Someone You Can Build a Nest In
Books | Fiction / Fantasy / Dark Fantasy
3.9
John Wiswell
**Nebula Award Nominee****Hugo Award Nominee**An NPR, Washington Post, Book Riot, Library Journal and Audible Best Book of 2024!“This unusual queer romance is a heartfelt fable about disability and the possibility of reconciling conflicting needs through love and understanding.” —The Guardian "Sweetly furious, darkly funny, and gruesomely wholesome. It's a love story for the unloved, a happily-ever-after with a higher-than-average body count. I just adored it." —Alix E. Harrow, New York Times-bestselling author of Starling HouseShesheshen 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 impolite monster hunters, 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. Badly hurt by the hunters, Shesheshen’s nursed back to health by Homily, a warm-hearted human. Homily is kind and would make a great co-parent: an ideal place to lay Shesheshen’s eggs so their young can devour Homily from the inside out. But as they grow close, Shesheshen realizes that eating her girlfriend isn’t an option.Just as Shesheshen’s about to confess her identity, Homily reveals something else: she’s hunting a shapeshifting monster that supposedly cursed her family. Has Shesheshen seen it anywhere?Shesheshen didn’t curse anyone, so now she has to figure out why Homily’s twisted family thinks she did. As Shesheshen’s hunt for the monster becomes increasingly deadly, the bigger challenge remains: learning how to build a life with, rather than in, the woman she loves.“A stealthily funny, slyly smart, and remarkably touching story. Its wisdom will creep up on you as surely as your affection for its monstrous main character.”—Veronica Roth, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of When Among Crows
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More Details:
Author
John Wiswell
Pages
320
Publisher
Astra Publishing House
Published Date
2024-04-02
ISBN
0756418852 9780756418854
Community ReviewsSee all
"First time I've heard the word Horroramantasy but I'm digging it. Shesheshen was a very creative take on a monster. Essentially a blob that takes in parts from victims to shape-shift. Rarely do authors write main character villains and I find it uniquely interesting.
The problem for me was the book was based on Shesheshen and her differences from the human thought process. While funny there wasn't much of a plot or character development. I also found Homily a little flat compared with Shesheshen but it also weirdly worked. I found this pretty funny watching a monster try to understand complex human emotions when in her experience you just eat people who annoy you.
Homily gave Shesheshen a sense of humanity but the insta love put me off. I absolutely loved the blunt narrator. Well not at first but it fits so well with the monster. And even though I have mixed feelings this was an easy read and I enjoyed it up until the last two hours which dragged. Mostly because the creative shape-shifting became repetitive. Still, I enjoyed the gross morbid humor and would like to read some similar stories. "