Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - Pet

Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Pet by Akwaeke Emezi

46 reviews

hobbithopeful's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Lyrical, magical, I love Emezis' style of storytelling and writing. I had read Bitter awhile ago, and finally got around to reading this one. (I know going backwards!) I really love the message of this and the writing style. Check your content warnings, a lot of the subject will hit very close to home for a lot of people. The differences in how Bitter and Jam each approach "their monster" is very interesting and I want to go reread Bitter again to compare, and see how the characters used to be.
Perfect for all ages, highly recommend.

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te_ss_i's review against another edition

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dark emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

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julieyael's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This was absolutely not what I was expecting (I bought it as a horrir book. Well, it’s about another, more real, kind of horror)
I enjoyed the way it’s written bringing tension to the story.

I would have liked a deeper character building, but the novel is quite short, so maybe there was not space for it.

I also felt that the particularities of the characters were a bit forced. It’s interesting and nice to find such a diverse set of characters and families, but sometimes it felt a bit artificial.

Maybe if it had been written as an adult novel, not YA, it would have been more to my taste.

Overall, the book finds its purpose and is a good read, and I am sure it will find a good audience and be useful and meaningful to a lot of people.
It just didn’t « click » for me.
I am glad I read it once, but it probably wonnt go on my list of novels that I can read twice (or more).

Also, the subject is pretty heavy and the warnings should be taken seriously.

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breadbummer's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

More fast-paced than I was expecting, but that might just be because I'm not used to listening to audiobooks, nor am I used to getting through a book in two days lol; I guess it might also be that books for younger audiences tend to be faster reads in my experience. In any case, I don't think I've ever read a book quite like this, probably because Black queer stories are so often under-celebrated by the whole of society. It was very refreshing to see a type of utopia centered very specifically around these two intersecting identities, especially with biblical fantasy elements tied into it. For how dark this book could get, it was an amazingly colorful read/listen!

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softgalaxy's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This was a very short read, which is my biggest criticism. But overall, a solid read.

It’s a very haunting story to read when you live in a world that has the very popular phrase “fake news”. This book was much larger than itself. Literally, like Pet. As you read, you feel the real world loom over you.

I really liked the lack of emphasis on Jam’s trans identity. Sometimes in books, there has to be a whole chapter dedicated to a character and their struggles being trans. Jam was just transgender and that was that. Trans people just exist.

Spoiler

Pet was a bizarre ‘monster’ - you sadly don’t get to understand where Pet comes from - like why did it come out of a painting? Obviously there’s a lot of symbolism to unpack, but you really could be here all day.

The reason this review is not a full 5 stars is because of the ending - it seemed to backtrack on everything the book was saying.

Spoiler

Making an evil character have a physical flaw is a harmful ableist trope.

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