Book Review: Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots

Hench

by Natalie Zina Walschots (Walschots)

 

I really, desperately, wanted to love this novel. I was intrigued by the concept. Hench is told from the point of view of Anna Tromedlov, a tech-savvy young woman who’s part of the workforce employed by supervillains, in a world where super-powered heroes and villains are somewhat commonplace. Being a “hench” is just a job, but can sometimes be a well-paying one. Anna is required by her employer to appear at a public event (as a token female among his henchmen), and she ends up being badly injured when an overly-muscled superhero (Supercollider) shows up to battle the bad guy and causes a lot of collateral damage.

 

While recovering, Anna starts to gather statistical data about others who’ve suffered as “collateral damage” when heroes’ actions proved to be highly destructive. In fact, the actions of “heroes” might even be more detrimental to ordinary citizens than the petty schemes of villains whom they oppose. Which brings her to the attention of one of the most powerful and vengeful villains (Leviathan)…who hires her to continue her research and come up with ways to harass the heroes with bad P.R.

 

Anna’s journey, from the near-poverty of having to scrape by on temp jobs, to brilliant mastermind of complicated strategies, in charge of an entire tech team to enact them, is fascinating. Unfortunately, though the author does a good job of showing that there are amoral “good guys” and well-meaning “bad guys” in the world of this novel, I never got to the point where I was actually rooting for Anna…her easy embrace of the villains and their objectives was disturbing. Don’t get me wrong, Walschots is an excellent writer, and this story is told very well, but I, personally, never found myself rooting for any of the characters, especially the narrator. Your mileage may vary…and, in fact, if you enjoy stories about comic-book style superheroes and villains, told from different and unique vantage points, you’ll actually probably enjoy Hench very much!

[ publisher’s official Hench web page ] | [ official Natalie Zina Walschots web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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