Several weeks back, @burtonmotherbookers posted about the novel Pet, by Catherine Chidgey, and I was so intrigued I immediately ordered a copy from @huxandhiro. The cover of the Europa edition is just fantastic. It begins in Auckland, New Zealand in 2014, as Justine is visiting her elderly father in a care home. A familiar face shocks her to remembering thirty years earlier, when she was 12 years old and in thrall to a charismatic teacher, Mrs. Price, at her Wellington Catholic school. What follows is a deliciously suspenseful story, as Mrs. Price lies and manipulates her way into the hearts of all in her orbit. Well, almost all. I was 11 years old in 1984, and I could relate enough to Justine’s experience as a child of that time, as well as her grief from losing her mother to cancer. I felt the early teen dynamics, that push-pull of childhood and maturing, the ways in which children can be cruel to one another, was all done very well. I’ll definitely be looking to read more of Chidgey’s books.