Hench

A Novel

By: Natalie Zina Walschots

Narrated by: Alex McKenna

“This book is fast, furious, compelling, and angry as hell." (Seanan McGuire, New York Times best-selling author)

The Boys meets My Year of Rest and Relaxation in this smart, imaginative, and evocative novel of love, betrayal, revenge, and redemption, told with razor-sharp wit and affection, in which a young woman discovers the greatest superpower - for good or ill - is a properly executed spreadsheet.

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.

A sharp, witty, modern debut, Hench explores the individual cost of justice through a fascinating mix of millennial office politics, heroism measured through data science, body horror, and a profound misunderstanding of quantum mechanics.

©2019 Natalie Zina Walschots (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

Three words: Lobotomized Super Villains!

You know somethings gone wrong with the world when the superheroes are lobotomizing super villains...

Long Live the Queen

Hench is an absolute gem! The best book I have read (ahem, listened to) in quite some time. Five stars all the way around. Excellent narration, brilliant storytelling, unpredictable plotline, and entirely refreshing in multiple regards. I won't deign to analyze the plot for you or rave senselessly about its many novel approaches to a saturated genre; however, I will say that what Walschots has accomplished, here, is nothing short of invigorating--a real boon to the maddening dirth of engrossing fantasy and sci-fi currently available. Adding to this excitement is the knowledge that this is her first novel. I cannot wait to see what comes next.

(Edit) Note: I must say, personally, I found nothing at all off-putting in regards to the narrator. Listen to the sample, first, if you are concerned, but after having listened, myself, to well over 600 books, I speak from some amount of experience when I say that we could do far, far worse than listening to Alex McKenna read superhero fantasies to us.

Best of Superheroes

I love it. If I read comics, this would have been a holy grail of it. Hillarious, cynical, but also masterful in working with cliches. Performace was the most suiting with the book. I want to see it become a legend.

Very good!

Kept me interested throughout! Eagerly awaiting for the next installment! I really loved this book!

A fun take, a great story

very well written, a fun concept and engaging characters. the narrator's vocal range gets tested, but all in all I would highly recommend to anyone who loves a "semi-realistic" take on superheroes.

Superb story!

So glad I came across this. Great take on what a villain can be. My only complaint? The sequel is so far off.

Brilliant, tense, inventive, amazing!

I loved it! Perfectly paced. Dynamic, fully developed characters that are consistent with themselves. A well thought out and planned world. Excellent and snappy dialog. A truly grand plot. The narration was great. McKenna did an excellent job portraying the characters and narrating plot. Her voice is expressive and enjoyable.

I want MORE!

great story

excellent narration. love the originality in the premise as well as the characters. great origin story.

Real fun read

This was a great new take on the hero sagas. I thought the narrator was excellent. It is a bit of a cliff hanger

Entertaining and thought provoking.

This is a book I will be thinking about you years to come. The mixture of good and evil among all parties feels realistic even though the book has superheroes and supervillains. I recommend this to anyone not looking for a typical mindless action, but for someone who wants to explore the consequences of the actions on the non heroes.