A shapeshifting demon is chased out of her home by inept demon hunters. She manages to kill one or two of the three that attack her, but is sufficiently injured she has to go out in search of food so she can recover.
The demon, Shesheshen, takes the form of a human woman and ventures into town in search of food (which could be human), but she’s discovered and chased off a cliff.
When she lands in the chasm, she has the good fortune to do so next to a kind young woman named Homily, who, assuming she’s a fellow human, nurses her back to health.
As the title of John Wiswell’s book suggests, Shesheshen needs to find a mate she can plant her eggs in so they can devour him (or her) from the inside out.
But, the more Shesheshen gets to know Homily, the less she wants to do something so destructive to her.
Then she starts to get to know Homily’s family and she really doesn’t want to do her any more harm after she realizes how her family has ground her down.
At one point Shesheshen realizes Homily’s kindness was a defense mechanism from her family’s cruelty. Then she wonders what it means that she fell in love with Homily because of something that was born of cruelty.
At the same time, it’s hard for Shesheshen to claim the moral high ground when she eats humans…
Things get complicated when Homily tells Shesheshen her family has been cursed by a monster and it will kill them, one by one, unless they kill it first.
The monster she’s describing is clearly Shesheshen, and yet she knows she hasn’t cursed anyone, so she’s someone perplexed. But she can’t tell Homily that without revealing that she’s the monster, so she keeps the info to herself until later in the book.
SPOILER ALERT!!!🚨
Homily’s brother is one of the demon hunters Shesheshen killed at the beginning of the book. After a series of unfortunate events, Shesheshen also ends up killing and eating Homily’s horrible sister.
It’s clear the world is better off without them, but Shesheshen worries how Homily will react when she finds out.
All that (and more) comes to light before the end of the book, but I don’t want to ruin the twist, so I won’t say more.
I’ll just say reading this book is a great time and the audiobook narrator does a fantastic job.