If these questions sound familiar, it’s because, despite Pet being placed a few generations past 2022, they’re grappling with a lot of the same problems of this time.

How do you look at what you’ve been told doesn’t exist? How do you “see” what isn’t real (to you and your society)? To see the hurt, you have to be open to seeing what fear and conditioning say to look away from. To see the monster, you have to see the hurt. Problem is, according to the adults in Lucille - especially Jam’s parents Bitter and Aloe - there are no (free) monsters.Īnother difficulty is that a monster doesn’t look like anything specific and can be anyone. So, what is a monster? And how do you find one? Jam knows what she’s been told: A monster is someone that hurts others, feeds off hurt, or willfully contributes to it. The protagonist of Pet is 15-year-old Jam, living in post-revolution Lucille.Ī little tidbit I learned: Jam’s name is a portmanteau of the Igbo words ja mu, meaning “praise me.” Jam spends her time like most kids her age: at school, hanging out with her best friend Redemption, going to the library, and accidentally summoning an angelic (in the biblically accurate sense) monster hunter, known as Pet. In the speculative young adult novel Pet and its prequel Bitter, Akwaeke Emezi explores the possibilities and responsibilities of revolution and world-making. What does a different world feel like? How do we get there? The Autostraddle Encyclopedia of Lesbian Cinema.LGBTQ Television Guide: What To Watch Now.

Bitter akwaeke