Posted by I’m back to reading! I had quit my part time job and thought that would free up oodles of time to read, and it did, but then my brain went on strike and refused to absorb new information. My brain and I made negotiations so that I can read again.
This book had popped up on several of my recommendation threads, as well as just showing up in my feed from time to time from other reviewers giving it great reviews. I had to give it a try just based on the title, wtf does that mean?
Yes. This is a “romance.” When I think of romance, however, this is not at all how I typically would envision a romance. There’s no unresolved sexual tension (UST), there’s no pining for someone when they’re off-page, there’s no smoldering eyes, there’s no wildly intense emotions immediately after meeting someone first times (love at first sight) — there’s none of that at all. Our main character, Shesheshen, is a shape shifter. She’s lived without love her entire life. She’s isolated. She’s considered a monster and is hunted by the villagers. She is said to have cursed a local noble family and that now each member dies at a young age. To lift the curse they must kill the ‘worm.’
The cursed family sends out a raiding party to kill the worm. They do not succeed, but they almost did… and so as Shesheshen lays dying, a woman stumbles upon her and heals her. At first, Shesheshen doesn’t eat her because she can’t, she’s too weak from her injuries. But then she develops an odd sense of companionship… an emotion that grows into something more, something she doesn’t even have a word for. She wants very badly to plant her eggs inside the chest cavity of her healer, Homily, because she’s such a wonderful person she’d make a wonderful nest! This will kill Homily, so she decides she better ask first. That’s only polite.
I can’t tell you how strange and different this book is in all the right ways. Shesheshen felt adequately alien enough to feel like she was outside of humanity, but with enough relatable characteristics and endearing qualities that got me to invest in her character. This was a single pov book so the entire time we are inside of Shesheshen’s head as she explores humanity for the first time, including going to dances. This is a step in a different direction since usually she just eats the people and uses their organs for herself. It’s always good to have a spare kidney or two. Shesheshen can become whatever she wants to be, more or less. There are limits, particularly if she’s stressed out or injured, but she’s able to shift into whatever suits the situation best. You get a lot of descriptions about what that ‘feels’ like and what bodily functions are needed for it. In a way, this is sort of body-horror-ish. Honestly, this book sort of defies genres. Cozy body horror found family romance?
There’s a big hang up to Shesheshen’s romance with Homily, since Homily has no idea that they are hunting the ‘monster’ who cursed her family … with the monster that cursed her family. Shesheshen knows she made no such curse so she’s a bit confused by the whole thing. I liked how Homily’s character was slowly revealed, she has a lot of backstory and pain of her own. Her family is nuts. Her sister is abusive, her mother is cold, her brother is now dead, and she sometimes feels guilt where she shouldn’t about all of those things. Homily is a broken person, and broken people do broken things. She wants to help everyone all the time and consistently gives too much of herself, and it’s very satisfying to watch her grow out of that.
This is not a book of really high stakes where kingdoms are at risk and the world is in danger. This is a story of a backwater small noble family with their own small noble problems that really don’t affect others all that much. On top of that, the cast is small, there’s just one POV, and so maybe this qualifies as ‘cozy’? I’m not great with definitions of various subgenres.
The pacing was pretty great. It’s only 310 pages which I find is now around my sweet spot. I don’t have the attention span for sprawling epics… so an intimate and tightly written 300-400 page story is something I reach for now n’ days.
Overall this was a strong book that may be a little more on the niche side, but if this review sounded interesting I’d strongly recommend trying it out.
8.5/10