⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4 stars

The Works of Vermin is a blend of horror, fantasy, and political decay, set in a city built inside a tree stump!!!
Insect infestations, killer perfume, and morally murky characters? I’m in…

The writing is dense but rewarding, with a world so strange you can almost smell it! It’s not always easy, but it is brilliant and it’s perfect for fans of weird, lyrical, genre bending stories.

Think: rotcore opera with a heart. 💀✨

Lush, ambitious, and layered- this is a unique fantasy sure to please those who crave strong political plots and rich worldbuilding.

This was a wild reading experience. I won't lie, I struggled to get into it. It is complex and filled with heavy description of a toxic and opulent world, using a writing style that didn't flow for me. I didn't feel like I understood or could separate some of the characters until well into the book. However, I am very pleased I stuck with it because once things began piecing together, I said "Holy shit."

In lesser words, incredibly cool and I am really impressed by how the author chose to tell this story. Definitely one to check out for fantasy fans, especially for lovers of gorgeous crumbling worlds and nasty little critters!

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor/Forge for the ARC!

The Works of Vermin is a rotting fever dream, a wildly ambitious, brilliantly rendered melodrama of epic proportions. I loved everything about this – the atmosphere, the writing, the sheer inventiveness of the setting, and the characters! so wonderfully drawn. It really feels operatic – there's a myth-like quality hanging off our protagonists, but, ingeniously, the sense of drama is built into the world itself. Mieville would be proud.

Weird, vivid, and utterly original. As a mystery fan, I loved the noir vibes and layered worldbuilding. The monster-hunting plot is wild, but the heart is real. Dark fun with a sting.

Unlike any fantasy I've ever read, in the best possible way. Completely unique, deeply complex, and yet at the same time completely heartfelt, I had an absolute blast reading this and uncovering every new layer to the mystery as well as the details of this rich world. Will be keeping an eye out for more of Ennes' works in the future!

A city in turmoil built on an old treestump that uses perfumery and opera as a weapon/plot device. Do I have to say more? 1 star taken off because some of it felt too jumbled, but this mystery/heartfelt family story kept me seated!

The Works of Vermin was my first time reading anything by Hiron Ennes, and now I cannot wait to read everything else they have published. The writing and story were unlike anything I’ve ever come across. It felt entirely unique, both in its style and in the world it built. The layers of the story were complex in the best way, pulling me deeper the more I read. I found it absolutely enthralling and could not get enough of it. This book left me excited to see what else Ennes has created because their voice and imagination are something truly special.

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 about 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 luxurioius 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.

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.

I started this book just expecting it to be a tale about killing large bugs, but instead I read a masterpiece with love and tragedy and political issues and just... this book was incredible and I will be thinking about it for a long time to come. This book reminded me A LOT of the Count of Monte Cristo, so if you like that book, you'll probably love this one.

Thank you Hiron Ennes, Tor Publishing Group, and NetGalley for the ARC!

Hiron Ennes has written a jawdroppingly lush fantasy with fully realized characters and one of the most original worlds I've ever encountered. It's pestilent and strange with beauty and disease and power all braided together. The bugs are nasty, but not always nastier than the humans living amongst them. Ennes writes with poetry and empathy without ever tilting toward the maudlin; there are always some nasty critters or fumes to puncture the mood before it sweats too much. After a long stretch of reading books that were all good but felt very much the same, this made me giddy.

"The works of Vermin" is my first book by Hiron Ennes. I was drawn by the psychedelic cover and the blurb, glimpsing at a utterly bizarre world I couldn't wait to fall into. After a week of reading, I can say I will try Hiron Ennes other book with faith.

With "The works of Vermin" they delivered a very unique and strange story, leaning at the edge of whimsical and very grim world. Since I tend to get sick of grim stories if they are not balanced with humour or whimsy, this balance at the edge was perfect. I did struggle a bit, reading more slowly that I'm used to, but the world and the story slowly making their way to align was a trip, more and more as I advanced in the book.

What is the story about? Well, I'm not sure I can answer easily. It is the story of a city, built on (and in) the stump of an old tree. A story subjected to revolutions and changes, and fighting against vermin (of various kind). Mainly insects full of toxins, but also humans with big goals and ideas. It is also the Guy's story, as well as the person he was and the person he will become. Guy is an exterminator, using fumes to kill vermins (the insects and animals kinds). When Guy and his team (Three and Dawn) stumble upon a new kind of vermin, things turns sharply.
Oh, and there is Mallory, a mysterious man looking for vengeance (but not quite), and Aster, a perfumer. You see, perfumes have a lot of power in this world, shaping how a person is percieved, worn like manipulative jewellery.
I don't want to say too much here, because it would spoil the very well thought story, but I do want to say how delighted I was when I realised the thing that was being done. It added an whole different dimension to the story, like the piece of a puzzle falling neatly beside each other.

"The works of Vermin" isn't a nice story, but it is a beautiful one, in all it's ugliness and complexity. Characters love and hate, shape the world to their whim or subjected to it. There is different kind of love, always fierce, sometimes kind, often ruthless. And let's not forget the influence of German opera and literature, seeping through the text. Hiron Ennes created a strange and hypnotising world and story.

Definitely recommend it to people looking for an original fantasy story, with elements of horrors, psychedelic deranged wonders.

An exterminator of vermin. Sometimes the job is way more then you ever expected.

The story takes place in a city where society has all but completely collapsed. The wealthy use a toxic perfume to make citizens complacent. Our MC Guy Moulène is one of the poor and is just someone trying to protect his little sister. So he will take any exterminating job he needs to in order to do that. Even if it’s life threatening.

This novel is complex, chaotic and at times whimsical and I loved it. This novel would get 4 stars from me on world creation and atmosphere alone but that is not all it has to offer. The story itself is also intriguing and the characters are well developed so the reader is drawn right into the adventure along with Guy.

Though this novel does have a bit of whimsy and horror it does also tackle some serious themes like infectious disease, anti-capitalism and the decay of society, both in its infrastructure as well as its morality. So it does have its share of political Intrigue. Lots of parallels with current issues taking place now. Revenge and change is coming.

This was one of the most unique novels I have read in a very long time. Unique, creative and very well written. If you like your whimsical fantasy with an onslaught of horror, this is the story for you!

Hiron Ennes delivers another hauntingly original work with The Works of Vermin, a novel that slithers beneath your skin and refuses to leave quietly. Ennes weaves body horror, psychological dread, and a lyrical prose style into a tapestry that's as grotesque as it is gripping. The book explores the breakdown of body, society, and self in a way that feels both viscerally immediate and thematically resonant.

The worldbuilding is claustrophobic and decaying, yet vividly imagined—Ennes's talent for immersing readers in environments that feel oppressively alive is on full display here. The characters are unsettlingly human, vulnerable and monstrous in equal measure, with moments of bleak tenderness that hit all the harder for the surrounding horror.

That said, the novel's density and often abstract narrative structure might challenge some readers. At times, its ambition threatens to overwhelm its coherence, and certain plot threads feel intentionally oblique. But these are minor caveats in a book that so confidently embraces the grotesque and the philosophical.

The Works of Vermin may not be for everyone, but for those willing to delve into its rot and revelation, it offers a deeply rewarding—and deeply unsettling—experience.

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor for the eARC.

The Works of Vermin is available October 14, 2025

Gorgeous prose, gorgeous depictions of horror, gorgeous city descriptions--do I need go on? This was a very quick read for me, as I devoured each and every page of beautifully laid out words describing this dark, twisted city and the horrors that lay within. Guy is desperately trying to make his way, trying to fix what's broken, right what's wrong, and it feels often as if the weight of the situation may be the boot that crushes the centipede's back, but he must go on.

This book would be suited to someone who enjoys horror with their complex fantasy - each florid, poisoned description from page one onwards creates a vision of a depraved city that is literally rotten to the core. Exterminator Guy Moulene balances on the edge of life - trying to earn enough money to get himself out of the accumulated debt of all who came before him while working in a field where the discovery of a new pest is named after the death of the one who discovered it. Problem is that if Guy dies, his sister takes all his debts on and the cycle keeps going.

It's a truly decaying city, and if lush and creepy descriptions of a fantastical world and morally ambiguous humans spark your imagination, dive right in. Many thanks to Tor Publishing Group and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC in return for an unbiased review. All opinions are my own.