The Uncertain Story of a Monster

Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell

Pages: 310 Genre: fantasy

Rating: 3 Star

Kindle Notes and Highlights

Shesheshen is a shapeshifter — a feared monster — who is happy on her own in her lair. One day, she is rudely awoken from her hibernation and is forced to drive them out, constructing a body out of the things she has on hand. But the hunters overpower her and chase her right off a cliff. She's badly hurt, but she's being nursed back to health by Homily, a kind human who believes that she is helping a fellow human. Shesheshen is instantly smitten, but right before she can confess her true identity, Homily admits that she's here hunting a shapeshifting monster that put a curse on her family. Now, Shesheshen may be a shapeshifting monster, but she certainly didn't curse anyone's family. To give her and Homily the best chance at a happy life, she must unearth the truth. And take care of her toxic in-laws (Is it really frowned upon to eat your mother-in-law? What if she's really bad?)

Overall, this book was fine. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it. You're about to read a review where it's really going to sound like I hated it, but I didn't, I promise. I enjoyed the sense of humor, and I was interested enough in the overall story. I will say that I thought the gore was going to be played off a bit more (with a humorous, Galavant-style blasé tone), but it was gross. I think body horror is definitely not my thing, but I'm not counting that against the book. It was advertised as being about a shapeshifting monster who eats people, so I don't have a right to be upset that the book featured a shapeshifting monster who eats people. That's on me! You live and you learn.

I did enjoy the inclusivity in this book. The two leads were asexual lesbians (or at least as lesbian as a non-human monster can be?), and as I understand it, the author is also asexual. So that was a pleasant surprise!

While I did overall enjoy the book, there were definitely some major writing flaws. While I can applaud the representation, the writing was very odd in this regard. She was written to have a shoddy understanding of humanity, and this piece of characterization is only used for a cheap punchline and not relevant characterization. She doesn't understand things like laughter or dancing, but she does know the words "allosexual" and "enby" (which, I'm not one to make a call on non-binary representation, but I think "person" would've read better). I know a significant number of modern day humans who don't even know those words, much less what they mean. Where did Shesheshen learn what those words mean? When she was a puddle in her lair's basement?

This can be applied to many things. She is able to point out a lot of nuances of abusive familial relationships, and knows how to talk Homily through healing from it. She eats people, but only the bad people. She thinks it's bold of humans to call her a monster when they also cook and torture animals. She ate her siblings as a child. Ultimately, Shesheshen just never feels fully realized. The author wanted her to be gross and monstrous but also didn't want to alienate an audience with modern awareness and morals. It would've made a better story for Shesheshen's morality to truly be independent from humans, forcing the audience (and other characters like Homily) to confront why we feel certain things are right or wrong.

Honestly, all the characters were pretty one dimensional. The romance lacked depth — they experienced insta-love because they are the main characters in a romance novel, and they did not let the fact that it's also a fantasy horror book get in the way. Homily was almost exclusively a victim, and while that can be a powerful piece of character backstory, it ended up being all she is. She had no motivations or desires outside of the bad things that have happened to her, which makes her a weak main character and love interest (especially when she's dating a supposedly-morally ambiguous monster).

I also don't think "cozy horror" as a genre really works very well. The whole time it felt like there were two conflicting concepts, themes, and vibes that never really came together. The book's identity just never felt fully realized, which made it feel kind of shallow. As a concept, I was all for it. But the execution really just fell flat.

This was a very different kind of book for me, and while it's not the best book I've ever read, I enjoyed it. I would definitely say it's not for every reader, but I can see why it might appeal to some people.