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Lädt ... Pet (2023. Auflage)von Catherine Chidgey (Autor)
Werk-InformationenPet von Catherine Chidgey
Lädt ...
Melde dich bei LibraryThing an um herauszufinden, ob du dieses Buch mögen würdest. Keine aktuelle Diskussion zu diesem Buch. This is an anxiety inducing book. A 12-YO girl wants to be loved and accepted by her teacher. When theft in her classroom occurs blame goes all around, altering lives forever. Turns out, an adult is manipulating an innocent vulnerable girl, gaslighting her. The more the manipulation continued the more stressed I got. It reminds me of Stephen King’s short story The Apt Pupil, which was much more disturbing. But I got the same ill vibes from this book. Fortunately it has a satisfying ending. But major trigger warnings if you don’t care to read about kids being so badly taken advantage of. From New Zealand, it's a psychological thriller taking place in a Catholic school, where a manipulative teacher plays favorites, and drives a wedge between our narrator and her best friend. Justine's mother recently died of breast cancer, so she's extra vulnerable. The story is narrator in part by the 12 year old Justine, and partly by an adult Justine, who struggles with the care of her father, who is in a dementia facility. I am not a huge fan of either psychological thrillers or child narrators, but this was pretty good. Lots of issues raised, gender roles, racism, personal responsibility. It made me think, and at times made me uncomfortable.
This dark novel probes the power of deception, betrayal, religion, and childhood in every twist of its mesmerizing plot. Lovers of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and Donna Tartt's The Secret History will want to read this compelling novel by an award-winning New Zealand author. AuszeichnungenPrestigeträchtige AuswahlenBemerkenswerte Listen
"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. 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 and psychological suspense: Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures, Peter Weir's Picnic at Hanging Rock, and Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping among them."-- Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
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Google Books — Lädt ... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.92Literature English English fiction Modern Period 2000-Klassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt:
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There are two timelines. Most of the events take place in 1984 in Wellington, New Zealand. Twelve-year-old Justine Crieve, like virtually all of her classmates, is drawn to Mrs. Price, their glamorous and charismatic teacher. Justine is very happy when she is chosen as one of the teacher’s pets. However when items start going missing in the classroom, including a special pen owned by Justine, she senses that something is not quite right. Then when her best friend, Amy Fong, is scapegoated as the thief, Justine must decide where her loyalties lie.
The second timeline is 2014. Justine is visiting her father in a nursing home and meets one of his caregivers who looks very much like Mrs. Price. This encounter has Justine remembering the events of 30 years earlier. It is made clear early on that something dramatic happened because Justine foreshadows that “everything went wrong.”
The uncertainty of what is really going on and what will happen creates suspense. To complicate matters, Justine has epilepsy and her memory of events just before and after a seizure is often foggy. Her unreliability as a narrator adds to the tension.
Characterization also adds to the uncertainty. Mrs. Price is enigmatic and that is part of her allure. There is certainly a dichotomy between her sweetness which seems superficial and some of her behaviour which borders on sadism. She creates an atmosphere of competitiveness amongst her pupils, though she repeats that they are all family. When Justine gets to know her teacher better, there are more questions. What are those pills that Mrs. Price is always taking? One of Justine’s friends says Mrs. Price is manipulative and that struck me as the perfect adjective. Because Justine’s mother died recently, Mrs. Price takes advantage of Justine’s vulnerability.
It is not just Mrs. Price’s actions and words that are unsettling. The book includes examples of racism, bullying, objectification of women, and colonial mentality. For instance, Amy, because she is of Asian heritage, is routinely bullied and ostracized; more than once Amy is taunted to kill herself, yet Mrs. Price does nothing. Body-shaming comments are made about beauty pageant contestants and other girls in the class. And Mrs. Price teaches that the Aboriginal People were “among the most primitive on earth.”
The book is well-written. I especially loved some of the symbolism. The axolotl works well in showing how Mrs. Price treats the children: just as the students become bored with the amphibian, she becomes bored with one pet and moves on to another. And the reference to the axolotl’s ability to regenerate (“Resurrecting all the damaged and amputated parts of herself, and living forever”) is a perfect description of a character.
Though the novel begins slowly, my interest was caught immediately and I found it difficult to pull myself away from it. I certainly recommend it to those who enjoy psychological suspense.
Note: Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/) and follow me on Twitter (https://twitter.com/DCYakabuski). ( )