Someone You Can Build a Nest In - John Wiswell - ★★★.½

AUTHOR: John Wiswell

GENRE: Horror-Fantasy-Romance

PUBLICATION DATE: April 2, 2024

RATING: April 2, 2024

In a Nutshell: A quirky fantasy-horror-sapphic-romance with a shapeshifting monster as the main character. Not my usual kind of read, but I found the concept interesting, and thankfully, the book mostly lived up to the potential. Recommended to those looking for an eccentric fantasy.

Plot Preview:

Shesheshen is a shapeshifting monster who had been hibernating in bliss until her sleep was disturbed by hunters intent on killing her. Using her present skills and her past kills to construct a body for herself, she somehow fools the hunters, even eats one of them, and escapes out of her home. Unfortunately, she ends up falling off a cliff, where she is rescued and nursed back to health by Homily, a kind human woman who has no idea about Shesheshen’s true identity. Unfortunately, the cliff isn’t the only thing Shesheshen fell over. She also falls in love with her saviour. But not the way you think. You see, Shesheshen believes that true love means finding the perfect person to lay your eggs in as that is the ultimate sacrifice of love – being a willing co-parent (and tasty food) for your little ones. Homily seems like the perfect “somebody to build her nest in.” But just as Shesheshen is about to confess her love, she discovers something shocking: Homily is in the area to hunt for a shapeshifting monster that has cursed her family. Whoops!

The story comes to us in Shesheshen’s third-“person” perspective.

Let’s be clear: I am no fan of monster horror stories. But seeing the idea of a shapeshifting monster falling in love with a human female only for her to want to make a nest out of the human body – the premise hooked me faster than Shesheshen hooked her “teeth” into humans. I always love novelty in plots, and this book has oodles of it.

Bookish Yays:

🐻 An unconventional narrator in the form of a shapeshifting monster – offers a somewhat eccentric but entertaining feel to the plot. Some of her thoughts are unintentionally funny.

🐻 The description of Shesheshen – doesn’t stop at simply saying ‘shapeshifter’ but actually goes to detail how Shesheshen derives her shape. Loved the conceptualisation.

🐻 Plenty of dark humour in the plot, thanks to Shesheshen’s observations on various topics, her struggle to keep her lust under control, and Homily’s family.

🐻 The character names – hilarious! Whether Homily or Plutocracy or Catharsis, the names add to the fun of the book. Can’t forget the monster’s name – ‘Shesheshen’ is as quaint a nomenclature as the being it belongs to.

🐻 Interesting that a male author can write two such enticing female characters, without ever mentioning their physical appeal. Granted, one of them is a shapeless bog monster, but the other one, and the various other female characters as well, are also not sexualised.

🐻 I expected a mostly straightforward story, but there are some interesting and unexpected surprises along the way. One of them caught me totally unawares!

🐻 When I took this book, the title had a small role to play in my decision. Never realised that it would be applicable so literally! An apt name for this book.

🐻 Blueberry the bear – I wanted so much more about Shesheshen’s furry friend!

Bookish Mixed Bags:

👹 Considering that the narrator is a cannibalistic monster, there are obviously many gory scenes. Though these are not written in a deliberately gross way, they are still *tough to digest*. Of course, the genre of this book merits the use of such content, so this is more of a ME problem than a BOOK problem.

👹 The sapphic “romance” has its appeal. I loved the idea of an almost-parasitic love story with Shesheshen mostly viewing Homily as a potential nest. But I gotta admit, it is a bit too unconvincing and straightforward. The complications of such a relationship aren’t addressed at all.

👹 The pacing is somewhat mixed. The start of the book is fine, but the second half gets bogged down by a few repetitive discussions and needless developments.

👹 Homily’s family is the epitome of a dysfunctional family. While this does bring some serious themes to the book, it is weird to see Shesheshen identifies Homily’s generational trauma and repressed feelings and what not. There is much pseudo-human awareness in her narration that doesn’t make sense considering her background. No way she would have known so much about mental health and therapy.

👹 While there are plenty of entertaining characters in the book, they seem almost caricaturish at times. Hardly anyone is realistic or layered. What you see is what you get. They do their jobs well, but I wish there had been a greater complexity to their portrayal. I wish at least one of Homily’s family members had been more “normal.”

Bookish Nays:

☠️ The ending drags. The epilogue is a bit too cheesy for this genre.

☠️ If you are the kind of reader who likes to see characters get comeuppance for their unethical decisions, you won't be very happy. Shesheshen gets away with quite a lot in this book, not getting even a slap on her shapeshifted wrist.

🎧 The Audiobook Experience:

The audiobook, clocking at 9 hrs 36 min, is narrated by Carmen Rose. She does a fabulous job of expressing every character. As the storyline is linear, the audio would be a great option of trying out this book.

All in all, I mostly had fun reading this unconventional debut novel. It was not at all my kind of book, but the different approach and the freshness of the storyline satisfied me to a great extent. I am not sure if there is a thing such as “cosy horror”, but this came pretty close. It would help if you can suspend disbelief, as you should for most fantasy works.

Recommended, though I am not sure to whom. Maybe to cosy fantasy/romantasy fans who don’t mind macabre body horror and are willing to lay logic aside.

3.5 stars, rounding up for the creativity and humour.

My thanks to Tantor Audio for providing the ALC of “Someone You Can Build a Nest In” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.