Actual Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

This book is SUPER weird. Let's go ahead and get that straight. I loved every single second of it though. But I definitely can see how it would be weird for some people to read. You have to be okay with copious amounts of body horror and gore and you honestly have to be a monster lover (you know what word I actually mean). If you fit those criteria then welcome to a wonderful read. I loved Shesheshen (thank god for audiobooks because I had no idea how to say her name). I loved her relationship with Homily and I loved Homily’s characterization and development throughout the story. Things to note that I find a bit incorrect in the summary of the book:

1. I would say Shesheshen isn’t a shapeshifter. She’s more of a slime/goo that can consume parts and use them to look like other things. Think Imhotep from the Mummy movies. She never really looks like other animals/things/people in this story though. She pretty much maintains one form outside of her gooey form.
2. This is Sapphic in the sense that both of them use she/her pronouns but I’m not necessarily sure Shesheshen did GENDER that much. It never really came up because of my next point.
3. This is refreshingly asexual. Neither of them was interested in sex or kissing for that matter. But they loved each other so much they way they wanted to and were comfortable with.

But at the end of the day, those are just my interpretations of the work. Other people might view these characters differently and that’s totally cool. I would highly recommend this story. It was so incredibly well written and completely entertaining. I loved every single second of it.

Hi, I loved this and am about to make it part of my whole personality. Please read this book.

Someone You Can Build a Nest In is a delightfully cozy, funny horromantasy about what it means to be human, what it means to truly love someone, and healing from traumatic families. It's told from the POV of a monster that slowly finds itself falling in love. She has a blue bear (creatively named Blueberry), a remarkable ability to re-create perfectly detailed human hands, and devilishly sinister threats like "if you lie I will eat your lips."

#MonsterLife:
Unfortunately, the human she thinks she's falling in love with is part of a family that's out hunting her, so she has to do things like: borrow (aka digest) an olfactory system so she can blend in-- so tedious to maintain, not kill humans who are being rude at any moment she wants to, and even tie deer antlers to sheep and try to convince her beloved that that's the monster they're hunting.

The Writing:
If not already apparent, I was enamored by the humor which consistently dropped little nuggets that perfectly tickled my funny bone. But I also enjoyed the way a non-human monster viewed humanity and blending in with phrases like "romance was awful," or "arguing was the hardest form of talking." And equally they could say the absolutely sweetest things that made me genuinely buy into the romance such as when her gf is injured and "she wanted to... spend the rest of her life protecting that shoulder."

The Ending:
Some of the twists were well-telegraphed and easy to guess, but others were very fun developments that felt organic to the story and further reflected the characters' inner selves and their growth. I like when knowledge of a magic system is expanded on by the end of the book for both the reader and the characters. All of it was very satisfying for me.

Overall:
Don't be surprised if you hear me screaming about this book or re-reading it within a week. I absolutely loved it and if I didn't have other commitments would probably immediately start a re-read.

Audiobook Notes:
The narrator did an absolutely stunning job. I loved the way she was able to slightly alter her speech so that it was very obvious and differentiated between the voices in a way that felt natural and not at all distracting.
Do note: they have an English accent and speak a little quickly compared to other narrators (I normally listen to audiobooks at 3x speed but initially adjusted this down to 2.5x speed because I was driving and she was just a little too fast with the addition of any single other distraction).

Thank you to Tantor Audio and NetGalley for granting me an audio ARC. All thoughts, opinions, and incessant screaming about this book are my own.

♡ Audiobook Review ♡
♤ Release April.2 ♤
4.5 stars rounded to 5 stars
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Horror
Fantasy
Monsters POVRomance
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Discover this creepy, charming monster-slaying fantasy romance—from the perspective of the monsterShesheshen 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. 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. Shesheshendidn’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.
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This is John Wiswell first debut fantasy novel. There are some audiobooks that you can listen to without the book. And then there are some audiobooks that you DO need the physical or eBook to follow along. And this audiobook, you will need a physical or eBook to follow along. Once you get past the 20%, you start to understand what's going on. And the audiobook picks up!
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I have mixed feelings because this is a weird, highly interesting book.

♡ Thank you, Netgalley, and RB Media for giving me the ALC for my honest review

Wasn’t sure what I was really expecting with this one.
There was gore. There was murder. There was shapeshifting.
There was entitlement and royalty and little sh*ts being spoiled, etc…and I really wanted to hate every little bit of it.
BUT, something in the description egged me on to request it…

And here we are.

I fell in love with the ogre of a being…shapeshifting, body snatching, gore eating..monster being hunted….Shesheshen.
Who also befriended Blueberry…the kindest, biggest hearted, Bear in the wild….

And then we have Homily…the kind hearted, passerby who helps someone in need…even though she’s unsure what the actual f*** is going on. She nurses it/her/the monster back to health (or as healthy as he can make it)…and so, the story begins!

4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for me!
4 stars that I never suspected?!?!
This is so far out of my wheelhouse…but I loved every minute of it!
Pleasantly surprising!

⭐️ Predator. Ogre. Gory, flesh-eating phenomenon.
⭐️ Surprise Do-Good-er who has suffered many hardships, but still has so much left to give!
⭐️ Blueberry the Bear!
⭐️ Entitled Royal-like family that only cares for their own (& only sometimes at that!)

Thanks to #NetGalley and #TantorAudio for an ARC of the audiobook which is due out in a few days. (4/2/24).

#SomeoneYouCanBuildANestIn by #JohnWiswell and narrated nicely by #CarmenRose.

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Thanks so much for reading!📚⭐️

3.5

Sapphic Fantasy/Horror Romance with a monster main character sounded like everything I never knew I needed but unfortunately it fell a little flat for me. It was an enjoyable, easy listen but I felt so distant from the story. Initially I thought it was because of the monster main character, but despite being a shapeshifting monster Shesheshen actually acted quite human. I think it's mostly that I struggled with the romance. Shesheshen falls off a cliff and is nursed back to health by Homily and basically immediately decides that Homily would be the best place to lay her eggs. What follows is a witty almost fairytale-esque romance with some death and body horror. There's a curse (or is there) and a quest and toxic family dynamics.

Overall, I thought this was a solid debut even if it wasn't a new favorite. The audiobook is narrated by Carmen Rose, who also narrates Tessa Dare's Castles Ever After series, and I enjoyed her narration though did find myself losing track of some of the speakers in dialogue heavy passages.