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

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I really loved this story! There were some anachronistic elements that really took me out of it, but that might be a personal thing (ex: I'm not non-binary, but I know that "enby" is complicated for some nonbinary people and I found it a little jarring to have a person described as "an enby" when the author is describing nondescript people in a crowd that are reacting to a scene. How do we know that the person is non-binary if our narrator is describing strangers? In fairness, how do we know a stranger is a man or a woman, right? This happens a few times in the book where the author will describe someone as a woman, then describe the next person as a man, then describe the next person as an "enby," but none of the people being described have names or are important to the plot, so I personally feel like we could move towards describing all people by what they look like or how they're reacting and refer to them, generally, as people or a person. Even if the author chose to describe the person as nonbinary, I think it would have felt anachronistic [from a language perspective], but would have been less distracting because it's not a term that nonbinary people have expressed reservations about. This is certainly not the only anachronistic language in a very good and fun book about a fantasy world, but it felt like a misstep in a book that is thematically about disability and queerness.) 

Additionally, I feel like this could have used some editing for length and repetition. 

Otherwise, I've never read a book like this before! Shesheshen, my heart! Homily! Please never stop writing women as big and meaty AND worthy of so much love and compassion and patience. I can't believe I put off reading this because the reviews talked so much about the gore and body horror. Honestly, yeah, that's a big part of it, but I followed the author where he was taking us and I felt so connected to the visceral grossness of our bodies and the horror of a body that fails you when you need it most. 

I want to sit with this book for a while and really digest (haha) it. I think this story will stay with me for a long, long time. 
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