kristineisreading 's review for:

Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell

5.0

dark emotional funny

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

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This was so fun! And FUNNY. Shesheshen is such a fantastic character. Wiswell did a great job of imagining a monster who is decidedly not human. And yet, she develops a certain humanity as the book goes on. I'll be honest, this is not quite what I expected as far as the plot goes - thank goodness! It was far more interesting than what I was thinking (a monster living with a human woman and the only conflict was fighting against her instinct to lay her eggs inside the woman). In reality, there is so much deeper conflict than that.

Shesheshen pretending to hunt herself and trying to outsmart (and eat) the actual monster hunters, while also trying to hide her true identity, takes up most of the book, and it's a lot of fun to read.

There's family drama, and fight scenes, and a brutal ruler, and a humiliation kink, and monster hunting, and Shesheshen's internal battle of whether to admit what she is to Homily. There's a big twist that really isn't that surprising, but it fits the story perfectly and moves the plot along nicely. And throughout it all, you have Shesheshen making astute (and often very funny) observations about humans and human society. I really have nothing bad to say about this so it's a solid 5 stars for me.