Jam and Redemption go to the library, where they find pamphlets on child abuse from before the Revolution. She tells Redemption about Pet but not about where the monster resides. Jam learns that monsters and angels are both people and does not know what to do. Though Pet encourages her to see “the unseen,” Jam is unable to identify the monster. Redemption lives with his younger brother, Moss, and his polyamorous parents. Jam goes to Redemption’s house to search for the monster. Jam pretends to obey but refuses to put Redemption at risk. They tell Jam to send Pet back from where it came. Bitter and Aloe refuse to believe that there could be a monster in Lucille. Pet confronts Jam’s parents, and Jam discovers that Bitter’s art has come to life before. Pet tells Jam that the monster is in the house of Jam’s best friend, Redemption. Pet tells Jam that it is not a monster it is there to hunt a monster and needs Jam’s help. The creature communicates telepathically with Jam, and it tells her to call it “Pet.” Though Jam fears Pet, she does not believe that something her mother created can hurt her. It is faceless, but has Bitter’s hands, and is covered in golden feathers with ram’s horns, golden claws, and goat hooves for feet.

A large creature emerges through the canvas. One day, Jam cuts her hand on a razor blade embedded in one of her mother’s paintings and bleeds on the canvas. Jam’s parents, Bitter and Aloe, support Jam’s curiosity about monsters and encourage her to think critically. The protagonist of the novel is a 15-year-old Black transgender girl named Jam who selectively uses sign language to communicate (she only speaks verbally to her mother) and has anxiety, often communicating in sign language. The residents love their peaceful town, and the adults maintain that there are no more monsters left in Lucille. The town of Lucille, the birthplace of the Revolution, is peopled by African Americans from across the diaspora. Anti-gay and anti-trans hatred as well as racism are now relics of the past. These “angels” represent the revolutionaries who abolished prisons, prosecuted and rehabilitated corrupt police officers, and removed statues of slave-owners and racists.

In the future, children are taught that “angels” rid America of monsters and the world is now completely safe. In Pet, “monsters” represent all the evils, systemic inequalities, and injustice that exist in a society. Pet takes place in a utopian future after a revolution that vanquished all monsters from the world. Please be aware that Pet includes depictions of child sexual and physical abuse.

Pet emezi review