Book Review: Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots

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. 

I was excited when I read that the main character used carefully curated data in spreadsheets to win over others, but I think I had too high expectations. While Hench was mostly okay, I think it didn’t deliver what it promised or, at least, what I expected. The characters never felt real to me, and Anna’s growth was so spectacular that it was difficult to see it as part of a natural evolution. Like she had no job and was touching rock bottom, and soon after, things clicked in her head, and she found the answer to all the problems she encountered. How did that happen?

Something that is mentioned again and again is Anna’s friendship with June, and how sad Anna became when things didn’t work out between them. Honestly, their friendship didn’t feel real either. If none of the characters seemed real people to me, June was almost the least real of them all, and their friendship didn’t feel like more than some frivolous moments shared together.

I kind of enjoyed Anna and Leviathan’s relationship, but just when it was going to get real, Walshchots chickened out and ended the book. I guess it was bait to get the reader on board with the next book, but I felt so lukewarm by this one that I won’t continue with the rest of the series. In total honesty, towards the end, reading the book felt like a chore.

I have to end by saying that I’m usually not into superhero or supervillain books, and that could be part of the problem. I kind of wanted to relate to a very cool but also disabled main character whose main tools were data and her brain, but Anna never felt real enough for me to feel anything for her.

Story (Plot)
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lomeraniel

My name is Elena. Since I was a little child I loved science fiction and fantasy, and I can’t resist a good novel. In 2015, while wait I started to listen to audiobooks and I discovered the pleasure in being able to read while doing my daily tasks, so there’s always an audiobook playing on my phone. If you see me with my Bluetooth headphones on, please be gentle, I get easily startled.

I live with my boyfriend, which I met during my six-year stay in Belgium, four cockatiels, eight lovebirds, and a hamster in Madrid, Spain; and I like to spend my free time knitting and sewing while listening to audiobooks.