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Like every other girl in her class, twelve-year-old Justine is drawn to her glamorous, charismatic new teacher and longs to be her pet. However, when a thief begins to target the school, Justine's sense that something isn't quite right grows ever stronger. With each twist of the plot, this gripping story of deception and the corrosive power of guilt takes a yet darker turn. Young as she is, Justine must decide where her loyalties lie.
Set in New Zealand in the 1980s and probing themes of racism, misogyny and the oppressive reaches of Catholicism, Pet will take a rightful place next to other classic portraits of childhood betrayal: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Go-Between, Heavenly Creatures and Au Revoir Les Enfants among them.
Set in New Zealand in the 1980s and probing themes of racism, misogyny and the oppressive reaches of Catholicism, Pet will take a rightful place next to other classic portraits of childhood betrayal: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Go-Between, Heavenly Creatures and Au Revoir Les Enfants among them.
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Reviews
"Unnervingly realistic… a chilling tale of childhood vulnerability and violence."
Financial Times
"Catherine Chidgey mobilises the misgivings shared by all children who love and lose, the fear of being odd, the longing to be special, the horror of being supplanted. Pet is a novel hard not to swallow entire in one go, by when the reader will be full of hooks and wary as an old pike."
Candia McWilliam
"Catherine Chidgey brilliantly evokes the very particular preoccupations, fascinations, and cruelties of 11 and 12 year olds. The story is built of details which accumulate in a growing unease till the reader too begins to doubt her own judgement. Rivetingly tense and observant."
Elizabeth Cook
"Refreshing, compelling and surprising, this novel skirts around familiar tropes to deliver something new and troubling. Sharp writing, keen observations and killer wit."
Ann Morgan