Someone You Can Build A Nest In by John Wiswell - I heard this book recommended in a podcast and it looked intriguing when I read the summary. I opted to listen to the audiobook and overall I enjoyed it. Now, how do I describe it? The cover gives young adult horror fantasy vibes, and that's certainly a start. It's not gory or graphic but certainly uncomfortable in a body horror kind of way, and there are elements that are not going to sit well with every audience.
Let me do a bit of story summary to start. The protagonist is a shapeshifting monster named Shesheshen whose hibernation is interrupted by hunters come to murder her. She manages to pull herself together - literally using discarded bones and chains and a bear trap to form a skeleton! - and fight back, but she's chased away from the ruined manor where she lives and is injured when she falls from a cliff. A human woman named Homily finds Shesheshen, and mistaking her for a fellow human, insists on nursing her back to health. Shesheshen continues in her human form disguise, using Homily's help to escape the hunters, but soon finds that she genuinely likes Homily. Homily is kind and caring, and as they grow closer Shesheshen decides Homily would make an excellent nest in which to lay her eggs. But the young would consume their host, and Shesheshen realizes that's not how humans do things.
Before Shesheshen can explain to Homily what she really is, she finds out that Homily's family - and in particular, her mother - is single-mindedly hunting the monster that put a curse on the family, and Homily is trying to help kill that monster too. Now Shesheshen is in a real predicament - she's wound up in a romantic relationship with a member of the family intent on murdering her. Shesheshen has to outwit Homily's mother, figure out why they believe they are cursed, and at some point tell Homily the truth, but the danger to them both is increasing the more time they spend with Homily's family. Plus Shesheshen really needs to lay those eggs soon.
This is a very inventive premise, with both the story telling and world-building done really well. The humor is dry and ironic, and Shesheshen's voice as the viewpoint character is both naive and ruthless. She is a surprisingly sympathetic and relatable character that happens to be a monster. Yes, she has disgusting gustatory habits, and a grossly weird ability to suck objects and animal body parts of all kinds into her naturally shapeless self and construct chains and sticks and bones into an imitation of a human shape (that's the body horror element). Seeing how humans behave from the perspective of a monster is both humorous and interesting.
I didn't care for Homily as a character. It's revealed that she has been a victim of abuse at the hands of her family, which makes her sympathetic, but I felt she was weak and insipid. Surely her tendency to accept blame, overcompensate, and attempt to earn affection was a response to how she had been "othered" and victimized, but I felt it was overdone. In general, that was what I didn't care for in this book - the effort to normalize and lionize queer and trans identities and throw in what felt like pop psychology felt heavy-handed. Although it's a fantasy setting so could be whatever the author wanted, it was all very medieval feeling except for the modern-day pop psychology. The romantic relationship between Shesheshen and Homily is a strange one because it's kind of a same-sex, but also sort of asexual, and on top of that, Shesheshen isn't human . . . so it's weird, but don't worry that it's graphic. There's one kiss, which I'm sure was intended to be very romantic, but I thought it was just incredibly awkward and wierd.
As far as the plot and storytelling, I felt the denouement and wrap-up after the "final battle" was too long and drawn out, and didn't give any information about anyone or anything other than Shesheshen and Homily. It felt like the characters were transferred into a domestic fiction novel showing them as housemates and parents and romantic partners and to me it didn't really fit with the rest of the story. It could have been just an epilogue instead of several more chapters, in my opinion. An actual epilogue, which would be ironic, since there was a character named Epilogue!
I'm not sorry I listened to it, because it was very entertaining, but I don't think my life has been enriched by it either. Important to note, because I do have a tag "hours I will never get back" that I give to books that I considered an actual waste of my time, and I'm NOT giving this one that designation. Entertaining, diverting, humorous, quirky, good story telling . . . just not edifying or enlightening.
From the publisher:
Shesheshen is a shapeshifter, who happily resides as an amorophous lump at the bottom of a ruined manor. When her rest is interrupted by hunters intent on murdering her, she constructs a body using 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 a nursed back to health by Homily, a warmhearted human, who has mistaken Shesheshen as a fellow human. Homily is kind and nurturing and would make an excellent coparent: an ideal place to lay Shesheshen's eggs so their young could devour Homily from the inside out. But as they grow close, she realizes humans don't think about love that way.
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. Shesheshen didn'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. As the hunt for the monster becomes increasingly deadly, Shesheshen must unearth the truth quickly, or soon both of their lives will be at risk. And the bigger challenge remains: surviving her toxic in-laws long enough to learn to build a life with, rather than in, the love of her life.
This is a standalone novel (#33) for The 52 Book Club's 2025 Reading Challenge.
#the52bookclub #the52bookclub2025
Since I listened to most of this in October, I counted it for Pick Your Treat in the October Mini-Challenge.
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