Happiest of Fridays to you bookbots!

I am decidedly in my Horromance era but I didn't know that was what I was stepping into when I started SOMEONE YOU CAN BUILD A NEST IN by @john_wiswell (although I totally should have based on the title alone...). Thank you to the author, @netgalley and the publisher @dawbooks for the audio-ARC.

This story begins as a monster is propelled out of hibernation by a group of local villagers invading her chamber to slay her. From there, the monster, who is a shape shifter of sorts, assumes a human visage to try to figure out why the villagers are after her. Along the way she meets a kind, helpful, and generous human woman who teaches her that not all humans are blood-thirsty. But can their romance stand up against the truth of the history of this village?!?

I found this book to be charming and easy to read. I was very invested in the beginning and even though my attention faltered slightly toward the end of the story, I would certainly recommend it to:

🪱Folks who like monster stories
💚Horromance lovers
👯‍♀️Sapphic romance lovers
😍Folks who are looking for a refreshing romance where the characters in love are never toxic or conniving against each other but support each other the whole way

This one is out on shelves now!

If you could be any kind of monster, what would you choose?

I think I would go with an evil Siren, a vampire or maybe even a bog wife just for kicks.

💚SMASHBOT💚

A new story from a nebula award winning author, this is a creepy, charming monster-slaying cozy fantasy romance but told from the perspective of the monster. This is a must-add to your TBR if you love, creepy monster story, Cozy horror, Shapeshifting monsters and a sapphic love tale full of humor and darkness, yes this does have some gorey moments, some body horror so keep that in mind. I did find the story to be a little slow and I had trouble liking and siding with the characters, but I liked it!

I absolutely loved this story. It's a very good light fantasy with a nice bit of romance. I loved the way we learned about the world through the eyes of our monster, Shesheshen. It was a nice way to not focus too hard on the world building as our point of view doesn't venture far from home. I enjoyed how gory the book was at times, and how visceral Shesheshen's body could be. The descriptions of Shesheshen rebuilding herself after fighting were phenomenal.

I really liked the naming patterns in the book as well, I'm not sure if it was intentional but it was cute! Homily and Ode and Epigram.

It was also very nice to not have a romance that revolved around the physicality of relationships. Having the two share touches and learn about consent and boundaries was refreshing.

The only thing I didn't absolutely love was the voice actor for the audio book, but she honestly grew on me a little bit by the end. I found her a bit monotone.

I'll be keeping my eye out for Wiswell's next book.


Thank you to NewGalley for an advance copy !

Monster-hunting mayhem! This was a delightfully gory (and weirdly cozy) horror romance. Shesheshen is a wonderfully inhuman character, I’ve read a few monster romances that try to make the monster more palatable by having them regret doing bad deeds or behave like big softies. Shesheshen is an eldritch, amorphous blob who wants to kill and eat people and that’s that 🤷

This book mixes a lot of humor into the horror elements and the audiobook has a dry, deadpan delivery that really worked for me. I also love that the love interest is a chubby woman described as “pockmarked, of a healthy weight” and with a laugh that sounds like “the mating call of a moose with a cold.” It gets so monotonous to only read about flawless conventionally attractive characters so this was a breath of fresh air. It would be easy for Homily’s character to fall into the role of a tirelessly self-sacrificing doormat but she has sudden moments of ruthlessness that make her really fun.

If you can stomach gore and body horror (and if you’ve ever wanted to kill your in-laws) then I highly recommend this book, it’s rad. Includes asexual sapphic MCs and nonbinary minor characters.

CWs: body horror, gore, murder, classism, emotional and physical abuse (not between the MCs), death of a child, animal cruelty, torture

4.5⭐ rounded up to 5. This is the sapphic monster love story you didn’t know you needed. Fans of T. Kingfisher would probably enjoy this one. I strongly recommend!

❤️ Cozy, easy read
❤️ Dark humour
❤️ Story told from the monster’s perspective
❌ Some repetitions and dragging; could have been slightly shorter

Trigger Warnings: violence and murder, death, blood and gore, body horror, beheading, parental abuse, sibling abuse, trauma, gaslighting and bullying, dysfunctional family, homophobia, grief, animal abuse, cannibalism (sort of?).

Plot:
Orphaned shapeshifter Shesheshen is happily hibernating in blob form at the bottom of a ruined manor when her rest is interrupted by monster hunters. She narrowly escapes, only to fall off a cliff. When she wakes up, Shesheshen realizes that she is very much alive thanks to Homily, the warm-hearted woman who found her. She initially sees this stranger as a delicious meal, then as a cozy nest for her eggs, but soon starts to feel unsettling human emotions.

Wow, thanks Wiswell for all the sounds of crunching bones and images of juicy innards that now live rent-free in my mind…! This book was a wild ride and I absolutely loved it. I was amazed at how it explored difficult topics such as family trauma, grief, social etiquettes, obsession, the nature of humanity, co-parenting, homophobia, and more, while feeling like a light, cozy read. Some plot twists were predictable, but I didn’t see the biggest one coming and LOVED it. The ending also brilliantly avoided a possible loose end instead of falling into common debut novel pitfalls. However, the pace felt inconsistent, going from fast at the beginning to slow in the middle to fast again for the climax to slow again for the (rather long) epilogue.

Characters:
Oh gods, I loved Shesheshen. Sometimes it felt like she was more “human” than most of the insufferable humans that took part in this story. As someone with AS, I couldn’t help but relate to her when she was confused about social customs and etiquettes, or concerned about saying the incorrect thing. Her character development—from an amorphous lump whose sole desire is to survive and feed on humans, to a sensitive humanoid monster helping her girlfriend heal from family trauma—was chef’s kiss. However, I couldn’t say the same about Homily. I thought her character was inconsistent and slightly flat.

Writing:
Smart, sharp, funny. All the descriptions of Shesheshen eating and digesting and using human body parts made me crack up. I would definitely read more from Wiswell.

(I should have counted how many times the word “juices” is used, just to see if it had beaten Haunting Adeline. Probably not. But for some reason, the word didn’t annoy me as much in this one, ahah!)

Audiobook:
Perfect narration! It was very refreshing to hear a British accent, hehe, and the actor did a really good job at changing her voice for the various characters.

This is advertised as cozy but is *not* your typical cozy fantasy. This book follows Shesheshen, a shapeshifter who is being hunted for a curse she did not make. Alas, along the way, she falls in love with one of the family members who believe they have been cursed. It is a queer romantic horror that has the vibes of cozy while still having a death count.

I was interested in this book because a number of my friends absolutely loved it. While I did not love it as much, I mostly have positive things to say. I think this book was quite a delight, but I personally felt like it went on longer than I needed it to. The action finished, and there was still about an hour left of the audiobook. Which is great for the romance part - but I was not reading it for that aspect. I think it was a fun and entertaining read and if you like quirky horror-adjacent fun, you will enjoy it.

My favorite aspect was the fact that Shesheshen is spending the book learning how to human. There were things so many of us do without thinking that she didn't understand or seemed weird to her, and it was a lot of fun hearing that point of view.

Thank you to Tantor Audio and NetGalley for an audio arc of this in exchange for an honest review.

Shesheshen was asleep when the came, the monster hunters. She gets injured while dealing with them and wakes to find herself mended. Her rescuer is none other than Homily Wulfyre, sister of the monster hunter who tried to kill her. She falls fast for Homily, and continues to put herself in harms way to stay with Homily.
This book healed me, Shesheshen and Homily have the cutest relationship. I got approved an ARC for this story, and listened to the audio book version which was amazing. Carmen Rose was an incredible narrator for this in my opinion. I definitely am going to get my hands on a physical copy and I recommend this to anyone who enjoys cozy horror, sapphic/Asexual Romance, and cute love stories.

A monster romance where the monster is actually a monster with monstrous thoughts, and it's told solely from her point of view? I'M SOLD.

Seriously, even though Shesheshen is a shapeshifter, it was incredible to read her internal shift as she gained an understanding of love and empathy. How she was able to reconcile herself as something alien but also as something capable of change outside of what she can contort her body into. Absolutely beautiful.

Wiswell captures the idea of self-sacrificing love as an extreme version of wanting to be supportive/protective, and what else can I say except that it was extremely well done?

Oh also, I listened to this on audio and the narrator was fantastic. Loved how she changed her voice for different characters; it was distinct but not distracting!

I have never read a book quite like this but it feels like it was written for me and brought everything I love into one book. Whimsical, disturbing, adorable, horrifying? How? It just worked. Oh and it is sapphic too! I'll be shocked if this doesn't end up on my best books of the year list. Can't wait to reread it!

2.5 ☆

And the award for the most annoying MC name goes to.... SHESHESHEN!

Highly recommend *not* picking up the audio for this book and/or co-reading like I did because hearing SHESHESHEN being said every sentence was the most grating reading experience of my life. While some might say focusing on the names Shesheshen and Homily re beyond the point of the novel and human names are insignificant, in a sense, those names 100% detracted from my reading experience and enjoyment of the book especially on the audio version.

This is a sapphic aroace story of a monster learning how to live and think the way humans do. It's about a monster learning the ethics of what it means to be human and how to handle and process emotions, including love. That to me, was the best and most beautiful part of the book. I loved the FMC's exploration of human feelings with every person she ended up consuming. At the end of the book I really loved her so much as a character and wished I could give her a hug. Homily, on the other hand felt quite bland as a love interest.

Also, I glanced at a couple of reviews before diving in and many claimed this was cozy fantasy-horror. I'm not quite sure about that classification as this was filled with really vivid descriptions of body horror and a whole lot of gore so while it's not scary, it is very much horror. I quite enjoyed the body horror in this novel.

As for the audio narration as I co-read this with my eARC, I didnt enjoy the narrator at all, and I tend to be fairly easy to please with European accents. To me, she felt as devoid of enthusiasm for what she was narrating even to the very end of the novel when our FMC was filled to the brim with human emotions she could barely describe.

Overall, I felt very conflicted about this. There were things I Really Quite Enjoyed in reading this book and a whole lot of others I wished I did without. Nonetheless, I'm def recommending this to a couple of my friends who enjoy queer horror stories.

I loved this book so much! It had wonderful characters and a plot that I did NOT figure out like I usually do with stories. The "monster" was unique and I really appreciated that. The narrator was good as well.

Absolutely not. I like horror. I like sci-fy. But the descriptions in the first chapter was not only disgusting but confusing. I just can't.

Actual Rating 3.5

Shesheshen never expected to be awoken from her hibernation by monster hunters hoping to slay her. Nor did she expect to literally fall into the hands of someone who might just cause her to feel love for the first time. But as her life is thrown into disarray, she also realizes that something is growing inside her, yearning to get out. But she isn’t the only one keeping secrets, and Homily’s secret might just be enough to spell disaster for Shesheshen. But monsters don’t back down from terrible odds, and the two find themselves caught in a tangled web of secrets and betrayals.

This work of fantasy horror took a minute for me to become situated in. I was instantly drawn in, although I wasn’t sure where things were going or what to expect. But as the narration continued, it was much easier to settle in and enjoy the ride. I love that the book is told from the POV of the monster, and the uniqueness and grossness that is added because of that.

The characters were well written. While the secondary characters weren’t generally all that unique, they worked well in their roles and were good support to the main characters. Shesheshen and Homily both steal the show, both on their own and through their interactions. That being said, the romance didn’t work for me and felt forced, especially when it came to how easy the resolution was. I wish they had been left as kindred spirits and a meaningful friendship rather than trying to make it romance.

The setting wasn’t a focus of this work, and while that would normally be a major setback for me in a work of fantasy, just enough was included to support the plot and characters in this one. The pacing was also a bit off, with several places where the story lagged and seemed to lose focus.

If you’re interested in odd, gross monsters, then you’ll probably love this one. My thanks to NetGalley and DAW Publishing for allowing me to read this work. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Someone You Can Build a Nest In follows our main character Shesheshen as she first wakes up from hibernation. It’s not her usual awakening. This time it’s because she is being attacked! After fighting off her attackers and devouring one in the process, Shesheshen falls off a cliff. Thankfully she is found by the sweet and warm-hearted Homily. Shesheshen has never experienced human kindness and in this first encounter she begins to feel something she’s never felt before, love. Shesheshen doesn’t experience love the way humans do though and has to fight her monstrous instincts to lay her eggs in Homily. Will she fight the urge to turn the one she loves into a nest or will her natural childbearing habits win?

This book was fun! It’s definitely not something I would recommend to every person but if you like a good time with a creepy cute vibe then this might be a read for you! The story does feel a little bit like someone with ADHD wrote it because the plot shifts a couple of times but not every rabbit hole is a bad one! The ending was a bit whomp whomp but it was still very on brand given the rest of the book. Wiswell does a great job capturing the story from the monster’s perspective and I enjoyed a lot of Shesheshen’s reaction to many of her human interactions. The narrator, Carmen Rose, has a very even voice. There’s slight inflection here and there but most of the characters sounded like one character imitating multiple characters. Overall I feel this book is a solid 3/5 stars! It’s cute, it’s quirky, but is a smidge long and the pacing is a little off but overall a fun little story.

a strange and beautiful tale of monstrous love that's sure to tug at your heartstrings while simultaneously fulfilling all of your gruesome desires. this is one of the weirdest books i've read and i loved every second of it.

The monster Shesheshen is awoken early from her hibernation by monster hunters and forced to into a fight that leads her straight to Homily. Homily is a kind woman who helps Shesheshen recover from her wounds with secrets of her own. As Shesheshen begins to develop feelings for Homily she has to learn what it means to be human and to be monstrous.

This was is a fantasy horror told from the perspective of the monster, who learns monsters aren't the most monstrous thing in this world. It was full of twists that I really enjoyed, and I loved Shesheshen's perspective.

And I thought the narrator did a wonderful job bringing each individual voice to life.

Someone You Can Build a Nest In
by John Wiswell
Cozy Horror Fantasy
NetGalley Audio ARC
Pub. Date: Apr. 2, 2024
Tantor Audio
Age: 16+

Shesheshen is a monster able to shapeshift, incorporating bones, rocks, and other objects to be able to pose as something else. Shesheshen's hibernation is interrupted by hunters sent by the Baroness to kill Shesheshen and to bring back Shesheshen's heart to remove the curse Shesheshen is accused of putting on the Barroness's family, which she did not do.

But the hunters were able to hurt her, and in escaping she fell off a cliff. Homily, a warm-hearted woman, believed Shesheshen was human and tended to Shesheshen's injuries.

Shesheshen wakes and thinks Homily would make a great meal or a nice nest for her eggs. But as the two 'women' get to know each other, Shesheshen falls in love. But Shesheshen is still being hunted by the Baroness, who is also Homily's mother.


I used the main character's name a lot in my description as it was used A LOT in the story. Yeah, I get it's needed when there are multiple characters, but when Shesheshen is the only character in the area, using the name became monotonous, boring, and irritating.

That was the main downside to this story. It was cute with morbid humor which caused me to snort laugh a few times, and could have been so much better if the characters' names weren't used so many times.

It was an easy read, (I listened to the audio and the narrator was great!) and a lot was guessable as the plot played out. There is violence and graphic morbid humor, but even so, I think it's still suitable for readers starting at a mature 16.

One more star would've been given if Shesheshen's (and other's) name(s) hadn't been repeated so much.

3 Stars

A beautifully warm and humorous horror tale about what it is to be human, what it means to love someone deeply, and how to get past painful family dynamics, Someone You Can Build a Nest In. The story is recounted from the perspective of a monster that begins to fall in love. She possesses a blue bear, imaginatively called Blueberry, the extraordinary capacity to replicate human hands down to the last detail, and menacingly nasty threats.

An enduring and sweet romance between two people who have both been hurt by people who were supposed to love them. The protagonists voice is sarcastic and relatable, while also being tenderly fragile with emotions shes never had to deal with before. This one goes out to all my lesbian monsterfuckers, come get your gelatinous slime x human girlfriend pairing.

Have you ever heard of cozy horror? Would you like to learn what cozy horror would even be then this is the book for you!
This book is definitely dark and gory and has some pretty great body horror which i loved. This is a solid horror book even if that was all it had been but it wasn't! This book has so much more to offer. This book also had a beautiful romance at its core and the writing just felt warm and cozy in a way that just felt like home. The way the author described the love interest just made her feel so warm and comfortable even with her being a strong and tough individual
This book has a solid fantasy base as well. The world Wiswell created for these characters was stunning. The monsters and magic were amazing and the plot twist had me gasping. Overall this was an amazing book and definitely something I had never seen before.