This week's Shop Talk features Pet, the debut YA novel from writer and visual artist Akwaeke Emezi. Carle Bookshop team members Hannah and Allie talked for more than an hour over Zoom about their reactions to the book, and especially its courageous and brilliant characters.

In the story, a Black trans teenager named Jam and her best friend Redemption live in the town of Lucille. There are no monsters anymore, or so the children of Lucille are taught. Jam has questions about the past, and when she meets Pet, a horned and clawed creature who emerges from one of her mother’s paintings, she must reconsider what she’s been told. 

Pet is a book that asks us big questions, and Jam is a literary character who will not be easily forgotten as she uses her courage, strength, love, and brilliance to fight for what’s right and protect the ones she loves.