author portrait by beowulf sheehan | custom cover art by shyama golden

PET

A NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST

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  STONEWALL BOOK AWARD WINNER
       WALTER DEAN MYERS HONOR BOOK 
  

Pet is here to hunt a monster. Are you brave enough to look?

There are no monsters anymore, or so the children in the city of Lucille are taught. Jam and her best friend, Redemption, have grown up with this lesson all their life. But when Jam meets Pet, a creature made of horns and colors 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 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 you can make when the society around you is in denial.

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Make Me a World/Random House Children's Books (US) Faber & Faber (UK) • Farafina (Nigeria)


Praise

Finalist for the National Book Award in Young People's Literature 2019

  A New York Times Best Book of the Year
Time Best Book of the Year
An NPR Favorite Book of the Year
School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
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   

“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

“The word hype was invented to describe books like this.” –Refinery29

“A unique science fiction tale.” –Essence

“With great tenderness, Pet questions a society silenced by denial.” –Observer

“A riveting and timely work answering the questions about how you go about the world when the world around you is in denial.” –Out Magazine

“This soaring novel shoots for the stars and explodes the sky with its bold brilliance.” —Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

“A compelling, nuanced tale that fans of speculative horror will quickly devour.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

A riveting and important read that couldn’t be more well timed to our society’s struggles with its own monsters.“ —School Library Journal, Starred Review

“Jam is also notable as a Black, trans protagonist in this important narrative that teens will want to read to gain some perspective on the modern political environment.” —Bulletin, Starred Review

“Emezi’s characters are diverse in race, physical ability and especially gender…. Readers might see in Jam’s surroundings a version of a world that they, like Jam, might choose to fight for.” —BookPage, Starred Review

“A haunting and poetic work of speculative fiction.” —The Horn Book

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