--- description: Find out why Pet by Akwaeke Emezi is on TIME's list of the best fantasy books of all time title: 'Pet' Is on TIME's List of the 100 Best Fantasy Books image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd0818d318364f5ce/698a132f01168222f797fec8/Pet-Akwaeke-Emezi-100-best-fantasy-books.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Oct 14, 2020 # Pet by Akwaeke Emezi by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  Monsters have been eradicated from the city of Lucille—at least, that’s what everyone is told. But when a creature springs forth from a painting to befriend a trans girl named Jam, the city’s illusions of stability begin to crumble. [Akwaeke Emezi](https://time.com/5738809/best-kids-ya-books-2019/ "undefined") has said their young adult book—which was a 2019 National Book Award Finalist—is an allegory for the United States and the way the country turns a blind eye to its problems, specifically, the high rates of murders of Black trans women. “People aren’t really acknowledging what was happening around us,” they [told Teen Vogue](https://www.teenvogue.com/story/akwaeke-emezi-pet "undefined") in 2019\. “I wanted to tell a story where a young person is in the middle of that… How do you deal with the problem if no one else will look at it?” **Buy Now:** _Pet_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9780525647072 "undefined") | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/2I0GXFp "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-best-fantasy-books/5898533/pet/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-best-fantasy-books/5898533/pet/"},"headline":"'Pet' Is on TIME's List of the 100 Best Fantasy Books","datePublished":"2020-10-14T20:08:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:42:58.662Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-best-fantasy-books/5898533/pet/","keywords":["Books","list"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd0818d318364f5ce/698a132f01168222f797fec8/Pet-Akwaeke-Emezi-100-best-fantasy-books.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd0818d318364f5ce/698a132f01168222f797fec8/Pet-Akwaeke-Emezi-100-best-fantasy-books.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-best-fantasy-books/5898533/pet/","name":"'Pet' Is on TIME's List of the 100 Best Fantasy Books"}}]}] ```