Someone You Can Build a Nest In

How do the novel’s secondary characters complicate binary distinctions between civility and monstrosity? Focus on Laurent, the bandits, and the townspeople as you develop your answer.

Analyze Wiswell’s use of sensory imagery—particularly descriptions of taste, texture, and internal bodily sensations—to construct Shesheshen’s non-human perspective while simultaneously creating empathy for her experiences.

How does the offspring’s evolution from instinct-driven aggression to relationship-building complicate deterministic views of biology? Consider how Homily sets boundaries and models care, and how this is a counterpoint to the Wulfyre family’s destructive patterns.

Analyze how Wiswell constructs the fantasy world’s economic and political systems to illuminate real-world power structures. How do elements like the barony system, professional monster hunting, and Underlook’s economy of fear serve as vehicles for examining contemporary social dynamics?

How does Wiswell’s approach to monster romance embrace, subvert, or complicate traditional “Beauty and the Beast” tropes? How does this support the novel’s exploration of authentic connection?

Examine the significance of external appearances throughout the novel, from Shesheshen’s carefully constructed human forms to the Baroness’s aristocratic presentation. How does Wiswell use the relationship between surface and depth to explore questions of authenticity and social performance?

How does the novel’s treatment of inherited memory—particularly through Shesheshen’s recollections of parental sacrifice and loss—inform its broader exploration of trauma transmission and healing? Analyze how characters’ relationships to their pasts shape their capacity for present connection.

How do Wiswell’s linguistic choices distinguish between Shesheshen’s internal experience and her verbal interactions with humans? Consider how differences in vocabulary, rhythm, and conceptual framework reinforce the tension between inner reality and social presentation.