The Works of Vermin

By Hiron Ennes

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 Moul ne 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 creatures that crawl up from the river. These vermin are all strange, and often dangerous. His latest quarry is different: 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

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 125081121X
• ISBN13: 9781250811219
• Release Date: October 2025
• Publisher: Tor Books
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.12 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 5.7" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

grotesquely fascinating

This was a grotesquely fascinating tale of a corrupt city where exterminators are in high risk jobs as they go after the vermin found in the Borisch Manual of Catoptric Pest Species (plus any new ones that pop up and if they eat you, they get to be named after you!) and everyone is interested in the opera, even the bugs! I was a bit overwhelmed at first but if you let the story wash over you, you too will be drawn away to the city of Tilliard! This is not for people that hate bugs though as even the silverfish get to be as big as your hand or larger! Told mostly in the view points of Guy and Aster, one an exterminator looking after his sister and doing anything to keep her safe, and the other a perfumer of great renown, sadly poisoned in her youth and destined to die horribly because of it. Add in coups, revolutions, takeovers, opera where the deaths are real and applauded for if they are beautiful deaths. Plus giant centipedes with a taste for fine art and the secrets of them and why they have arrived in Tilliard. It is all twisty and twisted and I was both drawn in and repulsed by the various goings on and some deeply deranged individuals and things they do to gain power and keep it. And the big reveal is totally worth it and gasp worthy. It is aptly titled The Works of Vermin, both the insectile kind and the human kind! I did really enjoy this novel, twisted and dark though it may be. Just let it flow through you and you too will be changed, much like the characters in this great and awful city! It is reminiscent, to me of Robert Jackson Bennet's Tainted Tea series. Same kind of feel and also a really good book. So, if you are looking for a book that turns your mind sideways and leaves you dreaming of giant poison bugs that can destroy cities and change the world, then you will enjoy this one!