Someone You Can Build a Nest In

Someone You Can Build a Nest In uses Shesheshen’s perceived monstrosity as a metaphor for neurodivergent experiences of social alienation, self-concealment, and the exhausting labor of social conformity. Wiswell identifies as neurodivergent and he dedicates the novel “to everyone who has been made to feel monstrous” (ix), explicitly aligning the protagonist, Shesheshen, with those marginalized by dominant norms of appearance and behavior.

A key theme the book explores is The Psychological Costs of Masking and Identity Performance. “Masking” is term that is used within neurodivergent communities to describe the constant effort of suppressing one’s natural expressions or tendencies to conform to social expectations. Shesheshen’s shapeshifting literalizes this experience. In her natural state, she is an amorphous collection of “impressionable lumps of flesh” (17), but to navigate the human world, she must painstakingly assemble a convincing human form from scavenged bones. Her attempts to blend in also require her to mimic speech patterns, conceal her natural appetites, and manage her emotional reactions even when she is under extreme stress. This act of constructing a socially acceptable “mask” is a constant, draining performance.

In his Author’s Note, Wiswell directly links Shesheshen’s masking and identity performance to his own life. He writes: “As a neurodivergent person, I’ve learned to hide myself. They call it ‘masking’—the process of presenting your personality like everybody else’s. […] To restrain our unusual thoughts or ways of looking at the world” (311). He writes that as he created Shesheshen, he was “excited by the freedom of writing someone closer to [him]self” (311). By centering Shesheshen’s consciousness, the novel explores identity, acceptance, and the pain of being an outcast in a world that pathologizes difference.