Someone You Can Build a Nest In is a horror-fantasy romcom hybrid told from the point of view of Shesheshen, an amorphous shape shifter that relies on a grab bag of sticks, bones, rocks, and man-made tools to form a skeleton when she changes shape. She’s an obligate carnivore and has been known to opportunistically eat humans. This would not normally make her a very sympathetic character, but Wiswell somehow makes it work. It helps that she has a strangely romantic–in the sense that she has a very rosy, optimistic point of view –of her prospects, her personal history and her existence, and that she tends to eat humans who are attacking her and people who are kind of objectively horrible. (Another way she may be considered “romantic” is that she is looking for that Special Someone who will be the perfect “parent” (read: host) for her eggs.)
When Shesheshen is awakened from hibernation by monster hunters, she flees and eventually encounters a woman named Homily, whom she thinks might be The One. However there are a number of complication, obstacles and revelations that come between Shesheshen and a potential relationship with Homily. The first, is that Shesheshen is being sought by monster hunters for her “heart” to end a family’s curse. (Shesheshen does not have a heart or even a circulatory system.) The second is that Shesheshen’s potential “in-laws” are objectively horrible people who want to kill her for murders she did not commit. (As opposed to the ones she has committed.) The third is that Shesheshen comes from an intelligent, solitary species that doesn’t pass on information to the next generation and therefore, has no actual idea of how her species reproductive cycle works. (The revelations are not fun.)
Wiswell does a disturbingly good job of turning what would be a terrifying combination of The Thing, The Blob and a Xenomorph into a sympathetic and engaging protagonist. Even as you’re very creeped out by Shesheshen’s alien view point and instincts you can sympathise with her confusion, literal mindedness and vast holes in her knowledge and her substandard social skills as she tries to navigate something resembling a relationship with Homily. I liked the interactions between Shesheshen and Homily, and I found the plot to be extremely engaging. (While I do classify this as “horror” I’d have to say it’s more strongly fantasy. The “horror” aspects mostly come in the form of body horror–due to disturbing shapeshifting powers and general sliminess– and Homily’s horrible family.)
Only one slight complaint: It is just plain mean of the writer to have a minor character discover a monster kink after encountering Shesheshen, and then have Shesheshen stumble into using it to get the character to help her. I say “stumbles” because Shesheshen has no dang clue of why Laurent likes it when she delivers hair-raising threats. It is completely confusing to her on every level. I say it’s “mean” because Laurent does not strike me as an exceptionally terrible person, just a dumbass, and doesn’t deserve to be accidentally strung along. On the other hand Shesheshen’s baffled reactions to Laurent’s painful, second hand embarrassment inducing attraction are kind of funny. Except you know, for the painful second hand embarrassment. (Shesheshen gives me very strong “gray ace or maybe demisexual” vibes. Mostly because of the way she reacts to certain forms of physical intimacy but also because she just fails to understand when someone is attracted to her. Of all of the monster movie monsters I’ve compared her to, she is definitely NOT Sil from Species.)
I highly recommend the book, though with the caveat that if you are intensely “cool story, still murder” you may want to give this book a pass because the book is about a monster who kills people. And then eats them/uses their bones as scaffolding.
This review is based on a galley copy received from NetGalley
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