Pet

Reviews / Votes

"Chidgey again displays her prodigious talent for psychological suspense and minutely evoking past eras.... Faultless." * The Guardian * "Unnervingly realistic... a chilling tale of childhood vulnerability and violence." * Financial Times * "A sly psychological thriller... Chidgey is an agile writer, and here fuses pacey storytelling with some resonant metaphors." * The Observer * "A lingering, haunting book, which belongs on the shelf with We Have Always Lived in the Castle or My Brilliant Friend - a landmark in the small but potent canon of contemporary novels about unusual girls reckoning with themselves and the world around them." * The New York Times * "Beguiling.... Chidgey's writing is confident and controlled as she pushes the novel towards its dramatic conclusion." * Literary Review * "With precision and economy, Chidgey captures the cruelty of pubescents, as well as the casual racism and misogyny of the time.... an absorbing page-turner." * Daily Mail * "Crisply written and full of moments of delight." * The Independent * "Brimming with nostalgia and a sense of menace." * Best * "In her native New Zealand, Chidgey is a household name and this taut, tense psychological drama deserves to be her breakout book here." * Good Housekeeping * "Pet is an enthralling page-turner, laced with dark ominous themes, examining both the oppressive racism that was rampant in the 1980s and the far-reaching power of the Catholic church." * The Independent * "This is a captivating and often unsettling read....a literary novel with not only nuanced characterisation, vivid descriptions, pitch-perfect dialogue and artful language but also a dramatic story with a propulsive narrative momentum." * NZ Review of Books * "Piercing and magnificent." * The Post NZ * "A page turner." * Newsroom NZ * "Chidgey satisfies and horrifies in equal measure." * Publishers Weekly * "Probes the power of deception, betrayal, religion and childhood in every twist of its mesmerising plot." * Booklist (starred review) * "Damn this book is good." * CrimeReads * "Chidgey is a find." * Times Literary Supplement * "I loved its authentic depiction of school life, the period 1980s detail and the slow build-up of suspense to deliver a shock ending I never saw coming!" * Reading Matters * "A writer of formidable resources, a deft stylist possessed of uncanny imaginative acuity." * The Guardian (on Remote Sympathy) * "An artist who may claim a perfect ear, an exquisite tone." * Evening Post * "Intelligent, lyrical, disciplined and observant, she is the real deal, the star of her generation" * New Zealand Listener magazine * "Highly original and deeply researched, Catherine Chidgey's Remote Sympathy is a powerful and disturbing study in terrible lies and the human need to believe them." * Annie Proulx (on Remote Sympathy) * "A wonderful new talent." * Nick Hornby * "One of the most original, brave and profound explorations of the darkest recesses of the human heart I have ever read." * Sylvia Nasar (on Remote Sympathy) * "A superb character study, delivered with panache." * The Bookseller's "Fiction Book of the Month" * "A remarkable and original writer, whose novels have the golden combination of being both riveting and superbly-written." * Lissa Evans * "A dark and compelling story of guilt and betrayal. Add to it a near-perfect plot twist and you have a novel that lives long in the mind." * Alex Preston * "Catherine Chidgey mobilises the misgivings shared by all children who love and lose, the fear of being odd, the longing to be special, the horror of being supplanted. Pet is a novel hard not to swallow entire in one go, by when the reader will be full of hooks and wary as an old pike." * Candia McWilliam * "Catherine Chidgey brilliantly evokes the very particular preoccupations, fascinations, and cruelties of 11 and 12 year olds. The story is built of details which accumulate in a growing unease till the reader too begins to doubt her own judgement. Rivetingly tense and observant." * Elizabeth Cook * "Refreshing, compelling and surprising, this novel skirts around familiar tropes to deliver something new and troubling. Sharp writing, keen observations and killer wit." * Ann Morgan * "Pet is a page-turning psychological thriller: tense, uncomfortable and completely gripping." * NZ Herald *