Discover this creepy, charming monster-slaying fantasy romance—from the perspective of the monster—by Nebula Award-winning debut author John Wiswell
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 hunters intent on murdering her, 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.
However, the hunters chase Shesheshen out of her home and off a cliff. Badly hurt, she’s found and nursed back to health by Homily, a warm-hearted human, who has mistaken Shesheshen as a fellow human. Homily is kind and nurturing and would make an excellent co-parent: an ideal place to lay Shesheshen’s eggs so their young could devour Homily from the inside out. But as they grow close, she realizes humans don’t think about love that way.
Shesheshen hates keeping her identity secret from Homily, but just as she’s about to confess, Homily reveals why she’s in the area: she’s hunting a shapeshifting monster that supposedly cursed her family. Has Shesheshen seen it anywhere?
Eating her girlfriend isn’t an option. Shesheshen didn’t curse anyone, but to give herself and Homily a chance at happiness, she has to figure out why Homily’s twisted family thinks she did. As the hunt for the monster becomes increasingly deadly, Shesheshen must unearth the truth quickly, or soon both of their lives will be at risk.
And the bigger challenge remains: surviving her toxic in-laws long enough to learn to build a life with, rather than in, the love of her life.
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Speculative fiction centered on monstrous perspectives and disability themes gained major award recognition through the acclaimed novel Someone You Can Build a Nest In. Written by American author John Wiswell, this body of work blends unconventional monster protagonists with warm, compassionate storytelling and dark humor.
Born on September 4, 1981, and raised in the Mount Kisco area of New York State, John Wiswell graduated from Bennington College in 2005 and attended the Viable Paradise 17 writing workshop in 2013. His short fiction career launched with stories appearing in prominent venues such as Uncanny Magazine, Tor.com, LeVar Burton Reads, Nature Magazine, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Weird Tales, Nightmare Magazine, Cast of Wonders, Podcastle, Escape Pod, Pseudopod, Diabolical Plots, Fireside Magazine, and the No Sleep podcast. His 2020 short story 'Open House on Haunted Hill' won the Nebula Award for Best Short Story, and his novelette 'That Story Isn't The Story' earned a Locus Award. Wiswell's debut novel, Someone You Can Build a Nest In, was released in April 2024 by DAW Books in the United States and Arcadia Books in the United Kingdom, going on to win both the Nebula Award for Best Novel and the Locus Award for Best First Novel. A Hugo Award, World Fantasy Award, and British Fantasy Award finalist, his fiction has been translated into ten languages.
Wiswell, an ace/aro writer who lives in the middle of the woods where New York keeps all its trees, draws directly from his personal experiences as a disabled person with a neuromuscular syndrome. His writing frequently explores disability, chronic pain, bodily vulnerability, and non-normative relationships with a sharp sense of wit. Noticing that healthy people's capacity to complain is often very funny, Wiswell infuses his fiction with warmth, dark comedy, and profound empathy for monstrous figures. His narrative approach subverts conventional horror and fantasy tropes, transforming terrifying entities into complex, relatable protagonists who seek safety, autonomy, and genuine human connection.
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