious images that frighten her. (Metaphorical angels like lawyers and judges and activists and metaphorical monsters like murderers and rapists and cons.) They live in a city called Lucille during a time when all of the monsters of the world have been conquered by angels. PET by Akwaeke Emezi is about a young girl named Jam, her best friend Redemption, and their families.

Akwaeke emezi pet