A review by beckykphillips
Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell

adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Someone You Can Build a Nest In cannot be summed up in any pithy manner, but I will try - this is a story with an immense amount of body horror, but also so much tenderness and care. It is an outsider story that explores humanity in literally trying to become a human. The story has a romance with an asexual love interest and found family. I have never read anything like it and am so incredibly glad to have found it. I truly cannot recommend it enough, maybe it could be best described as a cozy horror-romance.

Interestingly, I also saw parallels between Someone You Can Build a Nest In and Beautyland - the perspectives of the main characters as outsiders trying to understand humanity and why people function the way that they do. The stories are in completely different universes, but maybe those universes could be cousins. 

I listened to this novel and highly recommend the narrator, she did an incredible job of bringing life to this story. 

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Tantor Audio for providing me a copy in exchange for my honest review.