L.L. MacRae's Reviews > The Hexologists

I absolutely adore Senlin Ascends. It was the first audiobook I ever listened to, and opened up the doors to a whole new way of reading. Josiah Bancroft’s author voice is wonderful to read, full of quirks, turns of phrase, and an incredible way of describing things (and people) in a visceral way.

That voice is present in the Hexologists, but it feels like it is turned up to the nth degree. While it is full of charm and vocabulary I had to look up every dozen pages or so, after a while, it became somewhat grating. Mostly because the pacing suffered, and my already slow reading pace had to slow further.

I read the free short story some time ago (The Small Hands of Chokedamp), and while I enjoyed the taste of the world, I couldn’t wait to get into the meat of the main book.

Our story centres around a married couple, who are a pair of investigators for the city. Iz is a hexologist, and her husband Warren is a… cook? It starts off when they are asked to investigate something for the royal court, and they reluctantly accept (the political sphere here is that they are not a fan of them), and traipse from one location to another, usually annoying the locals or have the supernatural and fantastical turned against them.

The concept of the world ticks all of my boxes. I love different types of magic, creatures, flora and fauna. Alchemy, wizardry, necromancy and more are in abundance here.

However, I couldn’t really get into the story. Police procedurals/murder mysteries typically aren’t my cup of tea, so I struggled with the core character jobs. Coupled with a very slow pace due to wading through all the marvellous description, and I struggled to get through a single chapter in a single reading session towards the end.

As such, I put it down at just over 60% and decided it wasn’t for me. However, as I’m over the 50% point, I will mark it as read.

A shame because I had such high hopes for this, but it just didn’t quite work for me on a subjective level. (Due to not finishing the book, I will not rate it)