This book is … a weird mix of horror and romance, cozy and queer and weird all at once.

Basically, your main point of view is this shape shifting monster who eats people–who the author does quite a job of making you feel for, especially as–between the whole eating people thing–she ends up finding a family of her own and perhaps even falling in love.

Not at all where I would have expected the story to go from just the title and cover (and oh, that is a delightful cover).

It does get a weird bit ‘modern’ feeling at time, especially when Shesheshen (the monster protagonist) oscilates between having no idea how humans human (I get it, I really do)…

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner,” Homily said, hand going to her throat through the scarf. “I get self-conscious.”

“If you weren’t conscious of yourself, who would you be conscious of?”

…to feeling strongly about consent quite a number of times.

Then she realized the human woman was waiting for consent. Shesheshen sank more under her witch’s hat, and extended a foot. Once it was offered, Homily patted one of her meaty hands on Shesheshen’s calf. Why was she doing that? And why did it feel pleasant?

It’s a concept worth enforcing, but I couldn’t quite shake the feeling that it just didn’t quite fit the whole ‘monster who doesn’t get humans’ thing and it jumped out at me.

On the other hand, I love how ‘alien’ Shesheshen is (when she’s not thinking about consent). She doesn’t really have a body of her own, building it around whatever she eats (or finds lying around). The descriptions of how she builds around organs and puts them to her own use gets awfully gory at times, but is also a lot of fun to read.

Overall, it’s yet another fun read and if you don’t mind a bit of gore and a weird horror/romance mix, it’s well worth it. None too shabby for a debut! (First novel; Wiswell has a few published shorts)

Side note: I … did not expect to find this was written by a man.