The publisher granted me an ARC of the audiobook and I listened to it during a road trip to a nearby town. I was riveted. There is something about a monster showing signs of humanity that draws me in to a story--perhaps because I like the oxymoronic relationship between the terms. Shesheshen was fascinating from the beginning and I, for one, did not need the explanation provided as to why she reacted the way she did to her attackers.

I loved how she was able to see Homily, treat her with respect, and attempt to heal the wounds inflicted by her family. The only reason this book is not a five-star read for me. is the ending. It was a bit too perfect and I did not need it.

What a unique story that makes you wonder who the real monsters are. Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell is dark and twisted fantasy romance about hunting monsters. This was truly a wild ride. The plot was engaging and it was impossible to guess what would happen next. The monsters were so vividly grotesque and I loved the chills their descriptions gave me. The sapphic romance was surprisingly sweet and emotional despite the harsh and dark tone of the book. The audiobook was a great way to add even more creepiness and depth to this already disturbing tale. This was definitely a must read if you're looking for a creepy, fast paced, monster hunting romance.

Thank you to the publishers and netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I was originally drawn into this book due to the title and cover. It sounded so quirky and fun that I couldn’t resist. It follows Shesheshen, a shape shifting monster, as she meats a woman bound by her family to hunt her.

This was both what I wanted and not quite what I wanted. It does have some quirkiness and the concept is fun, however I actually wish this book would’ve delved a bit deeper. It felt superficial despite the fact that it was tackling themes like xenophobia, homophobia, war mongering, and more.

That said, Shesheshen is a fun character. I enjoyed getting inside of a literal monster’s head. The way she perceived things was amusing and made a lot of sense based on what we know of her life.

Ultimately, I think this would be a good book to read if you are looking for a fall/autumn read that’s on the lighthearted end of things with a few deeper topics sprinkled in.

*4 stars*

This was heartbreaking and full of hope and humanity. I loved the monstrous main character. I thought the ending was really great. Often when the battle is over I wish we got to see more of how the characters pick up the pieces and move on so this ending was very satisfying.

I would have liked even more of the story to focus on the relationship between Shesheshen and Homily. They had such an interesting dynamic and I would have loved to see more of them working through their grief and trauma together.

I think this would be great for fans of T. Kingfisher or fantasy horror fans in general. The audio was well done and the narrator was very good. Occasionally words repeated in the audio and I’m not sure if that was because of my player or because it was an ARC but it wasn’t so bad that it took me out of the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ALC of this work. All opinions in this review are my own.

This was such a delight - I'm not sure I'd exactly call it cozy horror, but it's somewhere around thereabouts. The mildly gruesome comedy of errors that was long descriptions of Sesheshen shifting around organs and absorbing random debris as she maintains a polite conversation with the worst rich people you know was so oddly cathartic. Wiswell balances the duality of a story that is fantastical, grisly, and often more than a little absurd, while also being a story that feels so familiar, about love and trust and healing and really, really not wanting to have dinner with your girlfriend's family.

The narration for the audiobook was spectacular, and could not have been easy. It was a pleasure to listen to.

This was such grisly fun! It takes monster romance to a very different place and I really enjoyed it and its ace/sapphic relationship amongst all the bones and blood.

I’d heard of John Wiswell, one of the new generation of splendid young authors, so I grabbed a review copy of the audiobook version of his debut novel, Someone You Can Build a Nest In. Narrator Carmen Rose did a splendid job bringing this unusual monster/horror/romance to life. On a panel at the recent Nebula Awards weekend, a speaker referenced this book as a fresh take on the theme of monster as protagonist, in this case monster as heroic, romantic protagonist. Such characters hold a mirror to our deepest fears, offering shared humanity as a path to laying our nightmares to rest. While Wiswell’s book is not an entirely new approach to the point of view of a monster/villain, he brings a wonderful combination of grit, darkness, and lyricism to the story.

Monster Shesheshen, a formless, pluripotent jelly, is rudely awoken from her sleep in the bowels of a ruined manor by human hunters. Quickly assembling hard materials to construct human-like body parts (a metal chain for a backbone, old bones for limbs, and so forth), she disguises herself as a refugee. The ruse works for only a short tome. The hunters are relentless, driven by the obsessive local nobility who, as it turns out, have their own share of horrendous secrets. Badly injured during a chase, Shesheshen experiences her first taste of kindness when a rejected daughter of the noble house rescues her. Bit by bit, step by step, they each heal one another. The monster’s quest eventually becomes how to build a life with, rather than inside of, the love of her life. And to survive her murderous in-laws.

It's a gorgeous, inventive, intoxicating love story, filled with heart-rending truths, self-sacrifice, and gradual unfolding of character. We should all have such a monster in our lives.

Highly recommended.

Happiest of Fridays to you bookbots!

I am decidedly in my Horromance era but I didn't know that was what I was stepping into when I started SOMEONE YOU CAN BUILD A NEST IN by @john_wiswell (although I totally should have based on the title alone...). Thank you to the author, @netgalley and the publisher @dawbooks for the audio-ARC.

This story begins as a monster is propelled out of hibernation by a group of local villagers invading her chamber to slay her. From there, the monster, who is a shape shifter of sorts, assumes a human visage to try to figure out why the villagers are after her. Along the way she meets a kind, helpful, and generous human woman who teaches her that not all humans are blood-thirsty. But can their romance stand up against the truth of the history of this village?!?

I found this book to be charming and easy to read. I was very invested in the beginning and even though my attention faltered slightly toward the end of the story, I would certainly recommend it to:

🪱Folks who like monster stories
💚Horromance lovers
👯‍♀️Sapphic romance lovers
😍Folks who are looking for a refreshing romance where the characters in love are never toxic or conniving against each other but support each other the whole way

This one is out on shelves now!

If you could be any kind of monster, what would you choose?

I think I would go with an evil Siren, a vampire or maybe even a bog wife just for kicks.

💚SMASHBOT💚

A new story from a nebula award winning author, this is a creepy, charming monster-slaying cozy fantasy romance but told from the perspective of the monster. This is a must-add to your TBR if you love, creepy monster story, Cozy horror, Shapeshifting monsters and a sapphic love tale full of humor and darkness, yes this does have some gorey moments, some body horror so keep that in mind. I did find the story to be a little slow and I had trouble liking and siding with the characters, but I liked it!

I absolutely loved this story. It's a very good light fantasy with a nice bit of romance. I loved the way we learned about the world through the eyes of our monster, Shesheshen. It was a nice way to not focus too hard on the world building as our point of view doesn't venture far from home. I enjoyed how gory the book was at times, and how visceral Shesheshen's body could be. The descriptions of Shesheshen rebuilding herself after fighting were phenomenal.

I really liked the naming patterns in the book as well, I'm not sure if it was intentional but it was cute! Homily and Ode and Epigram.

It was also very nice to not have a romance that revolved around the physicality of relationships. Having the two share touches and learn about consent and boundaries was refreshing.

The only thing I didn't absolutely love was the voice actor for the audio book, but she honestly grew on me a little bit by the end. I found her a bit monotone.

I'll be keeping my eye out for Wiswell's next book.


Thank you to NewGalley for an advance copy !

Monster-hunting mayhem! This was a delightfully gory (and weirdly cozy) horror romance. Shesheshen is a wonderfully inhuman character, I’ve read a few monster romances that try to make the monster more palatable by having them regret doing bad deeds or behave like big softies. Shesheshen is an eldritch, amorphous blob who wants to kill and eat people and that’s that 🤷

This book mixes a lot of humor into the horror elements and the audiobook has a dry, deadpan delivery that really worked for me. I also love that the love interest is a chubby woman described as “pockmarked, of a healthy weight” and with a laugh that sounds like “the mating call of a moose with a cold.” It gets so monotonous to only read about flawless conventionally attractive characters so this was a breath of fresh air. It would be easy for Homily’s character to fall into the role of a tirelessly self-sacrificing doormat but she has sudden moments of ruthlessness that make her really fun.

If you can stomach gore and body horror (and if you’ve ever wanted to kill your in-laws) then I highly recommend this book, it’s rad. Includes asexual sapphic MCs and nonbinary minor characters.

CWs: body horror, gore, murder, classism, emotional and physical abuse (not between the MCs), death of a child, animal cruelty, torture

4.5⭐ rounded up to 5. This is the sapphic monster love story you didn’t know you needed. Fans of T. Kingfisher would probably enjoy this one. I strongly recommend!

❤️ Cozy, easy read
❤️ Dark humour
❤️ Story told from the monster’s perspective
❌ Some repetitions and dragging; could have been slightly shorter

Trigger Warnings: violence and murder, death, blood and gore, body horror, beheading, parental abuse, sibling abuse, trauma, gaslighting and bullying, dysfunctional family, homophobia, grief, animal abuse, cannibalism (sort of?).

Plot:
Orphaned shapeshifter Shesheshen is happily hibernating in blob form at the bottom of a ruined manor when her rest is interrupted by monster hunters. She narrowly escapes, only to fall off a cliff. When she wakes up, Shesheshen realizes that she is very much alive thanks to Homily, the warm-hearted woman who found her. She initially sees this stranger as a delicious meal, then as a cozy nest for her eggs, but soon starts to feel unsettling human emotions.

Wow, thanks Wiswell for all the sounds of crunching bones and images of juicy innards that now live rent-free in my mind…! This book was a wild ride and I absolutely loved it. I was amazed at how it explored difficult topics such as family trauma, grief, social etiquettes, obsession, the nature of humanity, co-parenting, homophobia, and more, while feeling like a light, cozy read. Some plot twists were predictable, but I didn’t see the biggest one coming and LOVED it. The ending also brilliantly avoided a possible loose end instead of falling into common debut novel pitfalls. However, the pace felt inconsistent, going from fast at the beginning to slow in the middle to fast again for the climax to slow again for the (rather long) epilogue.

Characters:
Oh gods, I loved Shesheshen. Sometimes it felt like she was more “human” than most of the insufferable humans that took part in this story. As someone with AS, I couldn’t help but relate to her when she was confused about social customs and etiquettes, or concerned about saying the incorrect thing. Her character development—from an amorphous lump whose sole desire is to survive and feed on humans, to a sensitive humanoid monster helping her girlfriend heal from family trauma—was chef’s kiss. However, I couldn’t say the same about Homily. I thought her character was inconsistent and slightly flat.

Writing:
Smart, sharp, funny. All the descriptions of Shesheshen eating and digesting and using human body parts made me crack up. I would definitely read more from Wiswell.

(I should have counted how many times the word “juices” is used, just to see if it had beaten Haunting Adeline. Probably not. But for some reason, the word didn’t annoy me as much in this one, ahah!)

Audiobook:
Perfect narration! It was very refreshing to hear a British accent, hehe, and the actor did a really good job at changing her voice for the various characters.

This is advertised as cozy but is *not* your typical cozy fantasy. This book follows Shesheshen, a shapeshifter who is being hunted for a curse she did not make. Alas, along the way, she falls in love with one of the family members who believe they have been cursed. It is a queer romantic horror that has the vibes of cozy while still having a death count.

I was interested in this book because a number of my friends absolutely loved it. While I did not love it as much, I mostly have positive things to say. I think this book was quite a delight, but I personally felt like it went on longer than I needed it to. The action finished, and there was still about an hour left of the audiobook. Which is great for the romance part - but I was not reading it for that aspect. I think it was a fun and entertaining read and if you like quirky horror-adjacent fun, you will enjoy it.

My favorite aspect was the fact that Shesheshen is spending the book learning how to human. There were things so many of us do without thinking that she didn't understand or seemed weird to her, and it was a lot of fun hearing that point of view.

Thank you to Tantor Audio and NetGalley for an audio arc of this in exchange for an honest review.

Shesheshen was asleep when the came, the monster hunters. She gets injured while dealing with them and wakes to find herself mended. Her rescuer is none other than Homily Wulfyre, sister of the monster hunter who tried to kill her. She falls fast for Homily, and continues to put herself in harms way to stay with Homily.
This book healed me, Shesheshen and Homily have the cutest relationship. I got approved an ARC for this story, and listened to the audio book version which was amazing. Carmen Rose was an incredible narrator for this in my opinion. I definitely am going to get my hands on a physical copy and I recommend this to anyone who enjoys cozy horror, sapphic/Asexual Romance, and cute love stories.

A monster romance where the monster is actually a monster with monstrous thoughts, and it's told solely from her point of view? I'M SOLD.

Seriously, even though Shesheshen is a shapeshifter, it was incredible to read her internal shift as she gained an understanding of love and empathy. How she was able to reconcile herself as something alien but also as something capable of change outside of what she can contort her body into. Absolutely beautiful.

Wiswell captures the idea of self-sacrificing love as an extreme version of wanting to be supportive/protective, and what else can I say except that it was extremely well done?

Oh also, I listened to this on audio and the narrator was fantastic. Loved how she changed her voice for different characters; it was distinct but not distracting!

I have never read a book quite like this but it feels like it was written for me and brought everything I love into one book. Whimsical, disturbing, adorable, horrifying? How? It just worked. Oh and it is sapphic too! I'll be shocked if this doesn't end up on my best books of the year list. Can't wait to reread it!

2.5 ☆

And the award for the most annoying MC name goes to.... SHESHESHEN!

Highly recommend *not* picking up the audio for this book and/or co-reading like I did because hearing SHESHESHEN being said every sentence was the most grating reading experience of my life. While some might say focusing on the names Shesheshen and Homily re beyond the point of the novel and human names are insignificant, in a sense, those names 100% detracted from my reading experience and enjoyment of the book especially on the audio version.

This is a sapphic aroace story of a monster learning how to live and think the way humans do. It's about a monster learning the ethics of what it means to be human and how to handle and process emotions, including love. That to me, was the best and most beautiful part of the book. I loved the FMC's exploration of human feelings with every person she ended up consuming. At the end of the book I really loved her so much as a character and wished I could give her a hug. Homily, on the other hand felt quite bland as a love interest.

Also, I glanced at a couple of reviews before diving in and many claimed this was cozy fantasy-horror. I'm not quite sure about that classification as this was filled with really vivid descriptions of body horror and a whole lot of gore so while it's not scary, it is very much horror. I quite enjoyed the body horror in this novel.

As for the audio narration as I co-read this with my eARC, I didnt enjoy the narrator at all, and I tend to be fairly easy to please with European accents. To me, she felt as devoid of enthusiasm for what she was narrating even to the very end of the novel when our FMC was filled to the brim with human emotions she could barely describe.

Overall, I felt very conflicted about this. There were things I Really Quite Enjoyed in reading this book and a whole lot of others I wished I did without. Nonetheless, I'm def recommending this to a couple of my friends who enjoy queer horror stories.

I loved this book so much! It had wonderful characters and a plot that I did NOT figure out like I usually do with stories. The "monster" was unique and I really appreciated that. The narrator was good as well.

Absolutely not. I like horror. I like sci-fy. But the descriptions in the first chapter was not only disgusting but confusing. I just can't.

Actual Rating 3.5

Shesheshen never expected to be awoken from her hibernation by monster hunters hoping to slay her. Nor did she expect to literally fall into the hands of someone who might just cause her to feel love for the first time. But as her life is thrown into disarray, she also realizes that something is growing inside her, yearning to get out. But she isn’t the only one keeping secrets, and Homily’s secret might just be enough to spell disaster for Shesheshen. But monsters don’t back down from terrible odds, and the two find themselves caught in a tangled web of secrets and betrayals.

This work of fantasy horror took a minute for me to become situated in. I was instantly drawn in, although I wasn’t sure where things were going or what to expect. But as the narration continued, it was much easier to settle in and enjoy the ride. I love that the book is told from the POV of the monster, and the uniqueness and grossness that is added because of that.

The characters were well written. While the secondary characters weren’t generally all that unique, they worked well in their roles and were good support to the main characters. Shesheshen and Homily both steal the show, both on their own and through their interactions. That being said, the romance didn’t work for me and felt forced, especially when it came to how easy the resolution was. I wish they had been left as kindred spirits and a meaningful friendship rather than trying to make it romance.

The setting wasn’t a focus of this work, and while that would normally be a major setback for me in a work of fantasy, just enough was included to support the plot and characters in this one. The pacing was also a bit off, with several places where the story lagged and seemed to lose focus.

If you’re interested in odd, gross monsters, then you’ll probably love this one. My thanks to NetGalley and DAW Publishing for allowing me to read this work. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.