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A review by cas_reads_anything
Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell
4.5
I actually think if it weren’t for the last handful of chapters, this would have been a 5 star book. Overall, it was weird, horrible, and absolutely delightful. Just the best sapphic body horror romantasy I can imagine.
Worldbuilding: The world here is fairly sparse. We visit a single city in some sort of europe-like fantasy world, without much of a deep dive into the politics or any of the surrounding area. Most of the worldbuilding is based on the wyvern (if that’s what Shesheshen is), with many questions unanswered for reasons that make sense in the context of the book. Her existence and way of shape shifting was utterly unique and fascinating.
Characters: I would die for Shesheshen. I just absolutely loved her. I think there is something to be said for comparing her to Murderbot; both are confused by human behavior and emotion but spend plenty of time studying it, both have a very dry sense of humor, and both are absolutely charming. Homily is a complex character that I didn’t always agree with but do understand the motivations for, and I appreciated her character arc.
Plot: At no point during this book did I know what would happen next. In retrospect, the plot arc makes sense and is fairly traditional in some ways; while it was happening, it was a delightful rollercoaster. I do think the pacing was overall very consistent with only some mild dragging towards around 60-70% of the book. However, the ending was… not my favorite. I felt like we had a delightful ending which wrapped up the story well and then it just kept going for a few more chapters. I didn’t hate Epilogue as a character but some of the dialogue around it was too on the nose and I just didn’t particularly love it either. It was fine. I do wish the book had ended earlier.
Recommend/Read More? Absolutely recommend, this was fantastic. Though I will have quite the time trying to describe what exactly I just read. I would read more from this author as well.
Worldbuilding: The world here is fairly sparse. We visit a single city in some sort of europe-like fantasy world, without much of a deep dive into the politics or any of the surrounding area. Most of the worldbuilding is based on the wyvern (if that’s what Shesheshen is), with many questions unanswered for reasons that make sense in the context of the book. Her existence and way of shape shifting was utterly unique and fascinating.
Characters: I would die for Shesheshen. I just absolutely loved her. I think there is something to be said for comparing her to Murderbot; both are confused by human behavior and emotion but spend plenty of time studying it, both have a very dry sense of humor, and both are absolutely charming. Homily is a complex character that I didn’t always agree with but do understand the motivations for, and I appreciated her character arc.
Plot: At no point during this book did I know what would happen next. In retrospect, the plot arc makes sense and is fairly traditional in some ways; while it was happening, it was a delightful rollercoaster. I do think the pacing was overall very consistent with only some mild dragging towards around 60-70% of the book. However, the ending was… not my favorite. I felt like we had a delightful ending which wrapped up the story well and then it just kept going for a few more chapters. I didn’t hate Epilogue as a character but some of the dialogue around it was too on the nose and I just didn’t particularly love it either. It was fine. I do wish the book had ended earlier.
Recommend/Read More? Absolutely recommend, this was fantastic. Though I will have quite the time trying to describe what exactly I just read. I would read more from this author as well.