Wayward
I'm glad that this book exists, as there's a lot of representation that's important to see in media, including sapphics; asexual romance, love, and relationship; a cherished, curvy body in Homily and an amorphous lump that usually takes the shape of a woman and goes by she/her in Shesheshen; powerful women characters; enby characters; and honestly, a lot more not only in queer rep but mental health rep that I can't go into too much detail of without spoiling story arcs and character histories. All of these things are good things, and I'm glad they're present in such a popular book as this. However, there was so much representation sewn through every aspect of the characters that it almost caused this book to feel like an allegory to me. Allegories can be amazing expressions of belief—ideas worked into relatable caricatures—and it's good that they exist; it's good that THIS book exists. But for me, it wasn't quite what I wanted out of the experience. My personal enjoyment sank from high in first chapters to middling or low throughout most of the book.
Aside from the allegorical nature of the tale, there were a few other things that pulled my rating down. A couple of plot "twists" were predictable for starters. For another, I felt Shesheshen's understanding and deduction of human behavior to vary wildly. Sometimes she completely brushed off something human as being utterly foreign and nonsensical to her, while other times she made leaps of understanding about human nature, manipulations, and mental health that, for a creature who almost entirely spent her life in the companionship of nothing but a bear and the only snippets of humanity she saw were the ones she got while disguising herself as human long enough to consume somebody for lunch, were oddly perspicacious. Then there was the romance, which moved too quickly to me, especially from Homily when she found out Shesheshen was the monster her family had been hunting for generations.
While I consider these things to have weakened the story as a whole, I found the writing itself to be pretty good. I enjoyed Shesheshen's voice and much of her personality. I really liked the monstrous aspects of the story, and while I think some of this fed into the allegorical character-building I described, I DID like both how she described and thought of Homily, and how Homily so overtly loved and accepted Shesheshen, even when she was a half-formed blob with no hair and a mouth shaped only enough to get words out. That kind of love that is based squarely in personhood rather than physical appearance is the best kind, yet something I unfortunately find rarely in any media, especially romance novels. It's one of my favorite themes of much monster romance, and I appreciated how it was done in this one.
In summary, Someone You Can Build a Nest In isn't a perfect novel, but it's a decent one with a lot of important themes delivered in a somewhat dark but fun and interesting package. I'm not sure I'll recommend it often, but I'm not sorry I read it, and I am glad that it exists.
I'm glad that this book exists, as there's a lot of representation that's important to see in media, including sapphics; asexual romance, love, and relationship; a cherished, curvy body in Homily and an amorphous lump that usually takes the shape of a woman and goes by she/her in Shesheshen; powerful women characters; enby characters; and honestly, a lot more not only in queer rep but mental health rep that I can't go into too much detail of without spoiling story arcs and character histories. All of these things are good things, and I'm glad they're present in such a popular book as this. However, there was so much representation sewn through every aspect of the characters that it almost caused this book to feel like an allegory to me. Allegories can be amazing expressions of belief—ideas worked into relatable caricatures—and it's good that they exist; it's good that THIS book exists. But for me, it wasn't quite what I wanted out of the experience. My personal enjoyment sank from high in first chapters to middling or low throughout most of the book.
Aside from the allegorical nature of the tale, there were a few other things that pulled my rating down. A couple of plot "twists" were predictable for starters. For another, I felt Shesheshen's understanding and deduction of human behavior to vary wildly. Sometimes she completely brushed off something human as being utterly foreign and nonsensical to her, while other times she made leaps of understanding about human nature, manipulations, and mental health that, for a creature who almost entirely spent her life in the companionship of nothing but a bear and the only snippets of humanity she saw were the ones she got while disguising herself as human long enough to consume somebody for lunch, were oddly perspicacious. Then there was the romance, which moved too quickly to me, especially from Homily when she found out Shesheshen was the monster her family had been hunting for generations.
While I consider these things to have weakened the story as a whole, I found the writing itself to be pretty good. I enjoyed Shesheshen's voice and much of her personality. I really liked the monstrous aspects of the story, and while I think some of this fed into the allegorical character-building I described, I DID like both how she described and thought of Homily, and how Homily so overtly loved and accepted Shesheshen, even when she was a half-formed blob with no hair and a mouth shaped only enough to get words out. That kind of love that is based squarely in personhood rather than physical appearance is the best kind, yet something I unfortunately find rarely in any media, especially romance novels. It's one of my favorite themes of much monster romance, and I appreciated how it was done in this one.
In summary, Someone You Can Build a Nest In isn't a perfect novel, but it's a decent one with a lot of important themes delivered in a somewhat dark but fun and interesting package. I'm not sure I'll recommend it often, but I'm not sorry I read it, and I am glad that it exists.