John Wiswell

Nebula and Locus Award Winner! Hugo Award Nominee An NPR, Washington Post, Book Riot, Library Journal and Audible Best Book of 2024! “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 Starling House 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. “A stealthily funny, slyly smart, and remarkably touching story. Its wisdom will creep up on you as surely as your affection for its monstrous main character.”—Veronica Roth, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of When Among Crows

Someone You Can Build a Nest In

This book was an unexpected favourite. Catch me crying unapologetically about literal queer monsters.

Apiecalypse Jen

Do not try to prove you are generous by letting yourself be hurt 

Cloudface

Shesheshen now worried, deep in her core, that Homily was giving because it protected her from those who took. Could it be that every quality Shesheshen had fallen in love with was a symptom of pain?

Sophia 

It would have been a prime moment to attack her, if not for the eight armed guards who poured out of the carriage behind her. Vengeance required a little more tact than that.

Someone You Can Build a Nest In quotes

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