Title: Hench

Author: Natalie Zina Walschots

Publisher: William Morrow 2020

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 403

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer TBR

Anna does boring things for terrible people because even criminals need office help and she needs a job. Working for a monster lurking beneath the surface of the world isn’t glamorous. But is it really worse than working for an oil conglomerate or an insurance company? In this economy?

 As a temp, she’s just a cog in the machine. But when she finally gets a promising assignment, everything goes very wrong, and an encounter with the so-called “hero” leaves her badly injured.  And, to her horror, compared to the other bodies strewn about, she’s the lucky one.

So, of course, then she gets laid off.

With no money and no mobility, with only her anger and internet research acumen, she discovers her suffering at the hands of a hero is far from unique. When people start listening to the story that her data tells, she realizes she might not be as powerless as she thinks.

Because the key to everything is data: knowing how to collate it, how to manipulate it, and how to weaponize it. By tallying up the human cost these caped forces of nature wreak upon the world, she discovers that the line between good and evil is mostly marketing.  And with social media and viral videos, she can control that appearance.

It’s not too long before she’s employed once more, this time by one of the worst villains on earth. As she becomes an increasingly valuable lieutenant, she might just save the world.

This book came a recommendation from my favorite podcast, Currently Reading. I don’t always align with the hosts’ tastes in books, but when we do, I absolutely love the book! We get a complete flip of the superhero genre, imagining if the fact of having superheroes create much more damage and trauma than they save. I fell for Anna right away even if she is very prickly and has questionable social skills. I was rooting for her to find a good position and then the incident happens. From there, I felt like the novel was full-steam ahead, diving us and Anna into the world of real supervillains. We get to peel back the layers to see all the dirty secrets and revel in the downfalls of many superheroes. I especially loved Leviathan and his entire character arc. This is a very fast-paced thriller style science fiction novel with a few very graphic scenes of mutilation. Nothing I couldn’t handle, but just imagining the body horror scenes at the end has me shivering a bit. Oh so good!

Next up on the TBR pile: