Great Reads for Great Readers

Pet, by Catherine Chidgey.

 

        
    Catherine Chidgey proves that the acclamation earned by ‘The Axeman’s Carnival’ and her earlier novels was fully justified.  Her boundless imagination and dazzling skill at creating characters that are all too horrifyingly credible is beautifully realised in the story which opens in 2014 when Justine Crieve is visiting her father in Dementia care:  the new carer who is helping her father looks just like someone from her childhood that she would rather forget, generating harsh memories of a class of 12 year-old children who happily come under the sway of their new teacher, Mrs Price.

            Mrs Price is almost impossibly glamorous.  She drives a white left-hand drive Corvette (it only has two seats – how exciting is that!), wears the latest fashions, calls everyone darling, and generally captivates all (except the overweight mums, who are inclined to mutter nasty asides to each other about her not being all that she should be), and she goes to Sunday Mass as a teacher at a Wellington Catholic school should.  There are rumours that she has been the victim of a tragedy;  her husband and little daughter died in a car accident in Auckland, but no-one wants to ask her any questions – who would want to resurrect such sorrow?  Regardless, every child in her class wants to be her ‘Pet’, that exalted, favoured position whereby certain children are allowed to clean the blackboard and dusters after school, tidy the stationery cupboard, dish out papers to the mere mortals, and generally bask in the warmth and outright favouritism of being Special.

            Justine Crieve and her best friend Amy Fong would both love to be Pets, but know it will never happen:  Justine has seizures and her Mum died of breast cancer a year ago.  Her dad isn’t managing at all well and is drinking a lot.  Amy is Chinese;  her family owns the fruit and veg shop, but much as they try they’re not fitting in;  instead both girls imitate (unkindly) the Pets.

            Until Justine is brought home by Mrs Price after a seizure, and the two adults find they have much in common, including prior tragedies.  And it’s not long before Justine becomes a Pet – at the expense of her friendship with Amy, who thinks Mrs Price is a thief:  she saw her pinch Jasmine Tea from her parents’ shop!  And what about all the stuff missing from the classroom since Mrs Price started?  Justine refuses to hear anything nasty about her heroine, for Mrs Price and her father are getting married – and taking her on their honeymoon!  Amy can go and get forgotten about.

            Catherine Chidgey has created a thriller which has more twists and turns than a pretzel, all of them clever and unexpected.  And tragic.  The sadness doesn’t end, right down to the last word.  FIVE STARS.