Pet
DETAILS: Series: Pet, #1 Publisher: Make Me a World Publication Date: September 10, 2019 Format: Hardcover Length: 203 Read Date: December 19, 2022
Also, the problem is, when you think you’ve been without monsters for so long, sometimes you forget what they look like, what they sound like, no matter how much remembering your education urges you to do. It’s not the same when the monsters are gone. You’re only remembering shadows of them, stories that seem to be limited to the pages or screens you read them from. Flat and dull things. So, yes, people forget. But forgetting is dangerous.
Forgetting is how the monsters come back.
What’s Pet About?
Jam and her best friend, Redemption, live in the city of Lucille—a city that’s evolved beyond things like bigotry, crime, inequality, and more. Just ask anyone who lives there—that’s what they’re told, that’s what they believe.
But then Jam is visited by a creature from another world. This creature is there to hunt—not everything is as good and pure as the people of Lucille believe, and this creature is here to hunt someone hurting someone. And the creature (Pet) wants Jam to help with the hunt. Pet can’t tell Jam what the issue is, their prey is at Redemption’s home.
Redemption tries to tell his family about the problem, but no one believes him—that kind of thing doesn’t happen anymore. Everyone knows that.
The World
Lucille is in many ways a dream city—some sort of revolution occurred (it wasn’t entirely peaceful, but we don’t get details). And a Progressive utopia has been established for a generation or so. No sexism, no bigotry, full equality for all, no ableism, no crime, no want. And everyone (as far as the reader can see) buys into the vision for the city.
Am pretty sure those who aren’t that interested in this vision for life aren’t in Lucille anymore, whether voluntarily or not.
It feels oppressive, honestly. A benevolent oppression, it seems, but I’m not sure that’s really that much better.
One danger of this thorough monoculture, complete with everyone buying into the belief, is that humans aren’t good. There will be problems, criminals, broken people, and those who will find ways to get pleasure from hurting others (in various ways)—in short, sinners (however you want to define sinners). If the cultural orthodoxy is that this has been fixed, no one will look for the outlier. No one will look out for the victim, either. As mentioned in the opening quote—that’s a danger.
Harry Harrison painted a similar picture in his Stainless Steel Rat novels (although his outliers were frequently the heroes of the story as often as the villains—and the government was on the look for them).
Pet
I really liked Pet—particularly as he is in the last third or so of the book. I’m not entirely convinced by all his actions and what he tells Jam about himself at the beginning—it’s not that I think he was lying, I just wonder how consistent he is from beginning to the end.
I figure if I re-read the book a time or two, I’d end up being convinced, though. He’s probably the same being throughout, and I just understood him better at the end. Either way, he’s definitely someone you don’t want hunting you.
So, what did I think about Pet?
I bounced all over when it came to what to say about this novel.
It’s too short, really. Problems arise and are solved too quickly. And some of the rich, deep, thoughts weren’t given enough time and space to breathe—really, everything seemed like it was given short shrift.
But.
Oh man, this was just so wonderfully composed. Not a wasted word. Such a rich amount of world-building went into this—all the characters were so fully realized. And Emezi doesn’t need 3-4 paragraphs to do something like most writers—a sentence or two will do. Lovely and efficient prose.
This makes me think I’m wrong, and the book isn’t too short and everything is given enough space and time. But I’m not.
The worldbuilding alone is fantastic—no matter what I might think of the world. The story is haunting and disturbing in all the right ways. I can easily see why someone would become a big fan of Emezi based on this work, and I’m intrigued by the sequel/companion novel. If this wasn’t so abbreviated, I’d imagine that I’d be a giant fan (or a massive naysayer, come to think of it).
Either way, I’m glad I read this and do recommend it—there’s a lot to chew on here, and I’m looking forward to discussing it with Nisha, who recommended it to me for this Challenge. (I expect a lot of “you just don’t understand, Uncle H.” And I probably don’t)
Quick Update—called it:
This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.
1 Pingback