Book Club Guide

Someone You Can Build a Nest In

by John Wiswell · 2024 · Literary Fiction

Key themes

A monster's perspective on romance — taken entirely seriously
Hiding your true self from someone you love — made literal
Horror tropes inverted — the monster as protagonist, the hunters as the threat

About this book

Shesheshen, a shapeshifting monster who has lived in a ruined keep for centuries, falls in love with Homily, the woman sent by a group of monster-hunters to kill her — and must navigate romance while hiding what she really is. Wiswell's Nebula Award-winning novel is a horror-romance that takes its monster's perspective entirely seriously, asking what love looks like when one partner literally cannot show their true self.

Published in 2024, Someone You Can Build a Nest In won the Nebula Award for Best Novel. Wiswell has written extensively in short fiction, often blending horror with unexpectedly tender perspectives on monstrous characters.

Discussion questions

Shesheshen is a shapeshifting monster, and the novel takes her perspective and her feelings entirely seriously as the protagonist. How does Wiswell develop this — what does centring the 'monster' do to familiar horror narrative structures?
Shesheshen falls for Homily, who has been sent to kill her. How does Wiswell develop this central irony — and does the romance work despite (or because of) this fundamental danger?
The novel is both horror and romance — genres not often combined with this much sincerity toward both. How does Wiswell balance genuine horror elements with genuine romantic feeling?
Hiding one's true nature from a partner is a common relationship anxiety, made literal here — Shesheshen literally cannot show Homily what she really is. How does Wiswell use this literalisation to explore something that resonates beyond the fantastical premise?
Someone You Can Build a Nest In won the Nebula Award. What does it do that earns this recognition — and what does combining horror and romance with full commitment to both achieve that a more ironic treatment might not?