GIDEON THE NINTH meets CIRCE in this creepy, charming monster-slaying sapphic romance-from the perspective of the monster-by Nebula Award-winning debut author John Wiswell

Shesheshen has made a mistake fatal to all monsters: she's fallen in love. Shesheshen is a shapeshifter who happily resides as an amorphous lump in the swamp of a ruined manor. When her rest is interrupted by impolite monster hunters, she constructs a body fit for devouring by reabsorbing the remains of past meals: a metal chain for a backbone, borrowed bones for limbs, and a bear trap for an extra mouth.

After one incident goes badly, Shesheshen's nursed back to health by Homily, a warm-hearted human, who has mistaken Shesheshen as a fellow human. Homily would make an excellent co-parent: an ideal place to lay Shesheshen's eggs so their young could devour Homily from the inside out. But as they grow close, she realizes humans don't think about love that way. Shesheshen is about to confess her identity when Homily reveals that she's hunting a shapeshifting monster who supposedly cursed her family.

Eating her girlfriend isn't an option. Shesheshen didn't curse anyone, but to give herself and Homily a chance at happiness, she must discover why Homily's twisted family thinks she did. And the bigger challenge remains: surviving her toxic in-laws long enough to learn to build a life with, rather than in, the love of her life.