The Works of Vermin

A dark, decadent horror adventure about revenge, decay and toxic bugs

By: Hiron Ennes

Narrated by: Max Meyers

He was sent to kill a pest. Instead, he found a monster.

'An intriguing work of whimsi-grotesquerie' – Olivie Blake, New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six

Monster hunters tangle with court politics in this horror adventure by the critically acclaimed author of Leech.

Enter the decadent, deadly city of Tiliard.

In a complex, chaotic metropolis, Guy Moulène has a simple goal: 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 pests that crawl up from the river. These vermin are all strange, and often dangerous. His latest quarry is different: a worm 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.

'A lush and seductive story, rife with opulent horror and decaying decadence' – Sunyi Dean, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Book Eaters

'I will follow this writer anywhere going forward' – Gillian Flynn, New York Times bestselling author of Gone Girl

Critic reviews

Hiron Ennes is a visionary creative who writes like no one else – their imagination is vibrant and seemingly dauntless. The Works of Vermin is an intriguing work of whimsi-grotesquerie that’s got it all: political intrigue, Wharton-esque manners, infectious disease, mysterious revenge and, of course, toxic bugs (Olivie Blake, New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six)

A lush and seductive story, rife with opulent horror and decaying decadence (Sunyi Dean, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Book Eaters)

I will follow this writer anywhere going forward (Gillian Flynn, New York Times bestselling author of Gone Girl)

A hallucinatory scorpion sting (Elizabeth Bear, author of the White Space series)

A brilliant, shapeshifting puzzle box of a book, as beautiful as it is bewildering. Rarely is language used so ecstatically these days. Read it aloud to someone – its mystery is best untangled with the mouth (Christopher Buehlman, author of The Daughters’ War)

Tiliard is a wonderfully gooey, oozy, rotting mess of a city, full of gnawing vermin and weaponized perfume, and the story of its revolution is a squicky blast. Fans of Max Gladstone or Seth Dickinson will love this one (Django Wexler, author of How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying)

In the space of two novels, Hiron Ennes has become one of the very few inhabitants of my Read-On-Sight list . . . if you’re a fan of Mervyn 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 (Peter Watts, author of Blindsight and Echopraxia)

Ennes is an alchemist, and The Works of Vermin is its own, new element. A brilliant blend of intense intrigue and the fantastically macabre (Johnny Compton, author of The Spite House)

Filled with some of the most twisted, inventive worldbuilding you’ll ever see . . . probably my favourite SFF read of the year! (GrimDark Magazine)

Dazzling, elegant, and teeming with a glorious array of monstrosities, The Works of Vermin is at once wonderfully fresh and rotten to its worm-infested core. Loved it! (Kerstin Hall, author of Asunder)

An astounding work of horror-inflected fantasy that is linguistically inventive and deliriously strange – the New Weird’s back, baby (The Fantasy Hive)

Plenty of horror novels have been described as ‘skin crawling’, but none of them deserve that epithet as much as The Works of Vermin (SFX)

Truly on par with Vandermeer and Miéville, an absolute thrill to read (Literary Hub)

Incandescently and extravagantly weird, a grotesque hallucination that will consume you (Ginger Nuts of Horror)