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 …
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.
The central premise is monster meets girl while pretending to be human and falls in love. Hijinks ensue. But the monster spends a lot of time struggling with what it is to be human and simultaneously being incredibly canny about human relationships. Which is kind of a clash and drew me out of the story a number of times.
Also, without getting too spoilery, suffice to say I liked the beginning portion of the book more than the ending portion after various twists.
I really enjoyed this book. I expected that going in, given how much I enjoyed John Wiswell's short story Open House on Haunted Hill.
Shesheshen is a shapeshifting monster, more an amorphous carnivorous blob, who gets woken up from their hibernation by a group of monster hunters. Shesheshen repels them then sneaks into town to find the town celebrating the killing of the monster. Shesheshen is revealed, then driven off a cliff. Shesheshen is saved by a woman named Homily, whose caring nature causes Shesheshen to begin falling for her. Turns out that Homily is from a family of monster hunters here to kill the monster to end a curse on her family.
The book has a really big theme around the people we choose to be with and those connections as they relate to the families we are a part of by random happenstance of birth. Shesheshen and …
I really enjoyed this book. I expected that going in, given how much I enjoyed John Wiswell's short story Open House on Haunted Hill.
Shesheshen is a shapeshifting monster, more an amorphous carnivorous blob, who gets woken up from their hibernation by a group of monster hunters. Shesheshen repels them then sneaks into town to find the town celebrating the killing of the monster. Shesheshen is revealed, then driven off a cliff. Shesheshen is saved by a woman named Homily, whose caring nature causes Shesheshen to begin falling for her. Turns out that Homily is from a family of monster hunters here to kill the monster to end a curse on her family.
The book has a really big theme around the people we choose to be with and those connections as they relate to the families we are a part of by random happenstance of birth. Shesheshen and Homily both support one another through growth and change over the course of the book. I really like the way that Shesheshen's nature of selfishness and independence to the point of isolation is balanced and countered by Homily's nature of giving of herself to the point of allowing the giving to harm her and how each brings the other closer to their own nature by the end of the story.
Overall, this was really good, especially for a debut novel. I really liked it, really liked what Wiswell did with monster tropes and romance tropes to make something new, and I look forward to the next work Wiswell puts out.
This book was fantastic. The setup is that shapeshifting, people-eating, amorphous blob Shesheshen is rescued by overly kind Homily, believing Shesheshen to be a person. Ironically, Homily comes from a monstrously toxic family of wyrm hunters, who are all out to kill Shesheshen specifically, while not realizing that Shesheshen is said monster. (Hijinks ensue.)
It's a story that deals with passing and masking--Shesheshen works really hard at trying to be a person, physically and socially assembled from what she can scavenge. She's got a wry non-human perspective that's especially biology-focused, like how to form legs and have a humanish shape, the tricky mechanics of eating with your mouth closed, and the overwhelmingness of smells and noises.
This book also deals with physically and emotionally abusive family, and how hard it is to struggle through trauma, no matter how much you are being hurt. Also, as you might expect, this …
This book was fantastic. The setup is that shapeshifting, people-eating, amorphous blob Shesheshen is rescued by overly kind Homily, believing Shesheshen to be a person. Ironically, Homily comes from a monstrously toxic family of wyrm hunters, who are all out to kill Shesheshen specifically, while not realizing that Shesheshen is said monster. (Hijinks ensue.)
It's a story that deals with passing and masking--Shesheshen works really hard at trying to be a person, physically and socially assembled from what she can scavenge. She's got a wry non-human perspective that's especially biology-focused, like how to form legs and have a humanish shape, the tricky mechanics of eating with your mouth closed, and the overwhelmingness of smells and noises.
This book also deals with physically and emotionally abusive family, and how hard it is to struggle through trauma, no matter how much you are being hurt. Also, as you might expect, this book is also about family and royalty being the true monsters.
Normally, I am not keen on stories where a good bit of relationship tension comes from an intentional deception leading up to an eventual awkward reveal. Even if you ignore the self-protective reasons here, I think the setup in this book works partially for comedy reasons, as Shesheshen considers devouring Homily at the outset, but as she gets more entangled in Homily's family life, it also works as a deception told for protective reasons. It narratively worked for me enough to not be feeling "just tell her already!" throughout the book. The fact that there are a number of worse deceptions elsewhere also makes this feel more minor than you'd imagine it could be.
I devoured (pun not intended) the whole book in one day. Strong recommend from me.
