You'll want to build a nest in this cozy horror story.

When I say I loved this book, I am not overstating my joy in reading it. The story is so unique. The descriptions of humanity and society from our 'monster's' point of view are hilarious in how accurate they are. Our main character, Shesheshen describes kissing as, 'mutually failed cannibalism'. Where's the lie? lol.

There are aspects of light body horror, which I ate up for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There is a love story between Shesheshen and a human woman she accidentally stumbles across that is so tender and beautiful that I couldn't look away.

This quote was everything to me:
"You will get me access to the building. If you do not I will pick an orifice of yours; you will discover which one I pick when you feel me climbing into you. Eventually you'll be less of a person and more of a suit of clothes. You will not believe the things I will do while I wear you."

I received an ALC from NetGalley and Tantor Audio, narrated by Carmen Rose. They did an amazing job. I haven't heard any other books they've narrated, but I'll definitely be looking for them going forwards.

This book is best read just before hibernating for the winter. Fingers crossed no one wakes you up, if they want to keep their bones where they left them.

The narrator was fantastic!

I did struggle a bit to get into it. I think the writing style is very intellectual which I do enjoy in sci-fi however I think the subject felt more fantasy than sci-fi. Overall I really enjoyed the premise though and thought Shesheshen’s alienness was really well communicated in her inner monologue.

Genre: horror romance, body horror

Shesheshen is an amorphous shape-shifting monster. Yes, she terrorizes and eats humans sometimes, but that’s really just for necessary nourishment. But the local landowning family, the Wulfyres, are out to kill her to break their family curse. She’s transformed herself to look a little like a human, or human enough to pass muster in town. An encounter with several hunters puts Shesheshen in a bad spot, and a young woman named Homily rescues her, nursing her back to health (unbeknownst to Homily, Shesheshen regenerates on her own, but she actually appreciates the attention). Even when Homily admits she’s out looking for ways to kill this monster, Shesheshen feels a bit like something warm and fuzzy is giving her feelings?! when she’s never had feelings before.

First off, this book was gross. Like body horror, regenerating shape-shifting monster gory details gross. Even for someone like me, for whom body horror is my favorite horror subgenre, there are some rough spots. You’ve been warned. But it was also funny. And heartfelt. And sweet. And insightful.

This is monster romance, not monster smut. And it warmed me to the core. It’s romantic in the way that Shesheshen learns to love Homily, but also to accept her changing body as a monster. (She loves being the monster she is, it just comes with some confusing feelings sometimes, you know?)

The driving Big Bad of the plot is venomous and spiteful, and not at all subtle in the ways it’s bad. Homily’s mother and sister rank up there with the more hateful mothers and sisters you’ll find in books. I, too, would like to tear them limb from limb.

Carmen Rose’s narration lends the book a smooth and humorous edge. Shesheshen’s name rolls off her tongue with just a bit of mischievousness and the sensitivity that I imagine our monster MC to have. If you can handle body horror in your ears, I recommend the audiobook!

This book is going to find a really niche home with certain readers and body-horror monster romance is apparently my new niche.

This was a fun and worthwhile entry in the "who, after all, are the REAL monsters" subgenre. Excellent depiction of a non-human protagonist.

Thank you NetGalley and Tantor Media for an advanced listening copy in exchange for an honest review!

Someone You Can Build a Nest In was such a delightful surprise! Shesheshen is a shapeshifter whose life goes a little bit awry when hunters come to kill her, but she is ultimately found by Homily, a human woman who eventually becomes her girlfriend. Of course, Shesheshen is a monster, after all, and so while she wants to coparent with Homily, she also wants to consume her (or, rather—her children will consume her). But Homily doesn’t know that Shesheshen is a shapeshifter, and Shesheshen doesn’t know Homily is on a quest to hunt down the shapeshifter who cursed her family (which is a crime she’s sure she isn’t guilty of). Also: these two do not have similar ideas of what expressions of love should be.

Wiswell’s writing is funny and manages to portray the general horrors that being a shapeshifting monster can bring in a way that is both gruesome and charming. The overall story is quite sweet despite being tinged with violence, and I really enjoyed the fantasy/horror/romance blend. The plot developments were well done and well paced, and I found Shesheshen and Homily easy to root for. The atmosphere is almost fairytale-like, and honestly this is just a very fun read that tackles interesting questions (what makes a monster? do you love your partner for who they are?). I think I’ve made it previously known that cozy fantasy and I don’t get on too well, but while I think there are cozy elements here and cozy fantasy fans should definitely try it, there’s enough horror here to get me on board. Alix E. Harrow is right: this is a happily-ever-after with a higher-than-average body count, which is just absolute catnip to me.

The audiobook is also well done, though I did have to adjust to the narrator at the beginning. Carmen Rose does an excellent job, but she reads a little bit faster than your average narrator, so my usual listening speed felt a little faster than normal for a bit. Still, a delight.

All in all: I really enjoyed this and definitely see myself rereading it. I loved the writing and the characters and while I don’t always skew towards the cozy angle, this worked really well for me. Charming and a little gross, I am a fan.

This is up there with the weirdest books I’ve ever read. I loved it. It’s like bizarre horror, sci-fi, romance and fantasy all in one book. It addressed trauma and abuse, it all just worked some how. Now if gore scenes aren’t your thing this won’t be for you but it it was so good. An asexual romance that I didn’t know I needed. This is really one a of a kind. Weird as hell, but one of a kind.

This book had similar vibes as "The Salt Grows Heavy" and I enjoyed the concept of the story from the "monsters" point of view. This tale had some twists I never saw coming and the story was interesting and new. Poor Shesheshen had to constantly battle with a love that confused her and infuriating humans who were vile and poisonous. Who was the truly monster here though. All Shesheshen wanted to do was plant her egg sack and to live peacefully. Why must humans hunt her and try to disturb her. Homily has shown her compassion and care awakening and feeling in Shesheshen, but Homily is a walking mat to her family and doesn't fight back. How will Shesheshen defeat the bad humans, care for Homily, and plant her egg sack with out dying in the process.

Actual Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

This book is SUPER weird. Let's go ahead and get that straight. I loved every single second of it though. But I definitely can see how it would be weird for some people to read. You have to be okay with copious amounts of body horror and gore and you honestly have to be a monster lover (you know what word I actually mean). If you fit those criteria then welcome to a wonderful read. I loved Shesheshen (thank god for audiobooks because I had no idea how to say her name). I loved her relationship with Homily and I loved Homily’s characterization and development throughout the story. Things to note that I find a bit incorrect in the summary of the book:

1. I would say Shesheshen isn’t a shapeshifter. She’s more of a slime/goo that can consume parts and use them to look like other things. Think Imhotep from the Mummy movies. She never really looks like other animals/things/people in this story though. She pretty much maintains one form outside of her gooey form.
2. This is Sapphic in the sense that both of them use she/her pronouns but I’m not necessarily sure Shesheshen did GENDER that much. It never really came up because of my next point.
3. This is refreshingly asexual. Neither of them was interested in sex or kissing for that matter. But they loved each other so much they way they wanted to and were comfortable with.

But at the end of the day, those are just my interpretations of the work. Other people might view these characters differently and that’s totally cool. I would highly recommend this story. It was so incredibly well written and completely entertaining. I loved every single second of it.

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.

Audiobook Notes:
The narrator did an absolutely stunning job. I loved the way she was able to slightly alter her speech so that it was very obvious and differentiated between the voices in a way that felt natural and not at all distracting.
Do note: they have an English accent and speak a little quickly compared to other narrators (I normally listen to audiobooks at 3x speed but initially adjusted this down to 2.5x speed because I was driving and she was just a little too fast with the addition of any single other distraction).

Thank you to Tantor Audio and NetGalley for granting me an audio ARC. All thoughts, opinions, and incessant screaming about this book are my own.

♡ Audiobook Review ♡
♤ Release April.2 ♤
4.5 stars rounded to 5 stars
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Horror
Fantasy
Monsters POVRomance
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Discover this creepy, charming monster-slaying fantasy romance—from the perspective of the monsterShesheshen is a shapeshifter who happily resides as an amorphous lump at the bottom of a ruined manor. When her rest is interrupted by hunters intent on murdering her, she constructs a body from the remains of past meals: a metal chain for a backbone, borrowed bones for limbs, and a bear trap as an extra mouth.  
 
However, the hunters chase Shesheshen out of her home and off a cliff. Badly hurt, she’s found and nursed back to health by Homily, a warm-hearted human who has mistaken Shesheshen as a fellow human. Shesheshen hates keeping her identity secret from Homily, but just as she’s about to confess, Homily reveals why she’s in the area: she’s hunting a shapeshifting monster that supposedly cursed her family. Has Shesheshen seen it anywhere?
 
Eating her girlfriend isn’t an option. Shesheshendidn’t curse anyone, but to give herself and Homily a chance at happiness, she has to figure out why Homily’s twisted family thinks she did.
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This is John Wiswell first debut fantasy novel. There are some audiobooks that you can listen to without the book. And then there are some audiobooks that you DO need the physical or eBook to follow along. And this audiobook, you will need a physical or eBook to follow along. Once you get past the 20%, you start to understand what's going on. And the audiobook picks up!
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I have mixed feelings because this is a weird, highly interesting book.

♡ Thank you, Netgalley, and RB Media for giving me the ALC for my honest review

Wasn’t sure what I was really expecting with this one.
There was gore. There was murder. There was shapeshifting.
There was entitlement and royalty and little sh*ts being spoiled, etc…and I really wanted to hate every little bit of it.
BUT, something in the description egged me on to request it…

And here we are.

I fell in love with the ogre of a being…shapeshifting, body snatching, gore eating..monster being hunted….Shesheshen.
Who also befriended Blueberry…the kindest, biggest hearted, Bear in the wild….

And then we have Homily…the kind hearted, passerby who helps someone in need…even though she’s unsure what the actual f*** is going on. She nurses it/her/the monster back to health (or as healthy as he can make it)…and so, the story begins!

4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for me!
4 stars that I never suspected?!?!
This is so far out of my wheelhouse…but I loved every minute of it!
Pleasantly surprising!

⭐️ Predator. Ogre. Gory, flesh-eating phenomenon.
⭐️ Surprise Do-Good-er who has suffered many hardships, but still has so much left to give!
⭐️ Blueberry the Bear!
⭐️ Entitled Royal-like family that only cares for their own (& only sometimes at that!)

Thanks to #NetGalley and #TantorAudio for an ARC of the audiobook which is due out in a few days. (4/2/24).

#SomeoneYouCanBuildANestIn by #JohnWiswell and narrated nicely by #CarmenRose.

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Thanks so much for reading!📚⭐️

3.5

Sapphic Fantasy/Horror Romance with a monster main character sounded like everything I never knew I needed but unfortunately it fell a little flat for me. It was an enjoyable, easy listen but I felt so distant from the story. Initially I thought it was because of the monster main character, but despite being a shapeshifting monster Shesheshen actually acted quite human. I think it's mostly that I struggled with the romance. Shesheshen falls off a cliff and is nursed back to health by Homily and basically immediately decides that Homily would be the best place to lay her eggs. What follows is a witty almost fairytale-esque romance with some death and body horror. There's a curse (or is there) and a quest and toxic family dynamics.

Overall, I thought this was a solid debut even if it wasn't a new favorite. The audiobook is narrated by Carmen Rose, who also narrates Tessa Dare's Castles Ever After series, and I enjoyed her narration though did find myself losing track of some of the speakers in dialogue heavy passages.