Ahoy there me mateys!  There is a lot of awesome in this story of Shesheshen the monster falling in love with a human.  I loved the tale being told from the prospective of the monster.  Shesheshen's viewpoint of humans and their particularities was excellent fun.  I found the beginning of this novel up through the monster meeting the love interest, Homily, to be captivating.  Homily, of course, thinks Shesheshen is a human.  The monster learning about how humans think about love was also wonderful.  The insight into monster ethics was excellent.

Sadly, I did not love Homily as a character, even though she was sympathetic.  She seemed very one dimensional.  As the novel progressed I found the romance subplot and Homily's family began to irk me.  I did not like the plot twist regarding Homily's mother at all.  The logic of the story did not always work for me.

I also wish the novel would not have taken the direction it did once the big bad was dealt with.  Part of the problem was all of the lying that Shesheshen did to Homily seemed to be brushed off with no real consequences.  The reasons for the lies made sense but were not resolved satisfactorily.  It personally never felt like the two became partners.  Plus the epilogue was odd and too long.

I am still extremely glad I read this though because the beginning imagery and plot is going to stick with me for quite sometime.  I could see meself rereading this book just because of how enjoyable it was.  Oh and Blueberry the Bear rocks!  So I do highly recommend it.  I think the problems are more me and not the book.  Arrr!