Someone You Can Build a Nest in caught my eye with its cover as I was exploring 2024 new releases. I threw a hold on the audiobook at my local library and promptly forgot about it until it came up just as I was finishing a re-listen of Dungeon Crawler Carl. It was perfect timing, and ended up being a really wonderful read that is a good example of a book that manages to successfully balance romance and fantasy elements in its story.
Read If Looking For: quality asexual romance, plus sized queer rep, cozy/horror mashups
Avoid if Looking For: monsters that truly feel monstrous
Elevator Pitch:
Shesheshen is a shapeshifting monster. Homily is a monster hunter. After Shesheshen is driven from her lair and unmasked, she ends up falling down a ravine only to be rescued by Homily, who mistakes her for a human woman. As they fall in love, monster hunters descend into the town and Shesheshen must grapple with her own survival, what it means to fall in love when (for her species) that usually means killing the one you love, and how to successfully masquerade as a human.
What Worked for Me
Overall this story flowed really well. Shesheshen is a great narrator, and the author finds the sweet spot of including enough odd elements to make her stand out as distinctly inhuman, but maintaining the core narrative structures we’re used to (as an aside, if you’re interested in a more avant garde take on a shapeshifting monster who eats people – albeit without the sweet romantic aspect – Walking Practice by Dolki Min is a phenomenal, if disturbing, read that does some cool things with prose). It’s not quite cozy fantasy, but it’s got some distinctly cozy vibes to it. There were even some elements of comedy to the story at times.
Homily was an engaging love interest as well. I was worried at first that some of her character traits were caricatures of a real personality, but the author succeeds in building her out as the book goes on. The relationship built up involves some classic miscommunication tropes, which I don’t love, but it felt very sweet if you can look past that. The balance between romance plot and fantasy plot was great. Neither overwhelmed the other, and both were essential to the development of the story. The twists took me by surprise but didn’t feel unearned, and the ending was really strong. This is a really good option for people who want to try out romantasy where the romance elements don’t consume the entire story.
I also think this book does some interesting work with a disability-coded lead, as Shershen’s body is a constant element in the narration. This included acknowledging how people with disabilities often get fetishized, which was incorporated successfully into a rather comedic b-plot.
What Didn’t Work for Me
To be honest, I mostly only had minor nitpicks for this book. I do wish that there was a little bit of engagement in the ethics of Shesheshen’s killing of people. The book didn’t quite go full ‘I only kill people who attack me’ but Shesheshen never quite grappled with the fact that her motivations probably weren’t always good (and the narrative didn’t try to push us there either). This wasn’t a major concern for me however. In the end, this book was a fun romance, but as with most fun romances, it doesn’t quite push the envelope or really get you to reflect on its themes.
In Conclusion: A Monster/Monster Hunter romance with sweet/horror elements.
- Characters – 4
- Worldbuilding – 3
- Craft – 4
- Themes – 3
- Enjoyment – 4
Marked for Plot 