About the Book
Discover this creepy, charming monster-slaying fantasy romance—from the perspective of the monster—by Nebula Award-winning debut author John Wiswell
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.
310 pages (hardcover)
Published on April 2, 2024
This was a library loan. Support your public libraries!
—I fell in love with the title first, and then I read the book and couldn’t stop thinking about it. This is the Nebula Award Winner for Best Novel in 2025, and after reading this book, I understand why it was so deserving of that honor. It is truly a magical, unique, thought provoking story executed with stunning empathy and precision.
Someone You Can Build A Nest In is a different kind of love story nestled inside an exploration of what it means to be human.
Shesheshen is an amorphous swamp blob who sustains herself by consuming those humans who happen across her and then using the various parts of their bodies to shapeshift. This gives her a fascinating perspective, not only as a non-human character looking into the human world (a stranger studying a strange land, essentially) but also allows her some insights into human nature that are thought provoking and carefully layered into the story without overwhelming it.
On the other side, you have Homily, the luckless second daughter of the man who killed Shesheshen’s mother. Homily believes her family has been cursed by a shapeshifting monster, and in a bid to improve her standing in her family’s favor (they don’t like her much) se sets out to find this shapeshifting monster and put an end to things.
Homily and Shesheshen are both outsiders, though in different ways. Homily is stuck in the farthest reaches of her family’s orbit, tolerated but not beloved, though she desperately wants to change that and show them her value. She has a kind and inquisitive nature that is at odds with what she has set herself out to do, making her task feel like clothes that are one size too small for this character. It’s an odd juxtaposition, and it’s one Wiswell pulls off well. Homily’s discomfort with herself, her situation, her family are driving forces that give her a softer edge and allows her to receive the events in the book in a gentle, thoughtful way.
Shesheshen, however, has a voice that captivated me from the moment I was introduced to her. She is, perhaps, one of the best non-human characters I’ve ever read. She is strangely and uniquely other and exists in that strange no-man’s land at the periphery of humanity that is often unexplored and shadowy. She doesn’t understand humans and doesn’t see much of a point in doing so. Yet after she is injured and relies upon Homily to survive and heal, she has to learn to trust and rely on at least one human, which pushes her character in some interesting directions.
Ultimately, Someone You Can Build a Nest In is a book about connection, about learning how to grow and trust, and allowing yourself to become vulnerable to do those things. The book felt a bit like a coming of age story, hitting the typical coming-of-age notes, but Wiswell addresses them in a different way. Here are two characters that aren’t really coming of age. They are both adults, but they are, in some ways, stuck. Shesheshen, at the edge of life and Homily, at the edge of her family. They are both outsiders, others to those that matter most (albeit one is a food source).
Across the narrative, these characters grow and push themselves, learning what it is to be truly vulnerable, to trust, to connect, to matter. In a delicate, deliberate way, woven through with stunning humor and empathy, Wiswell slowly carves away at these two characters, pushing them past their comfort zones across the pages of this story until they find their own surprising conclusions.
Shesheshen’s stunning voice, her non-human nature is one of the strengths of her character. Her perspective is woven through with humorous observations (often I’d find myself stopping in the middle of a scene to re-read and laugh at something I’d missed on my first pass), and pointed observations. She is so cunningly and deftly crafted, the perfect vehicle for Wiswell to use as a lens to study human nature. I was surprised by how thought provoking this narrative was, how deeply pointed it felt, and yet it never felt unkind. Wiswell has a knack for exploring what makes us monstrous with thoughtful empathy and a delicate touch, and the impact of this approach was powerful, leaving me thoughtful long after I finished reading.
Someone You Can Build a Nest In is an interesting mix of cozy and horror. There is blood and gore in this book. Shesheshen eats people and uses their body parts to shapeshift and Wiswell doesn’t shy away from that. She doesn’t understand why it’s a big deal. She sees people as potential sources of food or danger first and then fleshes out her perspective from there. She is perfectly not-human and stunningly crafted and she’s a fantastically messy eater. So while this book is heartwarming and thought provoking and has some incredibly crafted characters, one of them eats people and she’s messy about it. That’s worth being aware of before you dive in.
However, if blood and bones doesn’t bother you, I invite you to take a look at this book. It’s one of the most thoughtful explorations of connection, vulnerability, and what it means to be “monstrous” that I’ve ever come across.
Fantasy is a powerful genre. It is a fantastic escape, but it also allows us to step back and, with one step removed, we can better examine ourselves, our world, our lives… With Someone You Can Build a Nest In,Wiswell shows how powerful this genre can be, bringing together deeply profound themes with humor and empathy, a delicate touch that doesn’t shy away from brutality.
This book absolutely blew me away and has echoed through the hallways of my mind long after I finished reading.