Someone You Can Build a Nest In

John Wiswell

Release date: April 2nd, 2024
Genre: Adult, Fantasy, Horror

SYNOPSIS:

Shesheshen has made a mistake fatal to all monsters: she’s fallen in love.

Shesheshen 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. Homily is kind and nurturing and would make an excellent co-parent: 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. Has Shesheshen seen it anywhere?

Eating her girlfriend isn’t an option. 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.

REVIEW:

This book was such fun – but, I’ll be honest, it had some hard hitting topics scattered throughout its entirety. I find that lately I’ve been gravitating towards the dark side of fantasy, maybe because the characters feel more realistic? Even though Shesheshen was deeply flawed (by “human” standards) she’s more truthful and only hides her true self because of humanity’s mindset.

Weaknesses were a human invention. They called it your weakness if they fantasized about murdering you with it.

Shesheshen’s relationship with Homily was a delight to read – their growth, realizations, and acceptance was beautifully written. Her views on things that humans do throughout the book are hilarious and had me laughing out loud when I was reading.

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

A big round of applause for the twist towards the close of the book – completely blindsided me and it was downright devastatingly done. Overall, this book was amazing & I devoured it as readily as Shesheshen would a perfectly timed meal. Highly recommend reading this book if you enjoy dark humorous books with a unique perspective that has a little slice of (in my opinion) beautiful romance. Oh, and one cannot forget – the animal companion, Blueberry. If there ever happens to be a continuation of this book: prequel, sequel and/or standalone book in the same world – I’ll be reading it. A BIG thank you to DAW Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a digital arc of this book – all opinions are my own.