HIGHLIGHTS
~when I tell you that both the US and UK covers accurately represent the story
~this time the monster’s an ACTUAL monster
~wigs
~hurt the giant blue bear and you die
~gold is not a good metal for armour
~kissing = failed cannibalism
~gods damned rosemary

TW for mentions and some discussions of trauma and abuse.

John Wiswell really said “Monster romance? I’ll show you monster romance!” and gave us Someone You Can Build a Nest In.

Which: everyone else can go home, Wiswell wins. It’s not even close.

Because Shesheshen is an actual monster. Not a human with sexy fangs; not attractively muscly under unusually- but prettily-coloured skin; not an unexpectedly aesthetically-pleasing demon under the bed. A gross, icky blob of a monster, who eats humans in graphic detail. All the things monster romances usually give us – the monster being HotTM actually; the monster only eating nightmares or just a sip of blood or only really bad people; the monster willingly declawing themself for the sake of their human romantic interest – none of that’s a thing here. Shesheshen is anything but conventionally attractive; she is definitely not a vegan; she is extremely dangerous and always will be. Everything about her is a challenge: Can you, the reader, become attached to and invested in and deeply care about a monster who hits a lot of your ick buttons? Can Wiswell make you love her?

The answer to both those questions is – Oh my gods, YES!!!

Because – despite finding fly eggs in the corpse-leg she’s eating the equivalent of sprinkles on ice-cream – Shesheshen is ENORMOUSLY relatable. Don’t we all wish we could bite the heads off the idiots who wake us up before we’re finished sleeping? Doesn’t everyone want to murder their mother in law?? Is there truly anyone who doesn’t struggle to eat spaghetti neatly??? These are problems I think most of us can empathise or with!

Dressing up so that you could eat never made sense to Shesheshen; the food was typically dead and surely unimpressed with its audience.

Shesheshen is the weird alien creature for all of us who ever felt, or still feel like, weird alien creatures; her absolute bafflement when it comes to human behaviour isn’t just hilarious to read, or good worldbuilding (although it is both), but as an autistic reader, it also serves as both validation and relief. Yes, humans do things that make no sense!!! Thank you!!! SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE AT THE BACK!!! So while I do not want to start nomming on my fellow humans, I did feel at home with Shesheshen; this is someone whose mind words very similarly to mine, and that will never stop feeling like a Big Deal when I get to encounter it in fiction. I don’t just love Shesheshen because she’s funny and socially awkward and is a murderous goo-monster (although I do love her for all those things); it’s also because I GET her. And I know I’m not going to be the only reader who feels that way. I love encountering characters who really Are Not Human because they’re interesting, and their perspective on humanity is interesting, but it’s also because I tend to identify with them really hard.

I have Feels about this, okay?

Romance was awful. She couldn’t even do something as simple as murdering rude people anymore.

Besides, ironically, but perhaps not unexpectedly, Shesheshen really is the least fucked-up character in the book. Her thoughts on Homily’s horrifically abusive family, in particular, are going to resonate with anyone who’s ever been in, or been the audience to, a toxic relationship. Shesheshen is too often the only voice of reason in a cacophony of awful or brutalised people; she’s far more human than most of the named characters, a writerly choice that’s both poignant and pointed.

Baroness Wulfyre was an obvious abuser. Surely anyone, even humans, could see why Homily ran away from her family so frequently.

Which leads us to the really, REALLY excellent way Wiswell writes trauma; it’s arguably its own separate plotline throughout the book. I hope Wiswell is not writing from personal experience, but there were times I wanted to claw my own skin off because the scenes were so intensely authentic – and other times I wished I could dive into the pages and murder certain characters, and hug other ones (mostly Homily) very, very tightly. A lot about Someone You Can Build a Nest In is very funny: this is not. Wiswell doesn’t play the trauma for laughs but deals with it respectfully and honestly, perfectly capturing how emotional and verbal abuse can do as much damage – or even more, in the wrong circumstances – as physical abuse. Homily’s family are, to put it mildly, fucking awful, and as heartbreaking as it is to see Homily caught in their riptide… I really appreciated that we also got to see Shesheshen’s wrestling with loving a traumatised person; not (just) in the sense of, I need to help and support this person I care about and that is a complicated and difficult thing to do, but also…falling in love with a traumatised person often means you have fallen for someone shaped by their trauma. Someone who wouldn’t exist without the trauma they went through. Speaking as an abuse survivor now – I’ve never heard anyone say that. I’ve never seen that idea, that thought, put into words before. It is messy and ugly and uncomfortable and true, and I am really grateful for it; as grateful as I am that Wiswell put it on the page as gently and deftly as he did.

This was the same mistake so many humans made: believing someone would leap over trauma when it hurt them badly enough.

That wasn’t how it worked, and the monster knew it. All Shesheshen could do for Homily was be patient with her, and make space for her, and eventually, one day behind her back, eat her mother.

Yeah, this book really hit me hard. I do not regret it in the least. It’s more than just a good book to me; more than just a fun book, an interesting book, a well-written book. It’s deeply personal and meaningful and it slipped under my skin and I’m keeping it there, like Shesheshen and her bear-trap teeth!

Now Homily’s hands muffled a guffaw. It sounded even cuter between her fingers, like the mating call of a sad moose with a cold.

Onto the prose!

Yet another thing that makes Someone You Can Build a Nest In really gods-damn excellent is the way Wiswell uses words – and the way he absolutely commits to writing from a monster’s POV. Some storytellers would simply go ‘wow look at the weird humans being weird’ and leave it at that, but here, Shesheshen’s inherent unhumanness is inextricable from the prose itself. It’s there in the similes and metaphors and imagery Shesheshen uses, and that seats us in the monster’s perspective like few other stories I’ve ever seen. I said earlier that I love how much Shesheshen’s take on humanity overlaps with my own autism, but even the most socially adept readers are going to get Shesheshen because of lines like this

The clouds had run away, ceding the sky to the moon’s dominance and the tapestries of the cosmos.

First off, that is just a very cool image beautifully worded. But it’s also immersing us in Shesheshen’s experience and views of the world. She’s a predator, and nearly everything she sees or thinks or goes through is filtered through that. And by writing in this way, Wiswell makes sure that we see through her eyes too; we absorb her perspective. It’s subtle and brilliant, and proof that you don’t have to write in first-person to get your readers inside your character’s skin.

…Er, so to speak. What with Shesheshen not actually having skin, really. My point stands!

Shesheshen was sure she was smitten. She wanted to spend the entire night devouring everyone in this dance hall with Homily.

A big, heart-warming, absolutely-brought-tears-to-my-eyes part of Shesheshen’s perspective is the body-positivity. Homily, Shesheshen’s beloved, is fat. Plus-sized. Whatever you’d like to call it. And Shesheshen thinks it’s beautiful. Not because it means there’s more of her to eat, either (Shesheshen doesn’t WANT to eat Homily; she wants to eat stupid people WITH Homily. Important distinction!) but because Shesheshen…finds Homily’s size comforting and lovely and attractive. Homily’s weight or size come up over and over across the course of this book, and not ONCE is it in negative terms. Instead we get lines like this

Their bodies eclipsed, Shesheshen’s narrower frame sinking against the protective warmth of the human woman’s chest and belly.

or this

This time when Homily laughed, all the ripples in her large body resonated against Shesheshen. It was better than warmth. It was hypnotic. It was a generosity of skin, like all of Homily was consensually shapeshifting for her, taking the form of shelter.

Homily’s fatness is always portrayed this way; comforting, protective, likened to nests and safe spaces, entrancing. The bit above, about Homily’s shape almost shapeshifting for Shesheshen, is obviously a huge deal for a monstrous shapeshifter who’s never met another of her own kind! And I love it so much; I love getting to see a plus-sized character loved because of her size, not despite it. I loved Shesheshen’s complete lack of human fatphobia. I loved being told, over and over, that a character who looks something like me is beautiful.

WHO GAVE WISWELL PERMISSION TO HIT ME THIS HARD IN THE FEELS?

And look, I could stay here another month, talking about how this monstrous-horror-comedy-fantasy also manages to be anti-capitalist and critique human power structures (especially ones tied up with generational wealth and influence) and quietly but emphatically insist on the importance of consent. I really could! It is just flat-out amazing how much Wiswell manages to weave into this, how he’s telling a fantastic story that manages to make me laugh, cry, flail, AND want to become an anarchist-punk, without ever feeling like he’s lecturing or pushing messaging onto the reader. It all flows together so naturally – like Shesheshen taking on a new shape!

Actually, a lot more gracefully than that. I did not get the impression that Shesheshen’s shapeshifting is easy to watch if you have a weak stomach. Whereas Wiswell’s storytelling flows like water, compulsively readable and easy on the brain even when tackling tough topics. Someone You Can Build a Nest In never felt like work, the way some heavier fantasies do, and I honestly don’t know any other author who’s been able to swing me so fast between almost-crying and giggle-snorting. This book is intense and fun, icky and delightful, wickedly clever and just plain wicked. It’s complex, but also very simple; fucked-up but cosy; a beating, pulsing mass of contradictions that somehow comes together into sheer multi-faceted BRILLIANCE.

I am used to eating alone. I have no idea how civilized people eat with their mouths closed. Is it a performance art?”

I was so freaking excited for this book, and it ended up being so much more than I’d known to hope for. It’s even weirder than I was expecting; it’s softer; it pulls absolutely no punches. The Babadook ended up a queer mascot through a funny accident, but Shesheshen is deliberately, openly, gleefully the monster all of us weird queers and queer weirdos have been pining for; a queer icon from the opening page, who will remain one long after the last.

(Just don’t try to give her a crown or make any fuss. Bother her and you might get eaten!)

THE SHAPESHIFTING SAPPHIC GOO-MONSTER WE DESERVE! And who you will definitely, definitely love!

Would you like to read a sapphic ace romance? How about one with a focus on recovering from generational trauma? OK, but wait: how about a MONSTER romance with those themes? But make it a real horror novel, with plenty of body horror, side characters meeting grisly demises, double crossing villains, and even a final girl. That's basically what you get here: Shesheshen is a man-eating, shape-changing monster. After a long day of being chased by monster hunters, she is rescued by Homily, the most self-sacrificing woman on earth. Shesheshen starts to think she's found the mother of her children - the person she can plant her eggs in so that when they hatch, they will have a source of food to allow them to grow. But their relationship progresses, Shesheshen starts to realize that maybe she likes Homily so much that she should be more than just a nest...

This was WEIRD and a little out of my comfort zone. (I do not love body horror and did feel actual nausea at a couple of points in the text.) That said, there was plenty of sentimental romance go to along with the body horror. Shesheshen and Homily rely on each other and accept each other for exactly who they are. If you like horror AND romance, you should definitely check this out!

This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the novel.

I couldn’t tell you what initially drew me to this book - but I knew as soon as I read the title - there is something queer afoot. I couldn’t believe my gut - the title was giving me - aromantic vibes?? And sure enough, when I looked up the author and found out he was AroAce, I smashed that request button so fast.

And that is the story of how this book became a new all time favourite for this Aromantic Bisexual.

Okay, maybe there was a bit more than that. Maybe there was something visceral and physical in the delicious body horror of wanting a partnership in such a deep way that you literally want to crawl inside of their bodies. We’re treated to this wonderfully gorey horror almost immediately and it follows us throughout the book - serving as part of its essence. In a weird way, this type of horror, again so visceral and physical, it actually tipped all the way back into cozy to me. Which is kind of hilarious to say when multiple people are left as husks of meat sacks throughout the book.

Shesheshen is a shapeshifter, living on her own and killing any monster hunters who come crawling towards her cave. After a long winter hibernating, she is attacked by a group of monster hunters - she survives, but is badly wounded. Pulling herself into a human-like shape, she seeks help and finds Homily, a warm-hearted human traveling towards Shesheshen’s town and so their adventures begin.

This story is billed as a romance, but honestly Shesheshen and Homily’s platonic relationship feels deeper than romance and deeper than physical intimacy (and in many cases it feels like an AroAce relationship/companionship, despite Shesheshen consistently questioning if she has in fact fallen in love). This book is more than that and I think it may have fallen victim to narrow marketing. I hope that it doesn't fall into the wrong hands, for those expecting a swooping, smutty romance - this book is much more intimate and the feelings are so strong.

This book wrapped me up in a giant hug from an amorphous lump of flesh and I loved every moment of it and will be super protective of this book. And I cannot wait to see what Wiswell writes next!

Give Someone You Can Build a Nest In all the love! Please and thank you ♥️

Hisses & Kisses 🐍

*I received an eARC from DAW & NetGalley. All opinions are my own.*

4.25 stars

If you read House in the Cerulean Sea and thought wow, I love this, I wish there were more horror elements though - I have the book for you! Someone You Can Build a Nest In is told from the perspective of Shesheshen, a monster living on the outskirts of the village of Underlook. She's just trying to live her life, but monster hunters keep coming and trying to murder her. After a battle in which she's badly hurt, Shesheshen is nursed back to health by Homily, a kind human who also thinks Shesheshen is human. The two quickly form a bond, and while Shesheshen would love to plant her eggs in Homily, she does realize that maybe humans wouldn't like that very much. Oh, and there's also the complication that Homily & her family are hunting for the monster of Underlook, which just happens to be Shesheshen.

I heard about this book through an interview Alix E. Harrow did with Illumicrate, and was so glad I decided to read it! This book was so unique, and I had such an enjoyable time following Shesheshen's story. Shesheshen trying to navigate human conversation and customs was funny, and her relationship with Homily had so much heart. The exploration of Homily's toxic relationships with her family members, and how Shesheshen helps her overcome those, was also handled with extreme care by the author.

Thank you to NetGalley and DAW for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

To say I enjoyed this book would be an understatement. With a title and description like that, how could I not be curious? It promised something unique and refreshing and delivered on every front.

I found how a premise so horrifying develops into a tender romance to be delightful. Told from the monster Shesheshen's POV, the story gives a rather humorous glimpse into the mind of a human eating monster that falls in love with a human. It rather surprised me that I found such an entity adorable several times throughout my read!

I would recommend this to anyone that likes their fantasy or horror with a little bit of romance. This felt borderline cozy somehow? I don't understand how that can be, but it did.

Someone You Can Build A Nest In by John Wiswell is a weird and wonderful book. I was honestly hooked the moment I read the summary, and the story absolutely delivered. Nest takes after its shape-shifting protagonist and combines elements of horror, comedy, mystery, adventure, and queer romance into one tale that will definitely stand out amongst your 2024 TBR.

Shesheshen’s hibernation is disrupted by two monster hunters and a very loud and gilded nobleman. Annoyed by their intrusion, the shape-shifting monster strings her body together from leftover bones, tools, and a chain to confront the humans ruining her slumber. When the confrontation goes poorly, Shesheshen is forced to visit town in search of a meal to aid in her healing. But her appearance does not go unnoticed, and in her haste to find safety, Shesheshen ends up in the company of a warm and kind stranger. As the town and powerful local family decide to hunt and kill the monster once and for all, Shesheshen will take shape, make a stand, and fall deeply in love.

Shesheshen is a great narrator and the main reason why I enjoyed this story so much. Her perspective is interesting, morbid, and incredibly funny. We’re learning about the world through the eyes of a reclusive monster who has a limited view of how humans operate. This makes for entertaining interactions as Shesheshen assumes a human shape and enters society. She is naive about humans while incredibly observant, making blunt commentary about the way they live and treat both humans and monsters alike. The humor sprinkled throughout the story is completely unintentional, thanks to Sheseshen’s unflappable ability to be honest and straightforward, and it made me laugh out loud several times.

There is a lot of commentary about what makes someone or something monstrous. As soon as the story begins, Wiswell has us questioning this definition and why some acts are accepted while others are horrifying. Our narrator, Shesheshen, is a monster and must absorb people to survive which can be a gruesome experience described in detail. However, Wiswell subtly hints that Shesheshen mostly minds her own business, and targets terrible people when she must feed or as a means of protecting herself when confronted. In comparison, many of the humans in this story are awful, so awful that I was rooting for Shesheshen to eat them at every turn. Unfortunately for me, Shesheshen had more sense and patience than the meat sacks walking around her.

I appreciate the attention that Wiswell gave to trauma in this story, especially by showing the way characters have been shaped by it and how it manifests. At the end of the climax, the story actually makes us sit with the trauma, guilt, and pain that comes from all the desperation, fear, and violent actions of the plot. There were no quick fixes to the panic attacks or solutions for the personalities molded by all the ways people failed the characters. Wiswell doesn’t go too in-depth here, but he calls it out and makes sure space is held for the realities of hurting and healing.

Someone You Can Build A Nest In was monstrously fun and heartfelt. It’s a horror-adventure-love story that will make you uncomfortable but also creates a safe space for you to come home to.

Rating: Someone You Can Build A Nest In - 7.5/10

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. The thoughts on this story are my own.

Charmingly gruesome and unique. I adored this book, it is horromance at its finest.
The portrayal of what it means to be a monster is superbly explored.
Although there is gore this is very well balanced with sweet romance and humour creating an overall cozy atmosphere. The story itself read like a classic fairytale.
A very creative piece of literature that is a must read.
I now need to get myself a steel-fanged necklace in homage to this book.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC. This is a voluntary review of my own thoughts.

Hi, I loved this and am about to make it part of my whole personality. Please read this book.

Someone You Can Build a Nest In is a delightfully cozy, funny horromantasy about what it means to be human, what it means to truly love someone, and healing from traumatic families. It's told from the POV of a monster that slowly finds itself falling in love. She has a blue bear (creatively named Blueberry), a remarkable ability to re-create perfectly detailed human hands, and devilishly sinister threats like "if you lie I will eat your lips."

#MonsterLife:
Unfortunately, the human she thinks she's falling in love with is part of a family that's out hunting her, so she has to do things like: borrow (aka digest) an olfactory system so she can blend in-- so tedious to maintain, not kill humans who are being rude at any moment she wants to, and even tie deer antlers to sheep and try to convince her beloved that that's the monster they're hunting.

The Writing:
If not already apparent, I was enamored by the humor which consistently dropped little nuggets that perfectly tickled my funny bone. But I also enjoyed the way a non-human monster viewed humanity and blending in with phrases like "romance was awful," or "arguing was the hardest form of talking." And equally they could say the absolutely sweetest things that made me genuinely buy into the romance such as when her gf is injured and "she wanted to... spend the rest of her life protecting that shoulder."

The Ending:
Some of the twists were well-telegraphed and easy to guess, but others were very fun developments that felt organic to the story and further reflected the characters' inner selves and their growth. I like when knowledge of a magic system is expanded on by the end of the book for both the reader and the characters. All of it was very satisfying for me.

Overall:
Don't be surprised if you hear me screaming about this book or re-reading it within a week. I absolutely loved it and if I didn't have other commitments would probably immediately start a re-read.

This was an adorable book! Despite the stakes, the book never felt too stressful, but instead felt cozy and went along at a comforting and indulgent pace. All of the characters in this book were fantastically characterised and fleshed out, each incredibly distinct from the others but not in a one-schtick character sort of way. Shesheshen was so well characterized and relatable, and made for a wonderful protagonist, and example of a monster main character who isn’t monstrous. Similarly Homily balanced her out fantastically, with her own issues and struggles separate from Shesheshen’s that worked incredibly well. Not to mention the villains of this book who were all incredibly intriguing and entirey detestable.
The story itself was also fantastic, I loved all the twists and turns it took, and the internal pacing of the story was incredibly well done and kept me mostly engaged throughout the story. The one criticism I have is that at some points it lagged mostly due to the style of the writing itself which was occasionally dry.
However all in all I really enjoyed this book and everything it had to offer.

SOMEONE YOU CAN BUILD A NEST IN probably wouldn’t have really crossed my radar if the publisher hadn’t offered me the ARC, but I’m so glad it did because this book is such a unique and brilliant read.
I always say ‘unlikeable’ characters and morally grey/antihero types are my absolute favourites, and if you’re of a similar opinion, SOMEONE YOU CAN BUILD A NEST IN is one you’ll definitely need to check out. Horrible characters abound, not least of which is Shesheshen – who actually is, I would say, a really likable protagonist, but just so happens to have absolutely no hesitations about eating people. If tortured vampires aren’t quite hitting it, this is a real monster romance for you. The romance is a slow burn sapphic story, without spice, that touches on (I would say) asexuality, disability and family abuse.
The plot isn’t terribly complex, but it’s the way it’s pulled off that’s so clever – I’ve never seen body horror with such a sense of humour – and utterly unlike anything I’ve read before.
The overall effect is strangely wholesome and cozy, despite violence. Perhaps, what Legends & Lattes is to epic fantasy, SOMEONE YOU CAN BUILD A NEST IN is to eldritch horror?
Utterly engaging. I’ll be watching out for what John Wiswell’s brain comes up with next.
A must read.

I adored this one! Definitely one of my very favorite books of the year--I know it's only March, but I can't imagine it being knocked down from its spot. Very inventive and funny. I've probably recommended it to everyone I know, with segues like "speaking of eye horror. if you want a cute love story, you should read..."

The voice of Shesheshen is one of a kind. Seeing the world through her eyes (no matter their origin) was a surprise and a delight. I imagine many people, upon hearing a basic description of the book, would question how such a thing could be endearing or romantic, but I suppose the answer will be - read it and find out!

Someone You Can Build a Nest In is delightfully disturbing. I knew from the dedication that it was going to be a great book. I didn't expect to laugh and swoon at some of the more morbid depictions of body parts and gore....but here we are. If a monster murdering and absorbing a girlfriend's abusive family members sounds intriguing and oddly sweet then you have to read this book!

Oddly charming and sweet for a book that’s so filled with gore and body horror.

I’m a sucker for a traditionally “evil” character getting their time in the sun. Especially when they’re fun. Monsters pretending to people always make for a lot of interesting interactions and the main character here, Shesheshen, really makes the book feel like something special. She’s unique, clever and entertaining - and somehow, wanting to eat your girlfriend’s shitty family is surprisingly endearing.

Despite this book struggling a bit with some depth in it’s secondary characters and having some pacing issues at times, it has a lot of to say about letting yourself be destroyed for the benefit of others, kindness that becomes a response to trauma rather than a genuine act for another, and what makes someone deserving or worthy of love they shouldn’t have to earn. Seeing these things through the eyes of a monster learning about humanity adds a great layer and yeah, yeah - que the corny sentiment. “Who’s the REAL monster here?” Spoiler though: it’s still Shesheshen, but she’s our girl so, it’s cool.

Overall fun read. Would recommend.

This is a cute horror book, which I know can be seen as opposite but it really is. I love the sapphic relationship woven throughout, and how the main character is able to be gentle with the trauma her girlfriend has lived through. There is a lot of gentleness from the main "monster" character. It took me a while to get through this book, because the switch between cozy sapphic romance to horror genre meant I wasn't always in the mood. But, overall, I think this book was genre breaking and so unique. I am 100% buying a physical copy as a trophy for my bookshelf.

Thank you Netgalley and DAW for the ARC!

A mythical wrym falls in love with a human woman, whose family’s sole purpose is to hunt and destroy her.
Their love is doomed from the start. But Shesheshen refuses to give into the pressure to consume Homily, or to implant her eggs in her. She could never do that to her.
But soon they find out Homily’s mother is not what she seems, and maybe not quite human either. Together they must accept who Shesheshen is and stop Homily’s out of control, abusive mother once and for all.

This book was okay. It was longer than it needed to be, and I found myself getting bored towards the end. I feel like the resolution dragged on after the climax and things could’ve wrapped up more efficiently.

Overall Inpressions: I am rounding up a 4.5 star review to a 5 star. I actually think if it weren’t for the last handful of chapters, this would have been a 5 star book. Overall, it was weird, horrible, and absolutely delightful. Just the best sapphic body horror romantasy I can imagine.

Worldbuilding: The world here is fairly sparse. We visit a single city in some sort of europe-like fantasy world, without much of a deep dive into the politics or any of the surrounding area. Most of the worldbuilding is based on the wyvern (if that’s what Shesheshen is), with many questions unanswered for reasons that make sense in the context of the book. Her existence and way of shape shifting was utterly unique and fascinating.

Characters: I would die for Shesheshen. I just absolutely loved her. I think there is something to be said for comparing her to Murderbot; both are confused by human behavior and emotion but spend plenty of time studying it, both have a very dry sense of humor, and both are absolutely charming. Homily is a complex character that I didn’t always agree with but do understand the motivations for, and I appreciated her character arc.

Plot: At no point during this book did I know what would happen next. In retrospect, the plot arc makes sense and is fairly traditional in some ways; while it was happening, it was a delightful rollercoaster. I do think the pacing was overall very consistent with only some mild dragging towards around 60-70% of the book. However, the ending was… not my favorite. I felt like we had a delightful ending which wrapped up the story well and then it just kept going for a few more chapters. I didn’t hate Epilogue as a character but some of the dialogue around it was too on the nose and I just didn’t particularly love it either. It was fine. I do wish the book had ended earlier.

Recommend/Read More? Absolutely recommend, this was fantastic. Though I will have quite the time trying to describe what exactly I just read. I would read more from this author as well.

Cosy fantasy isn’t normally my cup of tea but the healthy dashes of good weirdness, horror, satire and humour have made this reading experience very enjoyable.

Someone You Can Build a Nest In follows Shesheshen, the resident shapeshifter monster of Underlook who falls in love with a kind human girl named Homily. However, despite Homily reciprocating Shesheshen’s feelings, their romance is not an easy one because:

a) Homily is part of the intense, complicated, toxic and extreme Wulfyre family who has made it their duty to slay wyrms like Shesheshen because her kind has somehow ‘cursed’ their family.
b) No matter how well Shesheshen mimics and learns, at the end of the day, she’s no human and a relationship built on lies is not something she can vibe with — and heavens, there are a lot of lies from all sides that need to be dealt with first.

So, what can a monster in love do but try her best anyway, am I right? Which, brings us this oddly lovable story that has humans VS monsters interwoven into everything, everywhere, all at once.

Wiswell has done a brilliant job telling this story through the perspective of a monster. It truly reads and feels alien, but as admirable as I find this (and as much as I enjoyed the other aspects of the story), I feel this has created a great emotional disconnect as well. I get that this is due to Shesheshen’s character and when she becomes more human in feeling and thinking, her narrative reflects that. However, the emotions in her narrative also stop coming to life after the climax and the story returns to this state of emotional disconnectivity. This could just be me, though, as I found the entire bit post-climax too neat. Nevertheless, I do appreciate the care Wiswell has in exploring different types of trauma, love, relationships and identity here.

If romance between a human and monster paired with a direct, unflinching narrative (remember, this is a horror fantasy too) doesn’t give you the ick, I think you’ll enjoy Someone You Can Build a Nest In too.

Ahoy there me mateys!  There is a lot of awesome in this story of Shesheshen the monster falling in love with a human.  I loved the tale being told from the prospective of the monster.  Shesheshen's viewpoint of humans and their particularities was excellent fun.  I found the beginning of this novel up through the monster meeting the love interest, Homily, to be captivating.  Homily, of course, thinks Shesheshen is a human.  The monster learning about how humans think about love was also wonderful.  The insight into monster ethics was excellent.

Sadly, I did not love Homily as a character, even though she was sympathetic.  She seemed very one dimensional.  As the novel progressed I found the romance subplot and Homily's family began to irk me.  I did not like the plot twist regarding Homily's mother at all.  The logic of the story did not always work for me.

I also wish the novel would not have taken the direction it did once the big bad was dealt with.  Part of the problem was all of the lying that Shesheshen did to Homily seemed to be brushed off with no real consequences.  The reasons for the lies made sense but were not resolved satisfactorily.  It personally never felt like the two became partners.  Plus the epilogue was odd and too long.

I am still extremely glad I read this though because the beginning imagery and plot is going to stick with me for quite sometime.  I could see meself rereading this book just because of how enjoyable it was.  Oh and Blueberry the Bear rocks!  So I do highly recommend it.  I think the problems are more me and not the book.  Arrr!

This book is definitely the most unique fantasy/horror book I’ve ever read.

Main perspective is from a shapeshifting amorphous lump who is consider a monster by the locals.

I don’t really have much to say on this story other than it was such a delight to read. It truly is a great mix of charming and creepy, tender hearted at times and a little funny at others (kissing and cannibalism).

I do think it would be hard to run around and recommend this to just anyone like I want to but I kind of love that this sweet little hidden gem exists in the world of stories and when I do find those who enjoy this kind of vibe, Someone You Can Build a Nest In will be the first.

Cover and Burb feedback: Both represented the contents of the book really accurately and the cover is gorgeous!