In one way, I’ve been a little late to the party on John Wiswell’s first full novel, Someone You Can Build a Nest In; it came out in April this year, and @shaunduke and @jvstin interviewed the author in a podcast back in June. On the other hand, October is the perfect time to read a cozy dark fantasy, and this is really an wonderful book for that sort of mood, as long as one doesn’t find its elements of body horror and (mostly past) emotional manipulation/abuse too disturbing.
You see, the protagonist/narrator is a shapeshifting monster who keeps rebuilding her body from the remnants of defeated enemies, but a lot of the people she deals with are monstrous in their own ways. Upper classes oppress the peasants and merchants they supposedly protect; cruelty to animals is commonplace; sexual predation is expected; and families share generational trauma and exploitation. All that sounds as though this book must be dreary, but the perspective of the monster (who doesn’t much like words or names, but goes by Shesheshen and takes other aliases) casts a resonantly ironic light on events, and when she meets a uniquely likeable and caring woman, Homily, and tries to help her and communicate with her instead of just eating her, readers like me end up cheering for both of them.
I was expecting to like this book, since I’ve enjoyed and admired a lot of Wiswell’s short stories that I’ve heard on various podcasts in the last few years. What I wasn’t expecting was how much I would love every minute of the audiobook. The pacing is pitch-perfect, with backstory and explanatory details dropped in just as they’re needed without dragging the action down; musings on culture and communication are interesting and also serve to advance the plot; character development feels right and proper and timely; and a major revelation that I was starting to expect about halfway through the book was eventually realized in spades and executed most excellently. Everyone (whom I care about) lives happily ever … well, as long as the book lasts, anyway!
I also really enjoyed the distinct depictions of differences throughout this book. An asexual sapphic romance is denigrated by some characters but warmly endorsed by the author’s depictions and resolutions; other sexualities also appear; there’s a lovely fat-positive passage where Shesheshen adores how a laugh ripples through Homily’s body; some very different models of parenthood and childhood are explored; and due to the monster’s biology and the fact that people keep getting injured during monster hunts and other acts of violence, one can argue that there’s also a certain amount of disability representation. Communication can be very difficult, especially with the secrets being kept, the very different preferred modes of communication and the different assumptions that characters are making about each other, but the major characters keep persevering in trying not only to talk to each other, but to listen to what they’re saying — and not saying.
There was one other little plot element that I was expecting to go in a particular horrific direction that didn’t happen, but that’s OK; what Wiswell came up with was better than what popped into my head, anyway. Wiswell wrote this novel in a way that surprised me, often thrillingly, made me very happy, and certainly surpassed my already high expectations. It’s a great book, and I can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.
Content warnings: Body horror, emotional manipulation/abuse, cannibalism (sort of), animal abuse, child endangerment.
Disclaimers: None; library book.
