Title: Hench
Author: Natalie Zina Walschots
Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers
Year: 2020
399 pages
From the Back: 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 words 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 foes 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 date 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.
Personal Thoughts: So many books are centered on the heroes. Everyone wants to hear about the good guys winning over the bad guys and all that. But what about the villains? Actually, what about all the hench people who are actually the ones doing all the dirty work and getting none of the glory? Don't they deserve a moment in the spotlight?
Hench is a whimsical story about the behind the scenes action in the lives of criminals told from the point of view of hench people. The main character, Anna, is an office administrator, processing all the paperwork that goes with doing villainous acts. What she discovers is that despite what the media shows to the public, about how scary and dangerous villains are, it is in fact the heroes that are more destructive and cause more casualties.
This isn't a book I would have likely picked up off the shelf but that is the great thing about receiving ARCS. However, it turned out to be a fun story to read with quite enjoyable characters and just enough mystery to keep the plot moving forward quite nicely.
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