by John Wiswell
Daw Books
4/29/2025, paperback
SKU: 9780756419745
Shesheshen has made a mistake fatal to all monsters: she's fallen in love.
Shesheshen is a shapeshifter, who happily resides as an amorphous lump at the bottom of a ruined manor. When her rest is interrupted by impolite monster hunters, she constructs a body from the remains of past meals: a metal chain for a backbone, borrowed bones for limbs, and a bear trap as an extra mouth.
Badly hurt by the hunters, Shesheshen's nursed back to health by Homily, a warm-hearted human. Homily is kind and would make a great co-parent: an ideal place to lay Shesheshen's eggs so their young can devour Homily from the inside out. But as they grow close, Shesheshen realizes that eating her girlfriend isn't an option.
Just as Shesheshen's about to confess her identity, Homily reveals something else: she's hunting a shapeshifting monster that supposedly cursed her family. Has Shesheshen seen it anywhere?
Shesheshen didn't curse anyone, so now she has to figure out why Homily's twisted family thinks she did. As Shesheshen's hunt for the monster becomes increasingly deadly, the bigger challenge remains: learning how to build a life with, rather than in, the woman she loves.
Reviews:
"This unusual queer romance is a heartfelt fable about disability and the possibility of reconciling conflicting needs through love and understanding." --The Guardian
"Sweetly furious, darkly funny, and gruesomely wholesome. It's a love story for the unloved, a happily-ever-after with a higher-than-average body count. I just adored it." --Alix E. Harrow, New York Times-bestselling author of The Once and Future Witches
"Someone You Can Build a Nest In is the future of fantasy: a fairy tale with boundaries, an imaginative world created in the shape of collective values rather than the boring old id, a portal to a place you've really never seen before instead of just a princess in a different outfit. This novel is going to change the entire genre." --Meg Elison, Hugo and Locus award-winning author of The Book of the Unnamed Midwife
"This novel is for anyone who has ever felt like an outcast--or been bewildered by society's absurdities. I fell in love with Shesheshen's wry voice and dark sense of humor." --Ray Nayler, Locus Award-winning author of The Mountain in the Sea
About the Author:
John Wiswell won the Nebula Award for his short story "Open House on Haunted Hill." He has also been a finalist for the Hugo Award, World Fantasy Award, British Fantasy Award, and Locus Award. His work has appeared in acclaimed publications like Uncanny Magazine, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Tor.com, Nightmare Magazine, and others, as well as numerous podcasts, including LeVar Burton Reads podcast, the NoSleep podcast, Podcastle, Escape Pod, and others. He was most recently a finalist of the Hugo Award a second time in 2022 for Best Novelette. He has 9,000+ followers on Twitter and is a well-known and beloved member of the online sci-fi and fantasy community. He regularly attends sff industry cons and participates in programming.