Someone You Can Build A Nest In cover art

Someone You Can Build A Nest In

A cosy fantasy as sweet as love and as dark as night

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Someone You Can Build A Nest In

By: John Wiswell
Narrated by: Carmen Rose
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About this listen

 **Winner: Nebula Award for Best Novel**
**Winner: Locus Award for Best First Novel**
**Shortlisted for: Hugo Award for Best Novel**

'Stealthily funny, slyly smart, and remarkably touching' VERONICA ROTH, bestselling author of WHEN AMONG CROWS

Shesheshen has made a fatal mistake for a monster: she's fallen in love.

Shesheshen is a shapeshifter, who usually resides as an amorphous lump in the swamp of a ruined manor, unless impolite monster hunters invade intent on murdering her. Through a chance encounter, she meets a different kind of human, warm-hearted Homily, who mistakes Shesheshen for a human in turn.

Shesheshen is loath to deceive, but just as she's about to confess her true identity, Homily reveals she's hunting the shapeshifting monster that supposedly cursed her family. Shesheshen didn't curse anyone, but to give them both a chance at happiness, she must figure out why Homily's twisted family thinks she did. And the bigger challenge remains: surviving her toxic in-laws long enough to learn to build a life with the woman she loves.

A glorious, funny, occasionally slightly violent love story which asks us to examine - and re-examine - the meaning of legacy, family and love. Winner of the Nebula Award for Best Novel!

Readers love Someone You Can Build A Nest In

'I adored everything about it' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ reader review

'Charmingly gruesome and unique' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ reader review

'This book is going to live rent free in my head for a long time' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ reader review

'A brilliant, monstrous tale' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ reader review

'One of the finest novels I've read' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ reader review©2024 John Wiswell Best of 2024 Fantasy Literature & Fiction Science Fiction & Fantasy Funny Heartfelt Hunting

Critic Reviews

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
This unusual queer romance is a heartfelt fable about disability and the possibility of reconciling conflicting needs through love and understanding
Imagine Grendel and Beowulf setting aside their differences and deciding to shack up together and you'll have some idea of the flavour of this novel, which balances a sweet, sly sense of humour with some lovingly rendered scenes of gore
Deeply funny and weird . . . a surprisingly sweet - and very gory - love story
Nothing [can] prepare you for the gentle silliness of Wiswell's wonderful science fiction debut (one draped in the aesthetics of fantasy)
This is a fast-paced and gloriously weird novel, full of explosive shenanigans and touching sentiment. It also manages to be an exploration of the queerness and the surprising fragility of monstrous bodies, as well as their resilience . . . a remarkably accomplished debut
Inventive enough to push the boundaries of romance and dark fantasy . . . A wonderfully weird horror romance
Wriggly, heartfelt, and carnivorous
Someone You Can Build a Nest In is 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
A beautiful monster story with a heart, Wiswell treats his outcasts as heroes. He is an author the world desperately needs
Someone You Can Build A Nest In is charming, horrifying, sweet, and funny - everything I could have wanted from John Wiswell's debut novel and more! With the perfect blend of humor and darkness, it's a wholly fresh take on a monster story
It is perhaps a little weird to say that a book with as much body horror as this has would also be warm, cozy, and sweet, but that's perhaps appropriate: it's a weird book. I mean that in the most positive way possible. Wiswell has crafted a story in which the monsters aren't nearly as terrible as the humans who are both their hunters and their prey, and yet Shesheshen is also unapologetically monstrous. I've never seen anyone pull that off with a fraction of the skill shown here. Besides being a masterful inversion of fantasy monster-slaying tropes, this is a fantastic examination of what it means to be family, and how that trust can be horrifically misused
I love the wonder and the darkly enchanting danger of this story. It makes me think of fairy tales, but John Wiswell understands what so many have forgotten: that true fairy tales are gruesome and magical at the same time, and he nails it here
Surprisingly sweet, unsurprisingly horrific, and entirely humane - only John Wiswell could have written this monster and her book, and I'm so very glad he did
All stars
Most relevant
I went into this completely blind and absolutely adored this.
great book with a really interesting premise and compelling characters. The narrator did a brilliant job

unique and fun

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A true delight. So nice to hear a story from a sentient monsters perceptive, that lays out the logic and word view of the monsters reality. The ethical dilemmas that had to be navigated after falling in love with a human well so well articulated and puzzled out,

I really appreciated that the author took the time to tie off many of the loose ends too, meant the story was satisfying and nourishing all the way through.

A true delight - Pure fun and enjoyment

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The story is fun and thoughtful, the characters are richly drawn and engaging, and the play on fantasy/romance archetypes blended with occaisional body horror details works far better than that description suggests. Some of the naming conventions felt a little twee, but it wasn't a dealbreaker. A lovely outsiders exploration of a neurodiverse person finding their place in the world, nestled inside a family tale with plenty of gnarly twists and turns. Worth all the awards, I'm ready for more.

Not such a fan of the narration. The character work is fine in dialogue scenes, but the first person narration is delivered in a constantly arch and conspiratorial tone that grows gratingly one-note over time. Shesheshen is be a monster hiding in plain sight, but at times she is also nervous, threatened, out of her depth, angry and oh yeah, in love (among other states). A little more range would have been appreciated.

Great story, not so great narration

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The storyline is just great. The construction of Shesheshen as a main character is just great. It was amazing to see how many real-life ethical dilemmas were gathered and put into such a beautiful love story.

Never did I imagine I'd like a book about a monster

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An original story, surprisingly well written and perfectly performed by the narrator. Definitely a hidden gem for those looking for a sticky and sweet story.

originality

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