I haven't been so sure so early on in a book that I would absolutely love it in a long time. But right from the Overture, I knew The Works of Vermin was going to be amazing. I loved the world, I loved the complicated characters, I loved the way you almost never could tell where the plot was going.

The setting feels very fantastical. A city in a tree stump, where people live amongst large and strange plants and fight stranger bugs, with Lunar Priests and a deadly river. But it is also very post-apocalyptic, with steampunk/sci-fi vibes. The people in this tree stump city toil away in factories, or don respirators and hunt bugs with an arsenal of insecticides through the weird architecture of the city. This is not even to mention the lifestyle of the upper-class, who would not be caught dead in public without a generous coating of magic perfume, and are obsessed with art and spectacle.

It is clear that in the world of this book, there is a thin line between what would be considered arcane and what would be scientific. I will say if you're well-acquainted with the biology of plants and trees, you'll definitely notice that a lot of the scientific words are sort of used as fancy adjectives that only somewhat maintain their meaning, and I found that was okay. Ennes even acknowledged it in their dedication. Science was part of the vibe. Also don't misunderstand, we still definitely get some very cool interpretations of how organisms act in the natural world, superimposed on the setting.

If you know a lot about art (or even if you don't), you will love the way that Ennes developed the literature, theater, and visual arts culture in their world. I'm sure I missed many references to real-life art, as I recognized a few but not all. Ennes masterfully weaves references into the story until you start to recognize the references and quotes and inspirations as you might pop culture references in every day life.

I have so many thoughts about this book and while so many people have written better reviews already, those are just a few things I thought really stood out to me personally (without spoilers, because I have many thoughts about the characters...). This book really combined so many aspects of media that I loved from books throughout my life and it really felt like the perfect read at the perfect time for me. I will definitely have to check out Ennes' other book, reread this one, and will now commence trying to find other books like this.