Holly Hearts Books's Reviews > The Hexologists

My heart grew 2 sizes the day I found out Josiah Bancroft was releasing another book. A brand new fantasy outside of the Tower of Babel series, a series that consisted of 4 books. I was filled with absolute glee when more details came out about The Hexologists and I became even happier when I got the opportunity to review this one early for my YouTube subscribers.

As soon as I started reading this, I got those Senlin Ascends feelings. Though I did want this to distinguish itself from his previous book, Josiah Bancrofts writing is still so recognizable and unique. It can absolutely throw a new reader off but it made me happy as a Bancroft veteran. You gotta go in expecting insanely detailed writing. It’s very posh and indignant, and smart. Kind of like our main characters. We are quickly introduced to, well, the Hexologists, a husband and wife pairing, which by the way the banter between our 2 main characters is just so funny and lovely. Husband and wife comedy to the max and not in a bickery complainy sort of way either.

They are informed my the kings secretary that the king has not been himself in fact he seems on the verge of madness and he’s begging for there help as they have consulted with medical professionals who are stumped so why not ask the 2 people who deal with magical mysteries. Plus apparently someone is claiming to be the kings son so just another hard task to add to the list. They reluctantly accept. but not without consequences as it seems someone is trying to stop them from finding answers.

Not only is Hexology used clearly to help them with the mystery but they have all kinds of magical stuff in their arsenal like a bag that has a portal in it to some storehouse so they can pull out artifacts and charms, very Mary Poppins like. I did have a hard time pinpointing a time period that this world feels inspired by but I got 1920s vibes and I got the same steampunk feel as Tower of Babel. Bancroft definitely extended that here which I didn’t mind. It works so well in this environment. While the earliest pages do start out slow, it reminded me of an onion – in the best kind of way, as I hate onions – in that every layer I peeled back, aka every page I turned, added more and more depth, eventually growing into the best version of the idea at the heart of it of the story and I was getting it, understanding it. Absolutely adored this.