Synopsis
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 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. Homily is kind and nurturing and would make an excellent co-parent: an ideal place to lay Shesheshen’s eggs so their young could devour Homily from the inside out. But as they grow close, she realizes humans don’t think about love that way.
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. Shesheshen didn’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. As the hunt for the monster becomes increasingly deadly, Shesheshen must unearth the truth quickly, or soon both of their lives will be at risk.
And the bigger challenge remains: surviving her toxic in-laws long enough to learn to build a life with, rather than in, the love of her life.
Review
Perhaps you like a nice Rom-Com. You know…Tom Hanks on one side, the likeable everyman. On the other side Meg Ryan, the cute and spunky girl just looking for Mr. Right. The genre became popular enough that Hallmark devotes most of their channel to meet-cute romantic movies.
Maybe not…maybe you’re one for the new Romantasy genre. That new classification blending (often quite spicy) romance with fantasy elements like dragons and magic. I’ve heard the dragon ones are quite popular, but I’m not sure I’m going to check them out myself.
Then you have the cozy books. Nice and quaint. Maybe a little action and a little magic, but nothing that gets your blood pumping too much. Characters more concerned with the latest muffin recipe or solving a quaint murder or two.
Someone You Can Build A Nest In is…kinda all those things? Over this Valentine’s weekend, I picked it up and found a delightful fantasy romance that doesn’t really seem to fit as a Romantasy, and has way more stakes than a cozy. And frankly, by the time it wraps up, it almost feels more like a Hanks & Ryan Rom Com than anything else (with a healthy side of body horror along the way).
The book begins with something we probably can all relate to — someone unceremoniously waking us up from a nap. Shesheshen, our shapeshifting protagonist, is just chilling in her lair, hibernating over the winter, as one does. From there, as a reader, all of her actions seem entirely relatable, up to and including eating one of her attackers. With scenes like that, there is a balance of action and the macabre, a dark humor that weaves its way through the book and at times it catches our characters at just the right time.
Already awake, Shesheshen decides to venture out into the world. Branded a monster, she ends up falling in love with the daughter of a family who has sworn to kill her.
There are some wonderful twists in the story that surprised me at least once, but the themes are what make this book really work. Just because you look differently, does that make you a monster? What makes a monster — what’s on the inside or the outside? Are you who you are because of your parents or lack thereof?
I enjoyed Someone You Can Build A Nest In, and will be looking forward to John Wiswell’s next book.
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