Welcome to Cat & Jonathan’s Horror Corner!

That’s right, we’ve entrusted Cat and Jonathan with a whole new feature of their own – a corner of the Hive where they can read horror books together and then tell us all about them. I’m expecting dry caustic remarks and grumbling, and that’s just from Jonathan…

They have returned, this time with a discussion of The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes:

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

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.

The Works of Vermin is available now, you can order your copy on Bookshop.org

Jonathan: Welcome to Episode 2 of Cat and Jon’s Horror Corner, where we’re discussing The Works Of Vermin by Hiron Ennes!

Cat: Hurrah! Honestly, this is like nothing I’ve ever read.

Jonathan: I was super excited to read this because I loved Ennes’ debut novel Leech, which is basically the Thing meets Gormenghast from the perspective of the Thing, and it didn’t disappoint.

Cat: Agreed! Leech was the foundation, I think. Vermin is the author really stepping into his world. The back cover quote calls it ‘whimsi-grotesquerie’ (Olivie Blake) and I think that’s accurate.

Jonathan: While I was reading it I made a joke about the New Weird being so back. I think Vermin brings to mind Perdido Street Station, not because Ennes writes particularly like China Mieville – they have their own particular style – but because Vermin is jam packed with so much absolutely mad gonzo invention that, like PSS, it makes much fantasy feel unimaginative and tame.

Cat: Definitely. And yet it all absolutely works in context.

Jonathan: Are we gonna attempt to quickly describe the plot to help orient those who haven’t read it? There’s a really weird city on a mushroom, and we’re following a guy and his daughter who works as an exterminator for one of the city’s various competing guilds, and on a routine job they discover something especially nasty lurking in the city’s depths. Also there’s a mysterious stranger who has returned to the city to take revenge on those who have wronged him.

Cat: AND a whole political plot involving the hierarchy of the city, the local theatre and arts community, and the monster who seems to be feeding on them. I think this really is a ‘you just have to see it for yourself’ kind of book!

Jonathan: It sounds absolutely mad, and it kind of is, but the plot does eventually tie together quite elegantly.

Cat: It really does. Which shows the skill at work here – the structure just flows so well, you never get lost.

Jonathan: How long did it take you to realise there were two timelines going on? I think I was at least 3/4s of the way through.

Cat: Same! Spoilers? I think if you pay attention it’s probably evident, but I was trying to parse so much already.

Jonathan: Yeah I won’t go into the details, because I don’t want to spoil it for everyone, but I think it’s fair to say there are two storylines that you initially think are concurrent but they aren’t, and one of the joys of the book is discovering how they work together.

Cat: Yes! There are a LOT of joys in what can actually be a rather disgusting book, in terms of ickiness.

Jonathan: Yes! I don’t want to labour the comparison to PSS, but like Mieville, Ennes isn’t one for pointless exposition. You are thrown into this utterly bonkers world and you just have to figure it out as you go. And I love it when books to that.

Cat: Because it’s done so well. Every character is beautifully realized, allowing you to keep up with each part of the story based on what they’re doing. No more difficult than following a good TV drama. Everyone is so weirdly (we keep using that word) relatable. Even though the society is unashamedly cruel, the social structure rigid and life incredibly cheap, everyone moves through it like real people you’d know and be friends with.

Jonathan: Yes, it’s properly gross which I love. In my PhD I talk about this idea of Larissa Budde’s ‘abject sublime’, when the visceral disgustingness of something makes it achieve a weird transcendence, and I think it very much applies here.

Cat: Oh absolutely. The use of scent to control people’s emotions is fascinating too. You live on a mushroom, you use what it gives you!

Jonathan: Ennes does an incredible job with the characters. As you say they’re all fascinating and engaging, despite a lot of the time the reader not really grasping the stakes of what’s going on cause it’s all so strange.

Cat: And yet it’s all ok and fun!

Jonathan: The weaponised scent thing was amazing. So inventive.

Cat: Criminals being punished by essentially being cast in snuff theatre too. What the actual…!

Jonathan: Haha yes! There’s a lot of really interesting ideas about opera and theatre and art and the roles they play in enriching people’s life but also reinforcing social order.

Cat: The class system is kind of similar to ours, historically at least – and yet somehow still unique. Everyone is just trying to get on, some more selfishly, others for survival.

Jonathan: The Works Of Vermin is a long book, but it’s the best kind of long book – a book that uses its length well to explore a whole bunch of interesting ideas. By the time it ended I was thinking I could easily stand to read more of it!

Cat: Definitely. Given how different/similar Leech was, I’m fascinated to see more of the ‘towns’ in this world, because we know virtually nothing about the overall system. And that’s part of the fascination! It’s so compelling. I appreciated the use of gendered language too, such as ‘Eir’ for ‘Sir’ being male or female. Lots of neutral words that made you pay attention and do a bit of work to understand.

Jonathan: Yes, Ennes has created a society that’s quite cruel and restrictive, but understands that that doesn’t mean it has to uphold the same biases of our own society.

Cat: It’s more open in some ways. Gender is the least of the social issues! But it’s never heavy handed with messaging.

Jonathan: Again I don’t want to get into spoilers. But there’s definitely a sense throughout that gender is mutable, something that ultimately becomes relevant to the plot in an intriguing way.

Cat: Meantime family is still family, and there’s some gorgeously theatrical politicking going on in an almost Shakespearean way (another writer known for his gender play!).

Jonathan: Yes. It definitely achieves a sort of Shakespearean, operatic grandeur, without ever feeling silly or like it’s taking itself too seriously, which is quite the balancing act.

Cat: Opera can be silly. This just ramps that RIGHT up!

Jonathan: The finale in the theatre, where all the politicking comes to a head, particularly comes to mind! It was quite glorious.

Cat: I think if you stopped to think, it may seem ridiculous, when in fact in context it all completely makes sense. And yes! The last few chapters flew past for me.

Jonathan: It’s funny because in some ways we’re living through a conservative time in fantasy, where a lot of the market is driven by really quite strict genre demands, but then you get something like this, or Alex Pheby’s Mordew books, which are blowing the field wide open in a way that really does feel analogous to that heady rush of the New Weird.

Cat: It’s fantastic and very much needed. Imagination can’t be confined by genre.

Jonathan: It seems to have been quite well received as well, I would love to see a book this wild on the awards list!

Cat: I’m so glad the publishers went all in on this book (special editions and all!). I think this will be a Word of Mouth success, as people share it and talk about it

Jonathan: Yes, kudos to them for rallying behind it! And if books like this are having a moment, then not only will it encourage publishers to take more risks with books like this, and inspire other writers to embrace their weirdest impulses.

Cat: And we’ll be here for it!

Jonathan: Oh absolutely!

The Works of Vermin is available now, you can order your copy on Bookshop.org