Pet

This gives off bad vibes (in a good way) from the start, and my mind was filling in the blanks every time we switched timelines, looking for the slightest clue .
I filled in a few , but got a surprise or two too.
It's a proper page turner, that I did not want to put down.

Most enjoyable.

I loved this! Justine looks back at her 80s childhood, when a charismatic, glamorous new teacher arrives at their New Zealand Catholic school and everyone wants to be her pet.

Once I got a few chapters in I just couldn‘t put it down. It‘s dark and twisty, but not in a ‘terrible‘ way like the author‘s recent book, Remote Sympathy; more in a ‘I need to inhale this all in one go‘ way.

4.5 stars rounded up to 5

I absolutely loved this sinister yet deeply human story of a woman looking back on how an experience as the 'pet' of her beloved teacher, Mrs Price, changed the course of her life forever. Charming and affectionate, Mrs Price is likely to remind every reader of their favourite childhood teacher - but it becomes clear very quickly that all is not as it seems, and as the story unravels the horrifying truth is revealed to us piece by piece. Comparisons with 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' are bound to be made, but the author has skilfully taken that mantle and made this story stand firmly on its own two feet. A seriously compelling read with characters who feel very real and a coming-of-age story that will break your heart. Bravo.

I was a bit staggered at how compelling this book is. It's certainly an easy read which usually means not much will surprise me. However Catherine Chidgey has served up a wonderful slow burner that oozes menace and evil.

The story is split into two timelines: 2014 when the adult Justine is visiting her ailing father with her own daughter and 1984 which covers the main event of the motherless Justine's school days.

Mrs Price is Justine's form teacher in primary school and everyone wants to be the beautiful and charismatic teacher's pet. But Mrs Price only seems to pick the beautiful children whereas Justine and her best friend, Amy, do not fit into that category.

As Justine tries to inveigle her way into Mrs Price's good books a thief begins to take the things most precious to each class member. Nobody knows who is taking things and Mrs Price uses her own special way of ferreting put the truth. As more things go missing Justine has to make a choice of who she believes to be the thief and which way her loyalties lie.

Pet is a masterful telling of a story which we could all see in ourselves -- the desire to be admired, the need to be felt indispensable, the overwhelming need to fit in at school. Justine's loyalties are pulled in opposing directions on a daily basis, all while she is trying to come to terms with the loss of her mother and deal with his father's increasing drinking.

I got to about a third of the way through this book then found myself staying up way past midnight in order to know how it finished. Catherine Chidgey's Mrs Price is such an incredible character and the way she uses her popularity to manipulate situations is so cleverly done. I spent quite a bit of time talking to the characters to tell them what I thought of them then then next minute wondering if I, like Justine had misremembered a certain event.

If anything I'd advise you to read this story carefully and not rush through as you will find yourself wanting to do. This is my first experience of Catherine Chidgey's writing but I'm definitely going to find more. This was excellent. It deserves every bit of praise heaped on it.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Europa Editions for the advance review copy.

An absolute page turner a book with a chilling undertone.A new charismatic teacher a group of young girls who want nothing more but to be noticed by her picked out as her special student.There is an underlying feeling of evil something not quite right& when items of student’s start to go missing this book becomes unputdownable.So well written so haunting.# netgalley #europabooks

Pet is a novel about a charismatic teacher who holds a grip over a class, and what happens when things start to go wrong. Justine wants to be Mrs Price's pet, as do the rest of her class, including her best friend Amy. They all want to be allowed to do little errands for their teacher and feel the warmth of her gaze, rather than her unfair dislike. When Justine gets her wish and finds herself centre of attention, she's thrilled, but when a thief strikes the class over and over again, things start to get murkier, and Justine is pulled between loyalties.

The narrative is split between the 1980s, when Justine was 12, and her as an adult, dealing with a ghost from the past. The book doesn't feel the need to fill in every gap using this split narrative, like some books do, and it works as a way of having a more grown up perspective on something that happened to a 12 year old. The story itself is a classic tale of childhood betrayal by an adult who seemed too good, and it's easy to see this coming throughout the book, from Mrs Price's unfair favouritism and purposeful divisive actions to more dramatic elements later on. The twists tend to be quite obvious, but this seems like it is to show what a child would miss whereas an adult might notice if not taken in by the charisma of the teacher.

I've not read many books from New Zealand and this one explores some themes in the background, like racism and the influence of Catholicism, to paint a picture of 1980s Wellington in terms of social attitudes. Written in a straightforward style, it is readable and gripping, with a few elements that aren't fully formed (like Justine's epilepsy which is a plot device and only ever treated as one).

‘Pet’ is a psychological thriller set in New Zealand
The main character, Justine is a 12 year old girl who like her fellow classmate’s are all drawn to the new and glamorous teacher, Mrs Price.
I was hooked from the start! There’s a lot of questionable behaviour from Mrs Price, but everyone adores her, so she seems to get away with a multitude of things.
Justine is obsessed with being her pet, but eventually realised she’s not as perfect as she makes out.
A really well written and enjoyable story!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A thrilling novel of deception and childhood vulnerability. I read this in one sitting as it gripped me throughout.

I'm very fussy about thrillers. The market is saturated with thrillers and crime fiction, and it's very difficult to find a thriller or suspense novel that really stands out from the crowd. Pet met the brief for me, and then some.

The short blurb about Pet, together with Catherine Chidgey's pedigree as a writer (she was longlisted for the Women's Prize and shorlisted for the Dublin Literary Award for the excellent Remote Sympathy) were enough to sell this one to me when I saw it on Netgalley. Mostly set in Wellington, New Zealand in 1984, here's the short description I read:

"When a charismatic new teacher arrives, everyone longs to be her pet. A gripping story of deception and guilt, set in a Catholic school during the 1980s."

I think this is all you should really know about the story going into it, suffice to say that this is a chilling and suspenseful tale that I had to *force* myself to put down.

The reliability of memory, the laissez-faire parenting of the 80s, the dominance of the Catholic Church, together with the casual racism and accepted misogyny of the time, are all explored with a deftness and skill that really wowed me. Superb and definitely a favourite read of the year. Bravo Catherine Chidgey. 5/5 stars

*Many thanks to the author, publisher @europaeditions @europaeditionsuk for the advance copy of Pet, which was published this week. As always, this is an honest review."

Pet is the teacher's pet in the form of 12 year old Justine and her teacher, Mrs Price. It is set in New Zealand and we meet the motherless Justine as she revisits her elderly father many years after the events that changed their life. The story is told through two timelines: 2014 and the flashback to Justine's childhood in the 1980s.

Justine and her best friend Amy long to catch the eye of their charismatic teacher, just like their more attractive classmates do. But when Justine becomes the centre of Mrs Price's attention Amy is not so sure that all is well. Their relationship suffers further when Amy is accused of being a thief. When Mrs Price begins to date Justine's father, who is desperate for love and companionship just as Justine is desperately missing her mother, everything appears to be rosy...

Pet is a wonderful psychological thriller with a twist I did not see coming. The themes of childhood betrayal and the hold a charismatic teacher can have on pupils is well described. This book deserves to do well and I highly recommend it Many thanks to NetGalley and Europa Editions for the opportunity to read and review Pet.


An enjoyable and intriguing read which kept me guessing until the end.

A new teacher arriving at a school, followed by rumours of her past. The pupils are all quickly enamoured but is everything as it seems? A brilliant chilling read that kept me on edge until the very end.

In 'Pet', Catherine Chidgey offers a masterful study of power, control and abuse set in a New Zealand Catholic primary school in the 1980s. We are first introduced to the narrator Justine as an adult in 2014 as she cares for her father who is suffering from dementia, before she looks back on her final year of primary school when she and her classmates fell under the spell of their attractive and charismatic teacher Mrs Price. Mrs Price likes to have favourites, and Justine and her classmates are only too happy to compete to be her "pet"; Justine's status of class favourite appears to be bolstered by her widowed father's blossoming relationship with Mrs Price but a spate of petty thefts create a growing sense of conflict and unease between the children and leads Justine to question Mrs Price's actions.

I found this an utterly compelling read which works both as a taut thriller and an insightful exploration of the particular vulnerabilities of childhood, especially for girls like Justine and her classmates on the cusp of adolescence. Chidgey captures the anxieties and social pressures facing girls of this age perfectly, as well as specific factors relating to religion and ethnicity. In many ways this novel is reminiscent of Muriel Spark's 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie', but Chidgey is prepared to take the consequences of Mrs Price's narcissism somewhere even darker. As the novel progresses it takes on a nightmarish quality as Justine becomes increasingly convinced that things are not as they should be but is unable to convince anyone else in authority of this and continues to doubt herself.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC of this superb novel to review.

Set in New Zealand in 1984 and 2014, this follows Justine and her relationship with her primary teacher Mrs Price. The “pet” of the title refers to a teachers pet, which is what Justine wants to be and does become.

A very easy read that builds the tension quite nicely. Well written a sly psychological thriller.

Need to look up the author and read some more of hers.

Thanks to Netgallery for the ARC