The Works Of Vermin by Hiron Ennes (book review)
The streets of Tilliard are carved into an ancient tree. The rich and elite plot and scheme amid clouds of perfume in the canopy. In the roots, exterminators hunt the uncanny pests that plague the city.
Guy Moulène, an exterminator and is in debt up to his elbows, rings of tattoos declaring his status to the world. He will do anything to keep his little sister from the same fate. Any job, any side hustle. Nothing is out of the question.
A new pest has been reported. Something the size of a horse that made the guy who saw it put out his own eyes. Guy isn’t the type to believe those sorts of reports. With face masks and respirators in place and spray nozzles at the ready, his team ventures into the city’s depths, only to find for once the stories are true. This is no swarm of small things tricking the uninitiated. This is something dragon-huge, with a reaching set of mandibles and a sting that changes everything.
‘The Works Of Vermin’ is not as clear cut in its plot as I make it out to be. Guy is an exterminator living in the roots and working to keep his sister out of debt. There is an enormous, strange beast that he is sent to deal with. This is true. It’s just that there is so much MORE to this book. This book is the fever dream of the Russian revolution being overtaken by the French revolution, while strange bugs and plants and alchemy invade every sentence. The rich and powerful play politics while staging murderous operas and bloodier ballets. The poor struggle to survive and climb higher. Everything outside of the city is considered just dead.
Expect to be confused for quite some time. It took me more than half-way through to feel the plot running through ‘The Works Of Vermin’, though I’m not saying I wasn’t enjoying it. The writing here is excellent. The atmosphere of sticky perfumes and macabre art projects amid the decaying flora that is the landscape is hypnotic. After wallowing in the setting for the majority of book and idly following the characters and accepting the strangeness, the last quarter suddenly throws everything together into a coherent whole that ends in a rush of tied off ends.
If you like your fantasy headed towards the weird this is worth a look. Denser than Jeff Vandermeer’s weird novels in the ‘Southern Reach’ series, I would recommend this to fans of China Mièville’s ‘Perdido Street Station’ with its densely packed urban setting and uncanny elements. Now I’m off to add Hiron Ennes’ first novel, ‘Leech,’ to my Christmas list.
LK Richardson
November 2025
(pub: TOR, 2025. 432 page hardback. Price: $28.99 (US), £22.00 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-25081-121-9)