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The Works of Vermin
He was sent to kill a pest. Instead, he found a monster.
One of BookPage's Most Anticipated SFF & Horror of Fall 2025
Enter the decadent, deadly city of Tiliard, a metropolis carved into the stump of an ancient tree. In its canopy, the pampered elite warp minds with toxic perfume; in its roots, gangs of exterminators hunt a colossal worm with an appetite for beauty.
In this complex, chaotic city, Guy Moulène has a simple keep his sister out of debt. For her sake, he'll take on any job, no matter how vile.
As an exterminator, Guy hunts the uncanny creatures that crawl up from the river. These vermin are all strange, and often dangerous. His latest quarry is a centipede the size of a dragon with a deadly venom and a ravenous taste for artwork. As it digests Tiliard from the sewers to the opera houses, its toxin reshapes the future of the city. No sane person would hunt it, if they had the choice.
Guy doesn't have a choice.
“I will follow this writer anywhere.” —Gillian Flynn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Gone Girl
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
One of BookPage's Most Anticipated SFF & Horror of Fall 2025
Enter the decadent, deadly city of Tiliard, a metropolis carved into the stump of an ancient tree. In its canopy, the pampered elite warp minds with toxic perfume; in its roots, gangs of exterminators hunt a colossal worm with an appetite for beauty.
In this complex, chaotic city, Guy Moulène has a simple keep his sister out of debt. For her sake, he'll take on any job, no matter how vile.
As an exterminator, Guy hunts the uncanny creatures that crawl up from the river. These vermin are all strange, and often dangerous. His latest quarry is a centipede the size of a dragon with a deadly venom and a ravenous taste for artwork. As it digests Tiliard from the sewers to the opera houses, its toxin reshapes the future of the city. No sane person would hunt it, if they had the choice.
Guy doesn't have a choice.
“I will follow this writer anywhere.” —Gillian Flynn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Gone Girl
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
425 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 14, 2025
188 people are currently reading
11412 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 271 reviews
September 5, 2025
For some reason I was convinced that this is a horror novel prominently featuring disgusting bugs, but it's actually a very intricate and often grim fantasy story that was both overwhelming and undeniably addicting to me. Hiron Ennes definitely has big brain energy, because I can't even start to imagine what it takes to create such a detailed and rich story with so much information on every page. Due to the dense writing style the reading experience was rather exhausting for me and I'm sure that it will be a dealbreaker for other readers, but I was still always reading with great interest and everything paid off in a very satisfying way in the end.
The story takes place in Tiliard, a gigantic city carved into an ancient tree and home to our main characters. Living among the roots is Guylag Moulène, a young man working the worst jobs the city has to offer to keep his sister out of debt and currently employed as an exterminator of all the vermin that crawl the tree. In the overcity there's Asteritha Vost, a talented perfumer working for one of the most powerful (and worst) men of Tiliard while she's also unfortunately very contaminated by something that's making her sicker every day. The city is undergoing massive changes as a new kind of stone-melting, art-eating centipede the size of a dragon is discovered, but that is really only the start of a long series of events. And along the way there are so many fresh ideas and interesting concepts presented that I wonder how much can actually fit inside one book of medium length. There is the gross bug stuff of course, and the entire city is weirdly opera-obsessed, and there's casual violence and political scheming at all times, and everyone and everything is just very messy. I can't confidently say that I was able to wrap my head around everything that happened in this book, but I can wholeheartedly appreciate this story anyway. It felt like a work of art to me that only really came together when I watched it from afar and in its entirety. I was reading for a while, unsuspectingly, and then I was hit with such insane reveals that the air was knocked out of my lungs. Like, I audibly gasped when everything came together in a way that I didn't expect and it made me extremely invested in the last part of the story. I will definitely read this book again in the future to see how everything was set up in the beginning.
I didn't mention art only to compliment the author, but also because art is an important component to the story itself. Many different kinds of art are highlighted and more than one is relevant to the actual plot. There's music and dance, painting and photography, perfumery and embroidery, and it was such a powerful way to develop the characters who are associated with each art. The world was so dark and violent while the characters had such tender moments and felt deep and multilayered. Some were so multilayered that it hurt my brain. The relationships between different characters were strong and various and it was a joy to read about so many complex dynamics. There are siblings who would die and kill for each other, friends bound by contamination, people in powerful positions constantly at the verge of having each other executed, and many, many messy queer lovers.
I may have had a bit of a hard time reading this book, but in the end it leaves me impressed in every possible way. It will not be everyone's cup of tea, but I think it's worth checking out, alone for its uniqueness. If you are looking for a recommendation based on this book, I would send you to Metal from Heaven by August Clarke. It has a similarly dense writing style and the same ever-queer-violent-messy vibes that are also transported in The Works of Vermin. After a bit of a break I'm gonna send myself to Leech by Hiron Ennes, because I'm quite infested with their stories already (hehe) and one book is not enough for me.
Huge thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for providing a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.
The story takes place in Tiliard, a gigantic city carved into an ancient tree and home to our main characters. Living among the roots is Guylag Moulène, a young man working the worst jobs the city has to offer to keep his sister out of debt and currently employed as an exterminator of all the vermin that crawl the tree. In the overcity there's Asteritha Vost, a talented perfumer working for one of the most powerful (and worst) men of Tiliard while she's also unfortunately very contaminated by something that's making her sicker every day. The city is undergoing massive changes as a new kind of stone-melting, art-eating centipede the size of a dragon is discovered, but that is really only the start of a long series of events. And along the way there are so many fresh ideas and interesting concepts presented that I wonder how much can actually fit inside one book of medium length. There is the gross bug stuff of course, and the entire city is weirdly opera-obsessed, and there's casual violence and political scheming at all times, and everyone and everything is just very messy. I can't confidently say that I was able to wrap my head around everything that happened in this book, but I can wholeheartedly appreciate this story anyway. It felt like a work of art to me that only really came together when I watched it from afar and in its entirety. I was reading for a while, unsuspectingly, and then I was hit with such insane reveals that the air was knocked out of my lungs. Like, I audibly gasped when everything came together in a way that I didn't expect and it made me extremely invested in the last part of the story. I will definitely read this book again in the future to see how everything was set up in the beginning.
I didn't mention art only to compliment the author, but also because art is an important component to the story itself. Many different kinds of art are highlighted and more than one is relevant to the actual plot. There's music and dance, painting and photography, perfumery and embroidery, and it was such a powerful way to develop the characters who are associated with each art. The world was so dark and violent while the characters had such tender moments and felt deep and multilayered. Some were so multilayered that it hurt my brain. The relationships between different characters were strong and various and it was a joy to read about so many complex dynamics. There are siblings who would die and kill for each other, friends bound by contamination, people in powerful positions constantly at the verge of having each other executed, and many, many messy queer lovers.
I may have had a bit of a hard time reading this book, but in the end it leaves me impressed in every possible way. It will not be everyone's cup of tea, but I think it's worth checking out, alone for its uniqueness. If you are looking for a recommendation based on this book, I would send you to Metal from Heaven by August Clarke. It has a similarly dense writing style and the same ever-queer-violent-messy vibes that are also transported in The Works of Vermin. After a bit of a break I'm gonna send myself to Leech by Hiron Ennes, because I'm quite infested with their stories already (hehe) and one book is not enough for me.
Huge thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for providing a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.
August 13, 2025
Heart-rending, skin-crawling decadent madness! This novel is a constantly shifting beast, a deeply developed and intricate world that continues to evolve and deepen until the very last chapter. There is no end to the world-building here, and yet it relies on familiar dystopian sci-fi enough bones (such as a vertical city where the elite literally live atop the middle class, the working poor, and the impoverished classes, constant dissent and whisperings of revolutions that precipitate an even greater ferocity of the police state, etc.,) that the reader never feels lost. Well, not entirely lost, but there are enough novel ideas wrapped up in luxurious, purple language to make you unsure if this is a neighborhood you’ve seen before, somewhat confident you know where you are but not able to make any promises. That is part of the delicious fun of this novel, it conspires against you in some ways, but it always feels like it is challenging the reader without disregarding them or looking down on them. It makes the reading experience one of perpetual movement tinged with uncertainty, which is to say an irascible excitement, the dizzying thrill of leaning over a cliff’s edge.
The writing adds to the world-building, being highly descriptive and lush, constantly burying meaning under metaphor and hiding scathing truths in gentile banalities. This world is chaotic and obsessed with art, with appearance, with performance, those are all constructive elements of how this society understands itself, and the writing reflects that. I don’t know that it would work for any given story but for this story, in this world, it is perfect. Within this chaos are genuinely heartfelt characters that feel like they’re against all odds, scrounging for scraps in a world of bejeweled dumpsters overflowing with excess. They are part and parcel of this world, weird and transgressive and emotive, overstuffed with conflicting emotions and without the means to express them all. Even the antagonists are multi-layered, seeking an aesthetic that balances their pride, lust, ambition, and regret. The primary characters and core group of ancillary characters were all wonderfully compelling. They were messy and vulnerable and conniving and wormed their way into my heart.
The actual story and plotting are a little more difficult to talk about, not perfectly effective for me throughout the story but they won me over. The writing is a close third-person that, for the most part, moves between two characters, Guy and Aster. Neither of these characters are the movers and shakers of their circle, Guy is just trying to get along while his co-workers and bosses are the ones making decisions and he is just trying to stay afloat and on the right side of an exterminator’s trap. Aster works for the second-most powerful person in the government, but she has a lifetime of servitude to pay off, and while she isn’t necessarily happy she is able to steal joy where and how she can, and celebrate the achievements in her art. Her boss, or patron, as he prefers, and others in his circle are constantly conniving and oppressing and repressing and doing all the things authoritarian regimes need to do to keep their heads on their shoulders, and she, like Guy, is just along for the ride. Because of this it almost feels like a slice-of-life novel, as we follow these characters as the world moves around them and they just try to keep up. This results in an endlessly fascinating world but one that doesn’t feel like it has a strong plot for the first 2/3 of the story. At that point things get all twisty and mind-bendy in ways that were so clearly seeded from the very beginning but are revealed wonderfully. This means the plotting does feel a little slow. If you are happy to be constantly captivated by the ever-emerging world and the beautiful language, as I was, then this won’t be a problem. When things start taking on new shapes then the whole world becomes unreliable and there is a sense of urgency, but it does take time to get there.
There are so many ideas in this novel that I don’t know where to begin. The constant exploration and prioritization of art and aesthetics, and the way violence, social control/government, and even revolution are all explored as types of artistic movements is endlessly fascinating. That is contrasted with the wild insect life, the vermin, and how the lives of our characters, impoverished or elite, mirror those of the vermin underfoot. What is the price of beauty, and how can destruction and creation, deceit and beautification, be simultaneous? What will you sacrifice for those you care for, and what will you take, by force, if necessary? When you pull at the threads of the social tapestry not even yet off the loom can you uncover a new weft and warp or will one dying artform be replaced by another, different in appearance but equally corrupt in heart? When personal identity is guarded and personal performance is celebrated, what do you have to do to really know yourself?
(Rounded from 4.5)
I want to thank the author, the publisher Tor Books, and NetGalley, who provided a complimentary eARC for review. I am leaving this review voluntarily.
The writing adds to the world-building, being highly descriptive and lush, constantly burying meaning under metaphor and hiding scathing truths in gentile banalities. This world is chaotic and obsessed with art, with appearance, with performance, those are all constructive elements of how this society understands itself, and the writing reflects that. I don’t know that it would work for any given story but for this story, in this world, it is perfect. Within this chaos are genuinely heartfelt characters that feel like they’re against all odds, scrounging for scraps in a world of bejeweled dumpsters overflowing with excess. They are part and parcel of this world, weird and transgressive and emotive, overstuffed with conflicting emotions and without the means to express them all. Even the antagonists are multi-layered, seeking an aesthetic that balances their pride, lust, ambition, and regret. The primary characters and core group of ancillary characters were all wonderfully compelling. They were messy and vulnerable and conniving and wormed their way into my heart.
The actual story and plotting are a little more difficult to talk about, not perfectly effective for me throughout the story but they won me over. The writing is a close third-person that, for the most part, moves between two characters, Guy and Aster. Neither of these characters are the movers and shakers of their circle, Guy is just trying to get along while his co-workers and bosses are the ones making decisions and he is just trying to stay afloat and on the right side of an exterminator’s trap. Aster works for the second-most powerful person in the government, but she has a lifetime of servitude to pay off, and while she isn’t necessarily happy she is able to steal joy where and how she can, and celebrate the achievements in her art. Her boss, or patron, as he prefers, and others in his circle are constantly conniving and oppressing and repressing and doing all the things authoritarian regimes need to do to keep their heads on their shoulders, and she, like Guy, is just along for the ride. Because of this it almost feels like a slice-of-life novel, as we follow these characters as the world moves around them and they just try to keep up. This results in an endlessly fascinating world but one that doesn’t feel like it has a strong plot for the first 2/3 of the story. At that point things get all twisty and mind-bendy in ways that were so clearly seeded from the very beginning but are revealed wonderfully. This means the plotting does feel a little slow. If you are happy to be constantly captivated by the ever-emerging world and the beautiful language, as I was, then this won’t be a problem. When things start taking on new shapes then the whole world becomes unreliable and there is a sense of urgency, but it does take time to get there.
There are so many ideas in this novel that I don’t know where to begin. The constant exploration and prioritization of art and aesthetics, and the way violence, social control/government, and even revolution are all explored as types of artistic movements is endlessly fascinating. That is contrasted with the wild insect life, the vermin, and how the lives of our characters, impoverished or elite, mirror those of the vermin underfoot. What is the price of beauty, and how can destruction and creation, deceit and beautification, be simultaneous? What will you sacrifice for those you care for, and what will you take, by force, if necessary? When you pull at the threads of the social tapestry not even yet off the loom can you uncover a new weft and warp or will one dying artform be replaced by another, different in appearance but equally corrupt in heart? When personal identity is guarded and personal performance is celebrated, what do you have to do to really know yourself?
(Rounded from 4.5)
I want to thank the author, the publisher Tor Books, and NetGalley, who provided a complimentary eARC for review. I am leaving this review voluntarily.
July 25, 2025
Call me an entry in the Borisch Manual of Catoptric Pest Species the way I want to infest Tiliard. I mean, maybe not: Tiliard sounds like a horrible place to live. It is, however, a great place to read about.
My favourite books are those that can use the nature of fantasy or speculative fiction to make the metaphorical literal, to explore thematic meaning through physical interactions, while at the same time having cool world building and rollicking plot and fun characters and nice prose. The Works of Vermin does all of those things in spades. Looking for thematic meaning? We have the metamorphosis of insects as metaphor for transitioning, and the use of the same language for describing the extermination of pests and the persecution of political enemies. Looking for a unique and entertaining setting? We have a city with a Ministry of Aesthetics, a Seamstress Laureate, and infestations of moths that eat drapery, but only drapery carved into marble. Looking for exciting plot? We have duels galore, revenge, revelations, intrigue, and too many coups to count. Looking for fun characters? We have a woman who is blind to everything except beauty, or the messiest non-romantic love/hate imaginable, or several different versions of parent/child relationships. Looking for good writing? The prose was so good, so lyrical and beautiful, so luxurious that it was almost distracting with how well it turned a phrase.
The experience of reading this book was really something. I was continuously surprised by new secrets that in hindsight I should have seen coming, satisfying reveals and gut punch moments. I feel I cannot stress enough how beautiful is the writing itself, how the prose is uncommonly good. It is casually, easily, deeply queer, and what a joy that is. It's got horror elements, certainly, but it's not just dropping in the body horror of being stung by some horrifying pest for the sake of it, it's using that as a metaphor for the way that human bodies change, or for menstruation, or for transitioning. The world has echoes of Perdido Street Station and The Tainted Cup, but it's totally its own thing, unique and novel and exciting. It's so goddamn clever, and so goddamn good. I just know I'll get so much more out of it on an inevitable reread, too.
Leech was such a breath of fresh air, a wholly original book with beautiful, crisp prose and wild, queer ideas. I don't like reading horror, generally, but Leech convinced me that I wanted read whatever Hiron Ennes writes. The Works of Vermin has confirmed that opinion for me.
My favourite books are those that can use the nature of fantasy or speculative fiction to make the metaphorical literal, to explore thematic meaning through physical interactions, while at the same time having cool world building and rollicking plot and fun characters and nice prose. The Works of Vermin does all of those things in spades. Looking for thematic meaning? We have the metamorphosis of insects as metaphor for transitioning, and the use of the same language for describing the extermination of pests and the persecution of political enemies. Looking for a unique and entertaining setting? We have a city with a Ministry of Aesthetics, a Seamstress Laureate, and infestations of moths that eat drapery, but only drapery carved into marble. Looking for exciting plot? We have duels galore, revenge, revelations, intrigue, and too many coups to count. Looking for fun characters? We have a woman who is blind to everything except beauty, or the messiest non-romantic love/hate imaginable, or several different versions of parent/child relationships. Looking for good writing? The prose was so good, so lyrical and beautiful, so luxurious that it was almost distracting with how well it turned a phrase.
The experience of reading this book was really something. I was continuously surprised by new secrets that in hindsight I should have seen coming, satisfying reveals and gut punch moments. I feel I cannot stress enough how beautiful is the writing itself, how the prose is uncommonly good. It is casually, easily, deeply queer, and what a joy that is. It's got horror elements, certainly, but it's not just dropping in the body horror of being stung by some horrifying pest for the sake of it, it's using that as a metaphor for the way that human bodies change, or for menstruation, or for transitioning. The world has echoes of Perdido Street Station and The Tainted Cup, but it's totally its own thing, unique and novel and exciting. It's so goddamn clever, and so goddamn good. I just know I'll get so much more out of it on an inevitable reread, too.
Leech was such a breath of fresh air, a wholly original book with beautiful, crisp prose and wild, queer ideas. I don't like reading horror, generally, but Leech convinced me that I wanted read whatever Hiron Ennes writes. The Works of Vermin has confirmed that opinion for me.
October 12, 2025
I loved Leech, but this one didn't connect with me as much. Perhaps because Leech was purposefully disorienting whereas The Works of Vermin had more explicit world-building? Perhaps because I didn't jive with the characters as much? Hard to say, but I'll still try the next book from the author because their writing is so weird and interesting
Want to read
December 19, 2024No synopsis yet, but Peter Watts says
"The Works of Vermin isn't for everyone; those in thrall to YA might run screaming from the room, and good riddance. But if you're a fan of Mervin Peake, Gene Wolfe, China Miéville – mammal, have I got a book for you. A book to be not so much read as wallowed and rolled around in".
It’s giving part edge-lord, part actual originality.
Colour me intrigued...
"The Works of Vermin isn't for everyone; those in thrall to YA might run screaming from the room, and good riddance. But if you're a fan of Mervin Peake, Gene Wolfe, China Miéville – mammal, have I got a book for you. A book to be not so much read as wallowed and rolled around in".
It’s giving part edge-lord, part actual originality.
Colour me intrigued...
October 9, 2025
This had some of the most visceral writing I have read.
Is this horror, fantasy, sci fi, mystery, a story about familiar love?
Guy is an exterminator living in the under city desperately trying to pay off his impossible debts, intent on keeping his younger sister free. Only thing is, the bugs are crazy big, dangerous, and full of deadly toxins.
Aster is the perfumer for the Chancellor in the overcity, able to imbue loyalty, fear, resilience with the right scents.
First of all, I am a sucker for sibling relations. Guy’s love and fear for his sister is admirable, frustrating, and touching all at once.
Guy has a flair for the theatre and the descriptions from his pov will transport you.
Aster wasn’t as strong a character in comparison, but I was intrigued by the political turmoil around her as well as the intricacies of her work. Very imaginative. Imagine perfume able to change your persona, mood, influence others, protect you…
This world is shocking and grim and gory and horny and beautiful.
It reminded me of Perdido Street Station by China Miéville.
“Revenge is such a sad attempt to stay relevant.”
I did guess the big reveal, but I adored how it played out even if I thought the climax was slightly rushed and easy.
An easy YES recommendation for your spooky tbr.
Arc gifted by Pan MacMillan.
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Is this horror, fantasy, sci fi, mystery, a story about familiar love?
Guy is an exterminator living in the under city desperately trying to pay off his impossible debts, intent on keeping his younger sister free. Only thing is, the bugs are crazy big, dangerous, and full of deadly toxins.
Aster is the perfumer for the Chancellor in the overcity, able to imbue loyalty, fear, resilience with the right scents.
First of all, I am a sucker for sibling relations. Guy’s love and fear for his sister is admirable, frustrating, and touching all at once.
Guy has a flair for the theatre and the descriptions from his pov will transport you.
Aster wasn’t as strong a character in comparison, but I was intrigued by the political turmoil around her as well as the intricacies of her work. Very imaginative. Imagine perfume able to change your persona, mood, influence others, protect you…
This world is shocking and grim and gory and horny and beautiful.
It reminded me of Perdido Street Station by China Miéville.
“Revenge is such a sad attempt to stay relevant.”
I did guess the big reveal, but I adored how it played out even if I thought the climax was slightly rushed and easy.
An easy YES recommendation for your spooky tbr.
Arc gifted by Pan MacMillan.
Bookstagram
Tiktok
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October 17, 2025A strange and labyrinthine horror novel with intricate world-building and a central sibling relationship. This one takes its time and doesn't make it easy to understand the world or what exactly is happening. You have to be patient and let it unfold, dropping bits of information along the way.
Set in a dystopian world, there is a city in a giant tree stump. Above the wealthy play while below workers seek to exterminate giant bugs or harvest them for toxins used in perfumes that do more than just create a scent. The main character is an exterminator by day, and as a side gig allows himself to be used as a plaything by the wealthy. His only goal is to protect his sister from becoming endlessly indebted like himself, but it's a difficult world and she has her own ideas...
This author always has the most unique and strange ideas. While I didn't connect with this in the same way I did Leech, I appreciate what the story is doing. Note that there is plenty of body horror to be had and the twists are interesting. The audio narration is great and makes it feel like a Shakespearean drama. I received an audio review copy via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.
Set in a dystopian world, there is a city in a giant tree stump. Above the wealthy play while below workers seek to exterminate giant bugs or harvest them for toxins used in perfumes that do more than just create a scent. The main character is an exterminator by day, and as a side gig allows himself to be used as a plaything by the wealthy. His only goal is to protect his sister from becoming endlessly indebted like himself, but it's a difficult world and she has her own ideas...
This author always has the most unique and strange ideas. While I didn't connect with this in the same way I did Leech, I appreciate what the story is doing. Note that there is plenty of body horror to be had and the twists are interesting. The audio narration is great and makes it feel like a Shakespearean drama. I received an audio review copy via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.
October 6, 2025
I love weird fiction, especially weird SFF. So I'm sad to say that this didn't hit the spot.
I think my problem with this novel was that I didn't understand if this was supposed to be a satire or a serious novel about wealth inequity. The tone kept going back and forth on whether the novel wanted its reader to take it seriously (with subplots on child labor, indentured servitude, debt, etc.), or view this as a whimsical, almost nonsensical, story a la Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
I did like the huge twist near the end. The worldbuilding and characterization were top notch too. I haven't read too many biopunk novels, but this one excelled in its worldbuilding. You can't go wrong with a population that's one with nature and uses and abuses all sorts of insects like how we treat wild animals and farm animals. The world was definitely fascinating.
While I could connect with the MMCs, Guy and Mallory, literally every secondary and minor character read like caricatures out of a Shakespeare play. Was I supposed to take them seriously or brush them off as either satirical or nonsensical props? It's been a month since I read this arc and I'm still not sure.
Anyway, this is definitely a "it's not you, it's me" type of read. I wouldn't not recommend this, but I won't gush about it on socials or anything.
Thank you to Tor Books and NetGalley for this arc.
I think my problem with this novel was that I didn't understand if this was supposed to be a satire or a serious novel about wealth inequity. The tone kept going back and forth on whether the novel wanted its reader to take it seriously (with subplots on child labor, indentured servitude, debt, etc.), or view this as a whimsical, almost nonsensical, story a la Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
I did like the huge twist near the end. The worldbuilding and characterization were top notch too. I haven't read too many biopunk novels, but this one excelled in its worldbuilding. You can't go wrong with a population that's one with nature and uses and abuses all sorts of insects like how we treat wild animals and farm animals. The world was definitely fascinating.
While I could connect with the MMCs, Guy and Mallory, literally every secondary and minor character read like caricatures out of a Shakespeare play. Was I supposed to take them seriously or brush them off as either satirical or nonsensical props? It's been a month since I read this arc and I'm still not sure.
Anyway, this is definitely a "it's not you, it's me" type of read. I wouldn't not recommend this, but I won't gush about it on socials or anything.
Thank you to Tor Books and NetGalley for this arc.
July 19, 2025
What an absolute gem of a book but holy shit where to start. This is a speculative cacophony of sinners who find themselves in the midst of an infestation.
This is my first book by this author, and I was privileged enough to receive a physical ARC from Tor. While I don't typically read horror adjacent fantasy I absolutely devoured this book much like the bugs covering the city of Tiliard are attempting to devour its inhabitants.
The writing is purple, purple all the way down into the depths of hell. The world is complex, ever growing and changing like the city at its focus. I truly cannot describe the experience of reading this book to you. The plot is alive, I was on the edge of my seat trying to unravel the reality of it all.
The characters are spectacular, their motivations are sticky, oozing into the pages as we dive into the layers upon layers at play here. I love a clever book, and this is so smartly written I felt like I was in a competition with the book itself to see if I could figure it all out by the end.
Absolute banger. No notes. Go read this book.
This is my first book by this author, and I was privileged enough to receive a physical ARC from Tor. While I don't typically read horror adjacent fantasy I absolutely devoured this book much like the bugs covering the city of Tiliard are attempting to devour its inhabitants.
The writing is purple, purple all the way down into the depths of hell. The world is complex, ever growing and changing like the city at its focus. I truly cannot describe the experience of reading this book to you. The plot is alive, I was on the edge of my seat trying to unravel the reality of it all.
The characters are spectacular, their motivations are sticky, oozing into the pages as we dive into the layers upon layers at play here. I love a clever book, and this is so smartly written I felt like I was in a competition with the book itself to see if I could figure it all out by the end.
Absolute banger. No notes. Go read this book.
October 11, 2025
Exquisite, flawless, toxic perfection!
rtc!
REVIEW
*I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.*
Highlights
~rococo bugpunk (with actual punk!)
~opera as a bloodsport
~political movements as art
~prose to get drunk on
~queer as in rainbow
~queer as in strange
~so good I read it twice
I think it says all that needs saying that when I first reached 70% of this book, I couldn’t handle it being nearly over…so I went back to the beginning and started it again.
I suspect a third read is in my near future.
If you read Ennes’ debut Leech, then I don’t need to sell you on this author because you already know they’re a genius. But I will say that Works of Vermin is incandescently and extravagantly weirder than Leech was – to the point where, having now read both, I’m now convinced Leech was Ennes toning themself down in order to test the (silvery, burning) waters of the publishing industry, the equivalent of dipping their toes into The Market to see if it was able to handle such a writer, such a wildly warped imagination (complimentary). Because it sure feels like WoV is Ennes letting loose, going no-holds-barred baroque, gleefully cutting the safety line and dropping us into free-fall.
I loved it. Obviously.
If you haven’t read Leech, then please brace for gorgeous wtfuckery, ecstatic prose, and genres that smear into each other to become something unnameable.
(Seriously, what are we calling this book? Horror? Dark Fantasy? Secondary-World SciFi? I could make arguments for all three and none of them would be wholly correct.)
My favourite kinds of books are often called fever-dreams, but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a case where that was so justified as here. Works of Vermin feels exactly like being lost in a high fever; it is a grotesque rococo hallucination, surely impossible for a sober, lucid mind to ever dream up. It has all the infectious passion of a fever; it consumes the reader like one, like a brain-eating disease or a hallucinogen cut with something deadly. It gets into your blood; you have no antibodies for a book like this. There is no vaccine, no cure. You can only be obsessed.
As if dosed with the ecdytoxin the book revolves around, every thread of Works of Vermin mutates into something else before the final page; we open with Guy, a lowly pest exterminator who does sex work on the side to keep his feral younger sister fed and clothed; and Aster, a perfumer – which is something between an alchemist, wizard, and personal stylist, in this setting – whose lungs were badly damaged by a chemical weapon when she was a child, in the city’s last civil war. Guy and his coworkers are hunting a very, very big bug; Aster is sent to ‘acquire’ a dancer for her employer and patron, the Marshal (think head of the military under a dictator; he’s not the dictator, but he is not someone you want to fuck with). By the end, the city is on fire, and neither Guy nor Aster’s stories are anything like what you thought they’d be at the beginning.
Because the bug produces ecdytoxin, which warps (horrifyingly, exquisitely) everything it comes into contact with, organic or non-organic – and there are far too many people who see the potential in that. Because Aster goes to fetch a dancer and meets someone very strange, with even stranger embroidery. And on those two happenstance facts, our story turns.
Vermin is doing and saying so much, on so many levels, and I can’t tell if any of it was conscious and deliberate or if Ennes’ mind just works like this. (Again: extremely complimentary.) On the one hand, it feels as precise as jewelled clockwork – but on the other hand, it feels so lushly, horrifyingly organic, in the vein of ophiocordyceps unilateralis puppeting zombie ants or male angler fish dissolving themselves into the flesh of female ones. There are all sorts of little motifs and tableaus and recurring themes, glinting like gold thread amid the dark, meaty silk of the story Ennes has woven – like thumb names, and Guylag’s dragon, or even the Revivalist movement, which presents itself as bringing life back to Tilliard. But unstoppable life is just cancer, and with the way ecdytoxin mutates everything from bodies to buildings, the scathing commentary isn’t subtle.
Read the rest at Every Book a Doorway!
rtc!
REVIEW
*I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.*
Highlights
~rococo bugpunk (with actual punk!)
~opera as a bloodsport
~political movements as art
~prose to get drunk on
~queer as in rainbow
~queer as in strange
~so good I read it twice
I think it says all that needs saying that when I first reached 70% of this book, I couldn’t handle it being nearly over…so I went back to the beginning and started it again.
I suspect a third read is in my near future.
If you read Ennes’ debut Leech, then I don’t need to sell you on this author because you already know they’re a genius. But I will say that Works of Vermin is incandescently and extravagantly weirder than Leech was – to the point where, having now read both, I’m now convinced Leech was Ennes toning themself down in order to test the (silvery, burning) waters of the publishing industry, the equivalent of dipping their toes into The Market to see if it was able to handle such a writer, such a wildly warped imagination (complimentary). Because it sure feels like WoV is Ennes letting loose, going no-holds-barred baroque, gleefully cutting the safety line and dropping us into free-fall.
I loved it. Obviously.
If you haven’t read Leech, then please brace for gorgeous wtfuckery, ecstatic prose, and genres that smear into each other to become something unnameable.
(Seriously, what are we calling this book? Horror? Dark Fantasy? Secondary-World SciFi? I could make arguments for all three and none of them would be wholly correct.)
My favourite kinds of books are often called fever-dreams, but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a case where that was so justified as here. Works of Vermin feels exactly like being lost in a high fever; it is a grotesque rococo hallucination, surely impossible for a sober, lucid mind to ever dream up. It has all the infectious passion of a fever; it consumes the reader like one, like a brain-eating disease or a hallucinogen cut with something deadly. It gets into your blood; you have no antibodies for a book like this. There is no vaccine, no cure. You can only be obsessed.
Heads will roll like fruit, but he knows those that fall will be the ripest, not the rotten.
As if dosed with the ecdytoxin the book revolves around, every thread of Works of Vermin mutates into something else before the final page; we open with Guy, a lowly pest exterminator who does sex work on the side to keep his feral younger sister fed and clothed; and Aster, a perfumer – which is something between an alchemist, wizard, and personal stylist, in this setting – whose lungs were badly damaged by a chemical weapon when she was a child, in the city’s last civil war. Guy and his coworkers are hunting a very, very big bug; Aster is sent to ‘acquire’ a dancer for her employer and patron, the Marshal (think head of the military under a dictator; he’s not the dictator, but he is not someone you want to fuck with). By the end, the city is on fire, and neither Guy nor Aster’s stories are anything like what you thought they’d be at the beginning.
Because the bug produces ecdytoxin, which warps (horrifyingly, exquisitely) everything it comes into contact with, organic or non-organic – and there are far too many people who see the potential in that. Because Aster goes to fetch a dancer and meets someone very strange, with even stranger embroidery. And on those two happenstance facts, our story turns.
Elspeth and Mallory play, one like a stanza of metered verse, the other like an honest, if not funny, slip of the tongue
Vermin is doing and saying so much, on so many levels, and I can’t tell if any of it was conscious and deliberate or if Ennes’ mind just works like this. (Again: extremely complimentary.) On the one hand, it feels as precise as jewelled clockwork – but on the other hand, it feels so lushly, horrifyingly organic, in the vein of ophiocordyceps unilateralis puppeting zombie ants or male angler fish dissolving themselves into the flesh of female ones. There are all sorts of little motifs and tableaus and recurring themes, glinting like gold thread amid the dark, meaty silk of the story Ennes has woven – like thumb names, and Guylag’s dragon, or even the Revivalist movement, which presents itself as bringing life back to Tilliard. But unstoppable life is just cancer, and with the way ecdytoxin mutates everything from bodies to buildings, the scathing commentary isn’t subtle.
Read the rest at Every Book a Doorway!
Want to read
January 8, 2025no one is prepared for who i am going to become when this comes out
October 14, 2025
Got an arc from Libro.fm
Holy shit yall this is incredible.
When I started this I told my husband “I have no idea what’s going on but I think I’m having fun” and I ended it shaking him by the shoulders telling him he NEEDS to listen to the audiobook.
There’s SO MUCH going on here and the pitch copy doesn’t necessarily do it justice simply by nature of the story. It’s such a tightly woven tapestry of timelines and reveals and information that I cannot fathom the brain power it took to balance them all and come up with this story but I’m more than a little envious of the skill. I don’t know what all I can say without spoiling so I’ll just leave you with the fact that I’m going to be haunted by this one of a long time.
Holy shit yall this is incredible.
When I started this I told my husband “I have no idea what’s going on but I think I’m having fun” and I ended it shaking him by the shoulders telling him he NEEDS to listen to the audiobook.
There’s SO MUCH going on here and the pitch copy doesn’t necessarily do it justice simply by nature of the story. It’s such a tightly woven tapestry of timelines and reveals and information that I cannot fathom the brain power it took to balance them all and come up with this story but I’m more than a little envious of the skill. I don’t know what all I can say without spoiling so I’ll just leave you with the fact that I’m going to be haunted by this one of a long time.
November 27, 2025
"Now, at least in everything but name, he is a different man. Then again, so is she. The past is only ever populated by strangers."
"Woe to the fool who thinks that by virtue of his sitting upon it, the throne itself will change"
I really enjoyed reading this, the writing had such good moments at times, it even made me laugh twice or thrice and the setting is soooo unique. I love this world, it’s so detailed and feels so otherworldly and lived in. That being said, while I thoroughly enjoyed how the plot was executed, the literal storyline itself was a bit too simple for me. And perhaps more importantly I really wish the characters were better developed, ESPECIALLY ASTER. Girl was the flattest character in the book and she’s one of the MC like how the hell did that happen? In general, I just wanted these characters to be explored more but that’s not where the focus of the author landed so it is what it is.
"Woe to the fool who thinks that by virtue of his sitting upon it, the throne itself will change"
I really enjoyed reading this, the writing had such good moments at times, it even made me laugh twice or thrice and the setting is soooo unique. I love this world, it’s so detailed and feels so otherworldly and lived in. That being said, while I thoroughly enjoyed how the plot was executed, the literal storyline itself was a bit too simple for me. And perhaps more importantly I really wish the characters were better developed, ESPECIALLY ASTER. Girl was the flattest character in the book and she’s one of the MC like how the hell did that happen? In general, I just wanted these characters to be explored more but that’s not where the focus of the author landed so it is what it is.
October 22, 2025
Written for:
-those who went to art school
-gender’s fluid
-those who are waiting for Alecto the ninth to finally fucking come out
-general artists
-those who want a cabinet of curiosities and oddities so fucking bad actually
-general fucking freaks
-those who went to art school
-gender’s fluid
-those who are waiting for Alecto the ninth to finally fucking come out
-general artists
-those who want a cabinet of curiosities and oddities so fucking bad actually
-general fucking freaks
November 19, 2025
Review originally on JamReads
The Works of Vermin is a dark fantasy novel written by Hiron Ennes and published by TOR Books. A proposal that blends together grim fantasy with horror elements to deliver a quite unique novel, creating an imaginative worldbuilding that also helps to build a satire that criticizes a rigged system; a dense and rich story that demands attention from the reader to be fully enjoyed.
Our story is set in Tiliard, a decadent city carved into an ancient tree, where our main characters live. Among the roots is Guylag, a young man taking the worst jobs in Tiliard just to keep his sister out of debt, currently working as an exterminator for the Borisch Company, eliminating the vermin that appears in the tree. Guy is just struggling, trying to get along while his coworkers and bosses make decisions, just hoping to stay afloat and avoiding the wrong side of the exterminator's trap.
In the overcity, we have Astherita Vost, a talented perfumer working for the second most powerful man of Tiliard; slowly dying by the contamination that comes from her own art. A lifetime of servitude that also puts her in a privileged spot to observe the dangerous political game that goes behind the scenes of the authoritarian regimen that asphyxiates the city.
Ennes weaves a rather weird novel around those two characters, almost creating a slice of life proposal that focuses on scenes that paint a full portrait of Tiliard; the plot is quietly hidden between those, like one of the multiple vermin plaguing the tree. A place that is undergoing many changes, and with a vivid obsession for the art in the higher spheres (especially towards opera); a higher class that lives for power and show, an opulent life that contrasts with how the lower strata is struggling to barely afford food, in a parallel that could be tied with the robber barons era. Our characters are merely passengers on a train that is going too fast.
The writing is quite dense, requiring the reader to stay focused, but trust me when I say the pay-off is outstanding; the worldbuilding can be a bit overwhelming, as Ennes' imagination proves to be difficult to match, gifting us with a city that is the perfect scenario for this story. In terms of pacing, it is true that the first two-thirds land a bit on the slower side, as it puts the foundations needed for a thrilling finale.
The Works of Vermin is definitely an experience, a novel that blurs the line between genres to deliver a rather unique proposal that is not afraid of critiquing rigged systems while also rewarding the reader with stuff worthy of nightmares. A great sophomore novel by Hiron Ennes.
The Works of Vermin is a dark fantasy novel written by Hiron Ennes and published by TOR Books. A proposal that blends together grim fantasy with horror elements to deliver a quite unique novel, creating an imaginative worldbuilding that also helps to build a satire that criticizes a rigged system; a dense and rich story that demands attention from the reader to be fully enjoyed.
Our story is set in Tiliard, a decadent city carved into an ancient tree, where our main characters live. Among the roots is Guylag, a young man taking the worst jobs in Tiliard just to keep his sister out of debt, currently working as an exterminator for the Borisch Company, eliminating the vermin that appears in the tree. Guy is just struggling, trying to get along while his coworkers and bosses make decisions, just hoping to stay afloat and avoiding the wrong side of the exterminator's trap.
In the overcity, we have Astherita Vost, a talented perfumer working for the second most powerful man of Tiliard; slowly dying by the contamination that comes from her own art. A lifetime of servitude that also puts her in a privileged spot to observe the dangerous political game that goes behind the scenes of the authoritarian regimen that asphyxiates the city.
Ennes weaves a rather weird novel around those two characters, almost creating a slice of life proposal that focuses on scenes that paint a full portrait of Tiliard; the plot is quietly hidden between those, like one of the multiple vermin plaguing the tree. A place that is undergoing many changes, and with a vivid obsession for the art in the higher spheres (especially towards opera); a higher class that lives for power and show, an opulent life that contrasts with how the lower strata is struggling to barely afford food, in a parallel that could be tied with the robber barons era. Our characters are merely passengers on a train that is going too fast.
The writing is quite dense, requiring the reader to stay focused, but trust me when I say the pay-off is outstanding; the worldbuilding can be a bit overwhelming, as Ennes' imagination proves to be difficult to match, gifting us with a city that is the perfect scenario for this story. In terms of pacing, it is true that the first two-thirds land a bit on the slower side, as it puts the foundations needed for a thrilling finale.
The Works of Vermin is definitely an experience, a novel that blurs the line between genres to deliver a rather unique proposal that is not afraid of critiquing rigged systems while also rewarding the reader with stuff worthy of nightmares. A great sophomore novel by Hiron Ennes.
November 5, 2025
What the fuck, what the fuck. Und Hiron Ennes hat nicht mal einen Wikipediaeintrag. What.
August 22, 2025
(5) ARC received from NetGalley and Tor Nightfire UK. This in no way changes my opinion.
You know those books that feel like they were written especially to satiate your specific bookish cravings? THE WORKS OF VERMIN was that book for me. The purple, sesquipedalian language, the convoluted world, the theme of insects, and the unashamedly queer characters immediately latched onto me with their horrible, sharp pincers and refused to leave.
Tiliard is messy and beautiful, the kind of city where you would never wish to go. It is crawling with the kind of bugs that make you want to rip your eyes out, the kind of bugs which are both human and not. I loved the excess language which mirrored this world of excess. I loved the opera, the history of the world (which felt so 18th century France), the violence of dreams, the enormous plants and bugs and duels.
We follow Guy, an exterminator drowning in dept. He only cares about two things: his little sister Tyro and opera. During work, he is stung by a pest he has never encountered before, a massive centipede drawn to art. Soon, he is caught up in the plans of ambitious men, all the while attempting to keep a hold on the sister who is outgrowing him. I particularly loved Guy and the characters around him, stubborn Tyro and cold Dawn. I have a soft spot for dreamers, and Guy was exactly that, a dreamer in a world where dreams crush you.
Our other narrative trails Aster, a girl who works with hallucinogenic perfumes with poison crawling inside her lungs. Her best friend Elspeth is similarly interesting; she is poisoned so that she can only see beautiful things. They are introduced to a mysterious newcomer, Mallory, a man with outlandish embroidered fashion and a penance for attracting friends who may or may not be planning to target those in power.
The plot and characters are exquisite, with it coming to a lovely conclusion around the 3/4 mark. I immediately rushed to reread it after finishing it the first time, and drank everything in, the gorgeously concocted complicated-ness of the characters. (trans rep!! dandys!! The messiest love/hate gay relationship ever!! OPERA!! Siblings who save each other!! Duels!! BUGS!!)
I genuinely struggle to put into words how perfect his book is. It is a book for very specific tastes though, and I have a feeling some people will DNF and that’s okay.
Never did I ever feel such anguish, such awe at how an author has arranged a text. I have no critiques of this book, and it has become a new favourite. I cannot wait for this to come out so I can mark every page with my ugly stained fingers. Five stars,
You know those books that feel like they were written especially to satiate your specific bookish cravings? THE WORKS OF VERMIN was that book for me. The purple, sesquipedalian language, the convoluted world, the theme of insects, and the unashamedly queer characters immediately latched onto me with their horrible, sharp pincers and refused to leave.
Tiliard is messy and beautiful, the kind of city where you would never wish to go. It is crawling with the kind of bugs that make you want to rip your eyes out, the kind of bugs which are both human and not. I loved the excess language which mirrored this world of excess. I loved the opera, the history of the world (which felt so 18th century France), the violence of dreams, the enormous plants and bugs and duels.
We follow Guy, an exterminator drowning in dept. He only cares about two things: his little sister Tyro and opera. During work, he is stung by a pest he has never encountered before, a massive centipede drawn to art. Soon, he is caught up in the plans of ambitious men, all the while attempting to keep a hold on the sister who is outgrowing him. I particularly loved Guy and the characters around him, stubborn Tyro and cold Dawn. I have a soft spot for dreamers, and Guy was exactly that, a dreamer in a world where dreams crush you.
Our other narrative trails Aster, a girl who works with hallucinogenic perfumes with poison crawling inside her lungs. Her best friend Elspeth is similarly interesting; she is poisoned so that she can only see beautiful things. They are introduced to a mysterious newcomer, Mallory, a man with outlandish embroidered fashion and a penance for attracting friends who may or may not be planning to target those in power.
The plot and characters are exquisite, with it coming to a lovely conclusion around the 3/4 mark. I immediately rushed to reread it after finishing it the first time, and drank everything in, the gorgeously concocted complicated-ness of the characters. (trans rep!! dandys!! The messiest love/hate gay relationship ever!! OPERA!! Siblings who save each other!! Duels!! BUGS!!)
I genuinely struggle to put into words how perfect his book is. It is a book for very specific tastes though, and I have a feeling some people will DNF and that’s okay.
Never did I ever feel such anguish, such awe at how an author has arranged a text. I have no critiques of this book, and it has become a new favourite. I cannot wait for this to come out so I can mark every page with my ugly stained fingers. Five stars,
November 18, 2025
The past is only ever populated by strangers, Guy had told her once, referencing some pompous corpse or another.
Holy moly, this book! A great story that was a taxing process to tunnel my way through.
This author's previous novel, Leech, is an absolute favorite of mine. There are things I really like about this one here, but boy were there challenges, too. Mostly I just had a very difficult time picturing the things the author describes (e.g. do they live in the roots or on the roots, and if the stump is half-submerged then aren't the roots underwater?) Primarily it was the setting itself that I struggled to get a handle on, but the details of the toxins and perfumes and everything were just a lot. Many times I found myself rereading lines to make sure I was actually understanding what they were trying to say.
Somewhere around two-thirds into the book I had a major "Aha!" moment, but I hesitate to call this a twist or a big reveal because I honestly can't say for sure if it was something that was already supposed to have been clear and I just failed to pick up on it.
BUT, all that being said, it's a fantastic (if extremely complex) world the author has built here, and the story was very good. The characters were pretty wonderful (the undercity exterminator willing to do anything to keep his little sister from a life of working off debt, the perfumer who makes the perception-altering and subtly mind-controlling scents worn by the Grand Marshal Revenant, all those contaminated by the toxin used to literally reshape the city and its people during the last coup--all splendid!) I would call this grimdark fantasy and not horror, although there are most definitely body horror elements. There's LGBTQIA+ representation, and some truly great lines amidst the pulchritudinous prose.
He is the best Grand Marshal the city has ever seen. He is exactly as a Grand Marshal should be: dashing, competent, tough, ruthless or bloodless depending on necessity. He expresses the tenets of Revivalism in the sculpture of his own body, in his elegant and irresistible strategies. Bullets seem to pass right by him. Poison seems not to sicken him. He is so successful, so well-suited for life, that when in his fifth year of office he writes a solemn note and ingests enough tranquilizer to kill a team of horses, he only wakes up the next morning slightly better rested than usual.
My overall experience with this book was definitely a good one, but my troubles wrapping my head around the particulars drops it to four stars for me.
November 7, 2025
I was a huge fan of Leech but I had a much harder time following and staying engaged with The Works of Vermin. It was very slow, testing my patience to keep going. I am sure many people will love this novel, especially fans of China Mieville and Jeff Vandameer. Ennes creates a bizarre world, odd characters, with two story lines that eventually merge together. I think the main theme is power and how it can be abused. It is much more than a story about a guy hunting down a deadly creature. Overall it was just a bit too elaborate and confusing for me.
August 18, 2025
While I was reading The Works of Vermin I kept thinking back to a comment a reading group participant said about Hiron Ennes' previous novel Leech: "Why is the language so unnecessarily fancy, it feels like the author took a dictionary and choose particular words to make it seem like they were smart." I had a hard time connecting with this novel the first half and started to wonder: Is it more flowery than it needs to be?
By happy coincidence, I read Ursula K. Le Guin's essay "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie" this morning, in which she specifically discusses style:
"Many readers, many critics, and most editors speak of style as if it were an ingredient of a book, like the sugar on a cake, or something added onto the book, like the frosting on a cake. The style, of course, is the book. If you remove the cake, all you have left is the recipe. If you remove the style, all you have left is a synopsis of the plot. [...] Style is how you as a writer see and speak. it is how you see: your vision, your understanding of the world, your voice. [...] To create what Tolkien calls 'a secondary universe' is to make a new world. A world where no voice has ever been spoken before; where the act of speech is the act of creation. The only voice that speaks there is the creator's voice. And every word counts." (The Language of the Night, p. 87-88)
Would The Works of Vermin have been the same novel with a different style, different word choices? Absolutely. But it wouldn't have been a Hiron Ennes novel. And the way they build up the story is masterful. I started of reading it too fast (too used to "easier styles" I guess), but as the world, and Ennes' vision, slowly started to become clearer to me, I was sucked in completely. I will reread this novel sometime in the future and bask in the language of this storyteller.
By happy coincidence, I read Ursula K. Le Guin's essay "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie" this morning, in which she specifically discusses style:
"Many readers, many critics, and most editors speak of style as if it were an ingredient of a book, like the sugar on a cake, or something added onto the book, like the frosting on a cake. The style, of course, is the book. If you remove the cake, all you have left is the recipe. If you remove the style, all you have left is a synopsis of the plot. [...] Style is how you as a writer see and speak. it is how you see: your vision, your understanding of the world, your voice. [...] To create what Tolkien calls 'a secondary universe' is to make a new world. A world where no voice has ever been spoken before; where the act of speech is the act of creation. The only voice that speaks there is the creator's voice. And every word counts." (The Language of the Night, p. 87-88)
Would The Works of Vermin have been the same novel with a different style, different word choices? Absolutely. But it wouldn't have been a Hiron Ennes novel. And the way they build up the story is masterful. I started of reading it too fast (too used to "easier styles" I guess), but as the world, and Ennes' vision, slowly started to become clearer to me, I was sucked in completely. I will reread this novel sometime in the future and bask in the language of this storyteller.
December 14, 2025
I've decided that Hiron Ennes is one of my new favourite horror fantasy writers. Deliciously rich and crawly worldbuilding, a cast of universally fascinating characters (so hard to do with a multi-POV, where I usually find myself picking favourites!), and a plot twist that had me cackling and kicking my feet. It's a long one, to be sure, but I was charmed by every minute! 🐛🪳🖤
December 10, 2025
Sick, twisted, queer, bizarre, toxic, excessive, obsessive, subversive, INFESTED! READ IT NOW!
October 15, 2025
‘Same choice we all have, my dear. Same as every creature. Domestication, or extermination.’
I truly wish I loved this book more than I did, but to be honest I struggled through understanding most of this novel. The writing was very well done, but for the life of me I could not get a grasp on worldbuilding or the plot. Things would happen but everything felt so disconnected that nothing had any substance to it, so for the majority of this novel it felt more like I was being picked up and taken on the ride with no understanding of what would happen next, or why.
I think my biggest issue with this book was the two separate storylines going on - one that matches the book description, and one that does not at all. And neither are given any background to understand what is going on, and so even now I am unsure how the influence of art matters in this story nor how exactly the perfume that affects everything even works - or why. Throughout this novel we are given small glimpses into a bigger world, but - while nothing too hard to understand was being said, exactly - I spent most of this book in confusion.
There are multiple points of view that keep shifting between one and another and for the most part many of them are pointless. There’s bits and pieces to this story that are unnecessary and don’t add anything to it (Guy’s one specific side-job comes to mind), and other pieces that are included that just ruined characters for me. (I know Dawn has a twist near the end, but I found his sudden shift of being understanding of Guy’s boundaries with sex to pushing for something he is ‘owed’ a bit of a disappointment - I think it the twist would have been more impactful without the dismantling of Dawn’s softer character before the change).
I’ll be entirely honest - I did look at reviews for this book while I was struggling to read and kept seeing how well-received it was by seemingly everyone else. And I saw that there was some big reveal at about the 80% mark that completely changed how everyone read this book and so, against my better judgement, I pushed through to completion. If I didn’t have the audiobook and a long drive I may have honestly not bothered.
I’ll admit that there is some twist within the last 20% of the book and with this the plot does take off and quicken, but as this was a twist I had thought since the original fire at the opera house I was left less than impressed. I didn’t think this twist and sudden change in plot and tone was worth the majority of time this book meandered without a goal and somehow added more and more worldbuilding that made everything make even less sense.
If you’ve gotten at least 30% into this book and you’re not hooked on it, I’m here to tell you that you won’t really be missing anything by quitting. You can probably tell what the twist is, and in my opinion the payoff isn’t worth the punishment of muddling through the rest of the book. Normally I’d try to encourage everyone to check out something if they’re unsure, but with how overwhelmingly positive this book’s reviews are I think I should do the opposite. If you’re wondering whether you should stick through to the end or quit, that’s your sign to quit. If, however, you find this world fascinating and (somehow) understand what’s going on or why - then stay until the end and you’ll be rewarded.
The audiobook narrator was extremely well done and without it I would have never finished this book even with the promise of a twist at the end that made this story worth it. The voiceacting was phenomenal and even when I wasn’t enjoying the novel itself I was enjoying how it was being told to me. I do think this book is done very well through audiobook once you get the hang of the constant changing of POV.
‘There’s only one good man in Tiliard, and he’s been dead for years.’
Thank you to Netgalley and Tor/Macmillan Audio for providing me this e-ARC/ALC.
I truly wish I loved this book more than I did, but to be honest I struggled through understanding most of this novel. The writing was very well done, but for the life of me I could not get a grasp on worldbuilding or the plot. Things would happen but everything felt so disconnected that nothing had any substance to it, so for the majority of this novel it felt more like I was being picked up and taken on the ride with no understanding of what would happen next, or why.
I think my biggest issue with this book was the two separate storylines going on - one that matches the book description, and one that does not at all. And neither are given any background to understand what is going on, and so even now I am unsure how the influence of art matters in this story nor how exactly the perfume that affects everything even works - or why. Throughout this novel we are given small glimpses into a bigger world, but - while nothing too hard to understand was being said, exactly - I spent most of this book in confusion.
There are multiple points of view that keep shifting between one and another and for the most part many of them are pointless. There’s bits and pieces to this story that are unnecessary and don’t add anything to it (Guy’s one specific side-job comes to mind), and other pieces that are included that just ruined characters for me. (I know Dawn has a twist near the end, but I found his sudden shift of being understanding of Guy’s boundaries with sex to pushing for something he is ‘owed’ a bit of a disappointment - I think it the twist would have been more impactful without the dismantling of Dawn’s softer character before the change).
I’ll be entirely honest - I did look at reviews for this book while I was struggling to read and kept seeing how well-received it was by seemingly everyone else. And I saw that there was some big reveal at about the 80% mark that completely changed how everyone read this book and so, against my better judgement, I pushed through to completion. If I didn’t have the audiobook and a long drive I may have honestly not bothered.
I’ll admit that there is some twist within the last 20% of the book and with this the plot does take off and quicken, but as this was a twist I had thought since the original fire at the opera house I was left less than impressed. I didn’t think this twist and sudden change in plot and tone was worth the majority of time this book meandered without a goal and somehow added more and more worldbuilding that made everything make even less sense.
If you’ve gotten at least 30% into this book and you’re not hooked on it, I’m here to tell you that you won’t really be missing anything by quitting. You can probably tell what the twist is, and in my opinion the payoff isn’t worth the punishment of muddling through the rest of the book. Normally I’d try to encourage everyone to check out something if they’re unsure, but with how overwhelmingly positive this book’s reviews are I think I should do the opposite. If you’re wondering whether you should stick through to the end or quit, that’s your sign to quit. If, however, you find this world fascinating and (somehow) understand what’s going on or why - then stay until the end and you’ll be rewarded.
The audiobook narrator was extremely well done and without it I would have never finished this book even with the promise of a twist at the end that made this story worth it. The voiceacting was phenomenal and even when I wasn’t enjoying the novel itself I was enjoying how it was being told to me. I do think this book is done very well through audiobook once you get the hang of the constant changing of POV.
‘There’s only one good man in Tiliard, and he’s been dead for years.’
Thank you to Netgalley and Tor/Macmillan Audio for providing me this e-ARC/ALC.
December 17, 2025
The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes was fantastic. Not just tickling my particular tastes, but "staying up 'til 4am to finish" good. It's among my top 5 books of the year now. I didn't see any dedicated reviews of it here yet, which it needs and deserves.
The Works of Vermin follows two threads: one, an exterminator, Guy Moulene, deeply in debt and working his way deeper, taking dangerous jobs in the literal underbelly of the city to keep his young sister free and out of the system; the other, following a perfumer Aster, as she navigates her loyalties and the high society echelons of the upper city, crafting tailored perfumes for The Marshal, the ruthless authoritarian iron fist of the government and her adoptive father-figure.
The city of Tiliard is one of the best things about this book. More than just another Weird City, this is a really creative and fleshed-out city in multiple aspects. The physical city of Tiliard is carved out of an ancient tree-stump suspended above the deadly, mirror-like Catoptric River. The upper city, where the elite live in perfumed luxury and artistic decadence, is carved in concentric streets on the face of the stump. The mid-city, inside the trunk, is the factory district where the unpleasant and unaesthetic work takes place; manufacturing, alchemy, and imprisonment. The lower city, hanging among the roots of the tree which dip down into the river itself, is where the downtrodden, indebted, and criminal elements live, eking out life between the toxic runoff from above and suspended above a terrifying, deadly plummet among catwalks and suspended platforms above the river below.
Though Tiliard is built into the stump of a tree, the tree doesn't seem quite dead. The phloem and xylems of the tree still work, pulling up the water of the Catoptric, which does't appear to be quite water-- it acts as fuel and burns-- and funneling waste back down to the river. Combustible sugars are still able to be extracted from the tree's flesh, to be burned in the engines of cars or used as an element of alchemy and pharmaceutical perfumery. Because of it's nature as a half-dead tree though, there's another thing that makes Tiliard weird:
Bugs.
This is a very buggy book. Although I don't think it's particularly gross or scary, I could see this being uncomfortable for some people. I see this tagged as horror a lot on Goodreads, which I adamantly disagree with- to me, Horror is something which is intended to instill fear or unease in the reader. And I don't this does this at all, nor intends to. But I wonder whether squeamishness around bugs is why people are doing so. Because bugs do feature prominently in the book. Not only the massive centipede of the blurb, but infestations of silverfish, grease-beetles as food, psychoactive moths. Seeing as one the main characters we follow is working as an exterminator, bugs do crop up a lot.
Yet another extremely cool aspect of this city is the way art infuses the life of the city. Art is one of the primary diversions of the elite of the city: deadly operas with real, loosely-scripted swordfights and actual executions; perfumery as magical fashion, straightening eyebrows, adding compulsion to speech, or acting as a restraint on passions; personally embroidered kerchiefs and tossed bodkins as marks of favour. When notable events happen in the city, the news isn't spread through newspapers or radio broadcast, it's found by listening to poems or seeing quickly painted artworks, attending a hastily arranged opera or hearing a newly composed song.
Another aspect of this books which I loved was the characters. Rather than heroic, admirable protagonists, we follow a sad, somewhat pathetic, hopelessly romantic and empathetic pest exterminator, and a chronically ill, conflicted parfumier. Similarly, one of the main thrusts of the book is love, but not romantic love. Obsessive/possessive platonic love, sibling love, yearning love, and parental love. These loves, I'd say, are the main drivers of the book as far as we, the readers, care, even though grander events are occurring in the background.
As for plot, I don't want to say too much, beyond what the blurb says and the premise I've laid out. I think the best comparison I can give without any spoilers as to how exactly things are laid out is by comparing it to Gene Wolfe. This is not a comparison I use lightly, and there are definitely ways in which it differs (for one, it doesn't have Wolfe's use of obscure vocabulary and unreliable narrators). But where it stands alongside Wolfe, which is oft admired and rarely imitated of his works, is in its narrative structure and layers. It shares a similar subtle inclusions of details and hints about how the world works and what's going on in the story, able to worked out by a perspicacious reader early but slowly peeling back layers, rather than blindsiding the reader with an unanticipated and unearned "twist."
All in all, this an excellent book. This is certainly the best book I've read published this year, though that's not a high bar to pass, being 1 of 4. But I don't doubt it'd still be there were I a current reader. It's also one of the best books I've read this year, which is currently at 53.
And because I am, by virtue of this golden crown (editors note: it is brass and paste), an Authority on Weird Cities, I have some good comparisons to make. The obvious comparison is, of course, Perdido Street Station. But, I feel like that comparison is bandied around anytime a book is simply "set in a weird city," and PSS is much darker and closer to the verge of horror imo. The bigger weird city book that it's actually very close to are Jeff VanderMeer's Ambergris books (which, looking at ratings on GoodReads, isn't nearly as close to PSS as I though; I might have to make a post imploring people to read it). Another good comparison in terms of vivid setting is to Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast novels, though what Gormenghast is to a Gothic medieval castle, this is to an Art Nouveau Victorian city.
For books which feature a city infused with art in a similar way, the closest books are VanderMeer's Ambergris (particularly the novella The Transformation of Martin Lake [contained within CoSaM] and the second, Shriek: An Afterword), The Etched City by K. J. Bishop and, somewhat, Michael Cisco's The Divinity Student.
For books set in a weird city centered around an inexplicable situation of setting, I'd compare it to Adiran Tchaikovsky's Cage of Souls and, for some deep cuts, City of the Iron Fish by Simon D. Ings and Trial of Flowers by Jay Lake.
Finally, for just very readable, recent, unabashedly weird and fun books, I'd recommend those who like this try Jared Pechacek's The West Passage and Steven Noon and Jeff Beard's Gogmagog, and vice-versa.
The Works of Vermin follows two threads: one, an exterminator, Guy Moulene, deeply in debt and working his way deeper, taking dangerous jobs in the literal underbelly of the city to keep his young sister free and out of the system; the other, following a perfumer Aster, as she navigates her loyalties and the high society echelons of the upper city, crafting tailored perfumes for The Marshal, the ruthless authoritarian iron fist of the government and her adoptive father-figure.
The city of Tiliard is one of the best things about this book. More than just another Weird City, this is a really creative and fleshed-out city in multiple aspects. The physical city of Tiliard is carved out of an ancient tree-stump suspended above the deadly, mirror-like Catoptric River. The upper city, where the elite live in perfumed luxury and artistic decadence, is carved in concentric streets on the face of the stump. The mid-city, inside the trunk, is the factory district where the unpleasant and unaesthetic work takes place; manufacturing, alchemy, and imprisonment. The lower city, hanging among the roots of the tree which dip down into the river itself, is where the downtrodden, indebted, and criminal elements live, eking out life between the toxic runoff from above and suspended above a terrifying, deadly plummet among catwalks and suspended platforms above the river below.
Though Tiliard is built into the stump of a tree, the tree doesn't seem quite dead. The phloem and xylems of the tree still work, pulling up the water of the Catoptric, which does't appear to be quite water-- it acts as fuel and burns-- and funneling waste back down to the river. Combustible sugars are still able to be extracted from the tree's flesh, to be burned in the engines of cars or used as an element of alchemy and pharmaceutical perfumery. Because of it's nature as a half-dead tree though, there's another thing that makes Tiliard weird:
Bugs.
This is a very buggy book. Although I don't think it's particularly gross or scary, I could see this being uncomfortable for some people. I see this tagged as horror a lot on Goodreads, which I adamantly disagree with- to me, Horror is something which is intended to instill fear or unease in the reader. And I don't this does this at all, nor intends to. But I wonder whether squeamishness around bugs is why people are doing so. Because bugs do feature prominently in the book. Not only the massive centipede of the blurb, but infestations of silverfish, grease-beetles as food, psychoactive moths. Seeing as one the main characters we follow is working as an exterminator, bugs do crop up a lot.
Yet another extremely cool aspect of this city is the way art infuses the life of the city. Art is one of the primary diversions of the elite of the city: deadly operas with real, loosely-scripted swordfights and actual executions; perfumery as magical fashion, straightening eyebrows, adding compulsion to speech, or acting as a restraint on passions; personally embroidered kerchiefs and tossed bodkins as marks of favour. When notable events happen in the city, the news isn't spread through newspapers or radio broadcast, it's found by listening to poems or seeing quickly painted artworks, attending a hastily arranged opera or hearing a newly composed song.
Another aspect of this books which I loved was the characters. Rather than heroic, admirable protagonists, we follow a sad, somewhat pathetic, hopelessly romantic and empathetic pest exterminator, and a chronically ill, conflicted parfumier. Similarly, one of the main thrusts of the book is love, but not romantic love. Obsessive/possessive platonic love, sibling love, yearning love, and parental love. These loves, I'd say, are the main drivers of the book as far as we, the readers, care, even though grander events are occurring in the background.
As for plot, I don't want to say too much, beyond what the blurb says and the premise I've laid out. I think the best comparison I can give without any spoilers as to how exactly things are laid out is by comparing it to Gene Wolfe. This is not a comparison I use lightly, and there are definitely ways in which it differs (for one, it doesn't have Wolfe's use of obscure vocabulary and unreliable narrators). But where it stands alongside Wolfe, which is oft admired and rarely imitated of his works, is in its narrative structure and layers. It shares a similar subtle inclusions of details and hints about how the world works and what's going on in the story, able to worked out by a perspicacious reader early but slowly peeling back layers, rather than blindsiding the reader with an unanticipated and unearned "twist."
All in all, this an excellent book. This is certainly the best book I've read published this year, though that's not a high bar to pass, being 1 of 4. But I don't doubt it'd still be there were I a current reader. It's also one of the best books I've read this year, which is currently at 53.
And because I am, by virtue of this golden crown (editors note: it is brass and paste), an Authority on Weird Cities, I have some good comparisons to make. The obvious comparison is, of course, Perdido Street Station. But, I feel like that comparison is bandied around anytime a book is simply "set in a weird city," and PSS is much darker and closer to the verge of horror imo. The bigger weird city book that it's actually very close to are Jeff VanderMeer's Ambergris books (which, looking at ratings on GoodReads, isn't nearly as close to PSS as I though; I might have to make a post imploring people to read it). Another good comparison in terms of vivid setting is to Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast novels, though what Gormenghast is to a Gothic medieval castle, this is to an Art Nouveau Victorian city.
For books which feature a city infused with art in a similar way, the closest books are VanderMeer's Ambergris (particularly the novella The Transformation of Martin Lake [contained within CoSaM] and the second, Shriek: An Afterword), The Etched City by K. J. Bishop and, somewhat, Michael Cisco's The Divinity Student.
For books set in a weird city centered around an inexplicable situation of setting, I'd compare it to Adiran Tchaikovsky's Cage of Souls and, for some deep cuts, City of the Iron Fish by Simon D. Ings and Trial of Flowers by Jay Lake.
Finally, for just very readable, recent, unabashedly weird and fun books, I'd recommend those who like this try Jared Pechacek's The West Passage and Steven Noon and Jeff Beard's Gogmagog, and vice-versa.
dnf
December 19, 2025DNF ~18%
I am absorbing zero percent of this book. Generally I'm more of a plot-driven reader than one who thrives on character or themes or vibes, but one thing I absolutely don't get on well with is an overabundance of metaphor/poetry.
This feels like the kind of book that you could really analyze and get in the weeds, but just isn't my jam. Might look up some spoiler reviews to read instead. :)
-----------------------
Hiron Ennes blew me away with his debut Leech. It's the kind of book that doesn't give easy answers and isn't fast-paced or action-packed, but a gentle, rising tension. I thought for most of my time reading it that I was gonna end up hating it... and then it wormed into my brain and camped there for weeks after in a way I really enjoyed.
The gothic vibes, cover, and title of this new book have me hyped enough that I'll be going in blind 😌
I am absorbing zero percent of this book. Generally I'm more of a plot-driven reader than one who thrives on character or themes or vibes, but one thing I absolutely don't get on well with is an overabundance of metaphor/poetry.
This feels like the kind of book that you could really analyze and get in the weeds, but just isn't my jam. Might look up some spoiler reviews to read instead. :)
-----------------------
Hiron Ennes blew me away with his debut Leech. It's the kind of book that doesn't give easy answers and isn't fast-paced or action-packed, but a gentle, rising tension. I thought for most of my time reading it that I was gonna end up hating it... and then it wormed into my brain and camped there for weeks after in a way I really enjoyed.
The gothic vibes, cover, and title of this new book have me hyped enough that I'll be going in blind 😌
November 27, 2025
just thinking about this book makes me feel so insane. (i know i say this quite often about many books but i can't help if i've just been picking stellar reads lately, but anyway) this book. this behemoth of a story and of a world is actually so far the best adventure and fantasy book that i've read this year.
i don't even know where to start with this review, but i'd like to make a spoiler-free plea for people to read this. following which, i will likely have a spoiler-full segment.
if you like high fantasy and big epics, complex characters and complex character relationships, truly some of the best and most immersive world-building i've read ever, and a plot that is so exciting it will make your jaw drop, this is the book for you!!!!! the pacing is so spot on, and the way that it is written is so engaging and magnetic. the characters in the book are so real to me and i cried reading this action book, which is to say that this story has an emotional core that is so intense and vast that the breadth that it covers will shock you.
this book is largely a story about transformation, in different ways, shapes and forms. it is really brilliant to see how ennes wields change as a tool to carve away at characters, buildings and relationships throughout the story, as well as featuring it as a central theme, be it in the politics of the realm or the story's arc. and if you still need reasons to pick up this book, this book about a worm (which already on its own, is such a cool premise if you read the blurb) turns out to be a book about so much more than insects and pests and vermin. emotionally, intellectually, psychologically, this story is such a feast, and i really highly recommend this book.
(spoilers)
its so insane that the scope of this book is so massive - what starts out as a book about an exterminator very quickly turns into a story that is about so much more than that; following guylag through the seedy undercity made sense at the outset of the book but i recall being really confused and intrigued when aster was first brought into the picture. initially, based on the structuring of the plot (and i do think this was intentional), i fully thought that both perspectives were operating on the same timeline, which made the eventual reveal all the more shocking. i was actually in shock, by the way. i had to stop reading and stand up and walk around for a while when it finally clicked that mallory was tyro. the AUFHOCKER reveal too was insane but yet both were done so masterfully. it wasn't a rug-pulled-from-your-feet kind of reveal but the severance-style reveal where looking back, the clues were there all along and it could have been discovered. so so so brilliant. honestly, a sharper and more detail-oriented reader might have caught it alot quicker than i did, but regardless it was still so phenomenally done.
this book is so plot-ful; while there is so much about it to praise i feel like i just need to talk about the intricacies of the plot for a moment. it was really so exciting!!! the way that the tension and suspense is built up is so thrilling and i had the same feeling that you get when watching a really good TV show (like severance) or an action-packed movie like top gun. the ways in which all the different characters slotted together in the end to form, basically, the perfect climax and ending was so beautiful. just as i was starting to get the thought that maybe the function of aster's character could have been stronger and more integrated, she was integrated!!! the most integrated. by the end of the story, everyone had left their mark on tiliard in some way, and i absolutely loved that it was branded as "aster's masterpiece" in the end.
speaking of. these characters. wow. i cried when tyro and guylag were reunited i really did. when he calls him emmory i had tears rolling down my face. it was insane AND a real testament to ennes' writing; i usually compartmentalise my emotions such that if a story is more action-based, i'll focus and become invested in the action rather than the emotion, but the fact that i cried? insane to me. it was so rewarding as a reader; how the whole book is spent building up this precious yet tumultuous relationship between tyro and guylag and at the end they reunite and are the same yet different. when the marshal didn't shoot aufhocker and his name changed back to dawn i cried too. small subtle differences like those really brought the story's emotional core to life for me, and they were so well done.
i could seriously talk about this book for ages. there was so much that was well done. the tiliard world-building was so visceral and vivid to me; i could imagine it as a pseudo-arcanian realm with the grit and grime of nature and rot. every word felt so intentional and in-universe, and i can't even imagine the amount of brain that goes into constructing one of the most well fleshed out universes. tiliard is so real to me, and it is real to me in a way that other constructed worlds haven't been. i could really almost see it in my brain, and i can't imagine things so. i can't even imagine how brilliant and vibrant it would be for people with vivid imaginations to read this. even the names of the characters were so perfectly chosen; nothing felt out of place. i've never thought about how even the names of characters convey a certain time-period/place/mood, but when reading this book i got the sense of just how much work goes into world-building, and how perfectly the world of tiliard was constructed.
reading this was really an adventure like no other. i feel so insane right now thinking about this book that i just read. what a phenomenal read.
i don't even know where to start with this review, but i'd like to make a spoiler-free plea for people to read this. following which, i will likely have a spoiler-full segment.
if you like high fantasy and big epics, complex characters and complex character relationships, truly some of the best and most immersive world-building i've read ever, and a plot that is so exciting it will make your jaw drop, this is the book for you!!!!! the pacing is so spot on, and the way that it is written is so engaging and magnetic. the characters in the book are so real to me and i cried reading this action book, which is to say that this story has an emotional core that is so intense and vast that the breadth that it covers will shock you.
this book is largely a story about transformation, in different ways, shapes and forms. it is really brilliant to see how ennes wields change as a tool to carve away at characters, buildings and relationships throughout the story, as well as featuring it as a central theme, be it in the politics of the realm or the story's arc. and if you still need reasons to pick up this book, this book about a worm (which already on its own, is such a cool premise if you read the blurb) turns out to be a book about so much more than insects and pests and vermin. emotionally, intellectually, psychologically, this story is such a feast, and i really highly recommend this book.
(spoilers)
its so insane that the scope of this book is so massive - what starts out as a book about an exterminator very quickly turns into a story that is about so much more than that; following guylag through the seedy undercity made sense at the outset of the book but i recall being really confused and intrigued when aster was first brought into the picture. initially, based on the structuring of the plot (and i do think this was intentional), i fully thought that both perspectives were operating on the same timeline, which made the eventual reveal all the more shocking. i was actually in shock, by the way. i had to stop reading and stand up and walk around for a while when it finally clicked that mallory was tyro. the AUFHOCKER reveal too was insane but yet both were done so masterfully. it wasn't a rug-pulled-from-your-feet kind of reveal but the severance-style reveal where looking back, the clues were there all along and it could have been discovered. so so so brilliant. honestly, a sharper and more detail-oriented reader might have caught it alot quicker than i did, but regardless it was still so phenomenally done.
this book is so plot-ful; while there is so much about it to praise i feel like i just need to talk about the intricacies of the plot for a moment. it was really so exciting!!! the way that the tension and suspense is built up is so thrilling and i had the same feeling that you get when watching a really good TV show (like severance) or an action-packed movie like top gun. the ways in which all the different characters slotted together in the end to form, basically, the perfect climax and ending was so beautiful. just as i was starting to get the thought that maybe the function of aster's character could have been stronger and more integrated, she was integrated!!! the most integrated. by the end of the story, everyone had left their mark on tiliard in some way, and i absolutely loved that it was branded as "aster's masterpiece" in the end.
speaking of. these characters. wow. i cried when tyro and guylag were reunited i really did. when he calls him emmory i had tears rolling down my face. it was insane AND a real testament to ennes' writing; i usually compartmentalise my emotions such that if a story is more action-based, i'll focus and become invested in the action rather than the emotion, but the fact that i cried? insane to me. it was so rewarding as a reader; how the whole book is spent building up this precious yet tumultuous relationship between tyro and guylag and at the end they reunite and are the same yet different. when the marshal didn't shoot aufhocker and his name changed back to dawn i cried too. small subtle differences like those really brought the story's emotional core to life for me, and they were so well done.
i could seriously talk about this book for ages. there was so much that was well done. the tiliard world-building was so visceral and vivid to me; i could imagine it as a pseudo-arcanian realm with the grit and grime of nature and rot. every word felt so intentional and in-universe, and i can't even imagine the amount of brain that goes into constructing one of the most well fleshed out universes. tiliard is so real to me, and it is real to me in a way that other constructed worlds haven't been. i could really almost see it in my brain, and i can't imagine things so. i can't even imagine how brilliant and vibrant it would be for people with vivid imaginations to read this. even the names of the characters were so perfectly chosen; nothing felt out of place. i've never thought about how even the names of characters convey a certain time-period/place/mood, but when reading this book i got the sense of just how much work goes into world-building, and how perfectly the world of tiliard was constructed.
reading this was really an adventure like no other. i feel so insane right now thinking about this book that i just read. what a phenomenal read.
November 27, 2025
It's a little like Gormenghast, with arcane and bizarre architecture.
It's a little like Jeff Vandermeer's city of Ambergris, with strange things growing everywhere and a mysterious underworld.
It's a little like China Mieville's Bas-Lag, with exotic and deadly creatures co-existing with city dwellers.
But it's also its own thing, with remarkable vermin permeating the city made out of a giant tree stump, and people wearing unusual perfumes that affect behavior and attitude, which ultimately (no spoilers) change the nature of the city.
I suppose if this had a genre classification it would be called New Weird, also urban fantasy, but it feels stranger than most things I've read in that genre. The language is surprisingly rich with terms I either only recognize in context, or which are used in surprising ways.
I haven't said a thing about the plot. The narrative is split, following separate characters in the city of Tiliard (the giant tree stump). One thread follows an exterminator and his young sister he's trying to save from a life of cruelty and exploitation. Another thread follows a woman who is a perfumer to the Minister who is the muscle controlling the city for the Chancellor, along with her best friend who is affianced to the Chancellor, and a young man who suddenly appears from nowhere and has mysterious talents. These threads are drawn together toward the end in a manner that has been done before, but which was a surprise to me. I love it when 'I Didn't See It Coming' happens in a book.
Is this also a horror book? It's got a lot of blood and guts and nastiness going on. The city is as decadent and as cruel as any city in our history, with a love of opera that includes actual killing in the plot.
But it's also a love story, and a story of faithfulness between siblings.
It's rich, lurid, bloody, rococo, icky, and heartwarming. If that kind of contradictory description sounds attractive to you, give this a try.
It might be one of the sleeper hits of the year.
It's a little like Jeff Vandermeer's city of Ambergris, with strange things growing everywhere and a mysterious underworld.
It's a little like China Mieville's Bas-Lag, with exotic and deadly creatures co-existing with city dwellers.
But it's also its own thing, with remarkable vermin permeating the city made out of a giant tree stump, and people wearing unusual perfumes that affect behavior and attitude, which ultimately (no spoilers) change the nature of the city.
I suppose if this had a genre classification it would be called New Weird, also urban fantasy, but it feels stranger than most things I've read in that genre. The language is surprisingly rich with terms I either only recognize in context, or which are used in surprising ways.
I haven't said a thing about the plot. The narrative is split, following separate characters in the city of Tiliard (the giant tree stump). One thread follows an exterminator and his young sister he's trying to save from a life of cruelty and exploitation. Another thread follows a woman who is a perfumer to the Minister who is the muscle controlling the city for the Chancellor, along with her best friend who is affianced to the Chancellor, and a young man who suddenly appears from nowhere and has mysterious talents. These threads are drawn together toward the end in a manner that has been done before, but which was a surprise to me. I love it when 'I Didn't See It Coming' happens in a book.
Is this also a horror book? It's got a lot of blood and guts and nastiness going on. The city is as decadent and as cruel as any city in our history, with a love of opera that includes actual killing in the plot.
But it's also a love story, and a story of faithfulness between siblings.
It's rich, lurid, bloody, rococo, icky, and heartwarming. If that kind of contradictory description sounds attractive to you, give this a try.
It might be one of the sleeper hits of the year.
October 29, 2025
I finished this one at 2AM on a Monday night and have no regerts. 4.75 rounded up!
Just like with Leech, I genuinely don’t think I can sum this one up in words. I already want to go back and reread it because there was just so so so much I know I missed. Firstly, that there were two timelines ongoing, which I didn’t catch until things started to fall together towards the end but wow.
This has everything: whimsical spinning-dervish-esque world set up on a tree branch that is somehow right side up yet also upside down, napoleon-esque governmentery characters with the ability to reorder reality using perfume extracted from bugs, an underdog found family orphan story with a ragtag bunch of exterminators facing The Big One, chemical warfare, class commentary, the role of art and artistry in the revolution (and in keeping the revolution from happening), A Really Really Really Big Bug that eats art and expels exotoxins that literally warp time and space and reality and matter. Musical numbers. Polyamorous love stories. Sex work positivity! An exploration of the roles that occur in dictatorships and coups and what it means to play that role. The power of a name. A trans lead with the powers of embroidery. The dangers of monopolies (especially in the extermination business).
I could go on and on and while it may seem like these are all too many things to include in one book for them all to be done well but I’m here to tell you that Hiron Ennes is a wizard and physically cannot miss. Not only did this book include all of the above (and more) but the way Ennes weaves together each plot point, each minute detail, each character arc, creates a tapestry of true literary art in a way that I still am and will be thinking about for a very long time. Leech is still my queen but this is a real close contender for the crown (and may even stage a coup upon rereading!)
Just like with Leech, I genuinely don’t think I can sum this one up in words. I already want to go back and reread it because there was just so so so much I know I missed. Firstly, that there were two timelines ongoing, which I didn’t catch until things started to fall together towards the end but wow.
This has everything: whimsical spinning-dervish-esque world set up on a tree branch that is somehow right side up yet also upside down, napoleon-esque governmentery characters with the ability to reorder reality using perfume extracted from bugs, an underdog found family orphan story with a ragtag bunch of exterminators facing The Big One, chemical warfare, class commentary, the role of art and artistry in the revolution (and in keeping the revolution from happening), A Really Really Really Big Bug that eats art and expels exotoxins that literally warp time and space and reality and matter. Musical numbers. Polyamorous love stories. Sex work positivity! An exploration of the roles that occur in dictatorships and coups and what it means to play that role. The power of a name. A trans lead with the powers of embroidery. The dangers of monopolies (especially in the extermination business).
I could go on and on and while it may seem like these are all too many things to include in one book for them all to be done well but I’m here to tell you that Hiron Ennes is a wizard and physically cannot miss. Not only did this book include all of the above (and more) but the way Ennes weaves together each plot point, each minute detail, each character arc, creates a tapestry of true literary art in a way that I still am and will be thinking about for a very long time. Leech is still my queen but this is a real close contender for the crown (and may even stage a coup upon rereading!)
December 7, 2025
Wowow, what a book. I felt a lot about this book and I'm so glad I didn't DNF because even though I was pissed off for about 65-70% of this monster, it paid off. Readers who hate a slow start (and I mean you could have dredged me through the pits of hell faster than this book picked up), you'll probably want to pass on this one.
A lot of the elements in this book were double-edged swords. For every beautiful, imo perfect line of prose, there's probably six lines of overly prosaic drabble. For all the fleshed out ideas, there is an insane, exhausted overthinker trying to put them all together. For every debt, there is a new name and there is plenty of debt to spare, plenty of perspectives that came seemingly from nowhere. It's an extremely difficult book to find your bearings in, probably more difficult than it's actually worth.
What I did think was the one element written to absolute perfection were the characters. I would read this book again solely for Dawn, for his perverse yearning and the debt he was owed and the horrible way he made sure it was paid. And for Mallory and his clean hair and immutable resistance of scent. And for Guy, who "has no use for speeches that are not sung, no use for kings that have not faded into legend."
Who yearns the best, the soldier or the poet? The prisoner.
A lot of the elements in this book were double-edged swords. For every beautiful, imo perfect line of prose, there's probably six lines of overly prosaic drabble. For all the fleshed out ideas, there is an insane, exhausted overthinker trying to put them all together. For every debt, there is a new name and there is plenty of debt to spare, plenty of perspectives that came seemingly from nowhere. It's an extremely difficult book to find your bearings in, probably more difficult than it's actually worth.
What I did think was the one element written to absolute perfection were the characters. I would read this book again solely for Dawn, for his perverse yearning and the debt he was owed and the horrible way he made sure it was paid. And for Mallory and his clean hair and immutable resistance of scent. And for Guy, who "has no use for speeches that are not sung, no use for kings that have not faded into legend."
Who yearns the best, the soldier or the poet? The prisoner.
September 18, 2025
4.25 stars! Dead ants produce oleic acid. The scent of oleic acid prompts worker ants to collect the corpse and drop the dead ant in a designated 'graveyard'. If the worker ants do not meticulously clean themselves, the lingering scent will prompt other workers to pick them up, still alive, and bury them among the dead. I don't know if Hiron Ennes was inspired by this specific fact but the societal structure in THE WORKS OF VERMIN is one where perfumes, fumigants, and incense are tactically employed to alter reality. Ennes hasn't simply written a story that draws from insect life, they have constructed a political system, a creation mythos, a history of art. This is complex, heavy worldbuilding with an enduring, very human story of familial love at its core. Like Hiron Ennes's previous book, LEECH, this starts out quite opaque. The only way to see the haze dissipate and the wider world materialize is to keep reading. It's well worth the journey.
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