Someone You Can Build a Nest In
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4.5 • 17 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
**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 House
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 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
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wiswell's grisly debut monster romance confronts familial abuse, otherness, and healing from trauma. Three human monster hunters surprise flesh-eating shape-shifter Shesheshen during her annual hibernation and poison her with a crossbow bolt soaked in rosemary before she can consume them. Weak from hunger and incomplete rest, Shesheshen—disguised as a human—hunts for food, as she must assimilate both organic and inorganic matter to maintain her body's structures and function. After she is unmasked and driven off a cliff, human woman Homily finds her and treats her injuries without realizing that Shesheshen is a monster. Attracted to Homily's selflessness, Shesheshen considers turning her savior into a self-sacrificing nest for her eggs. Both Shesheshen and Homily struggle with secrets they're keeping from each other, but as their association brings them afoul of powerful enemies, their painful pasts catch up with them. There's a potent emotional core to this blood-soaked tale, but the occasionally shaky worldbuilding muddles the message. Still, readers looking for dark and distinctive romantic fantasy will want to check this out.
