Pet

National Book Award Finalist

Stonewall Book Award Winner

“[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 best-selling 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 the city of 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? 

Stonewall Honor Book

Walter Dean Myers Honor Book

“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)