Natalie Zina Walschots turns the superhero vs. villains trope on its head in her brilliant, over the top novel, Hench. Anna, an out of work "hench" for mid-level villains, loves data. She loves to research, accumulate facts, develop spreadsheets, and analyse data to discover complex meaning and develop plans to use it. She is horrified, however, when she discovers the untold death and destruction left in the wake of so-called superheroes. When she is finally recognized and hired by the most indestructible super villain alive, she develops a plan to expose and take down the system. What could go wrong?

Alex McKenna perfectly narrates chilling action sequences, and takes just the right tone to develop the many diverse characters. She skillfully portrays a self deprecating, witty Anna who grows into the capable, complex driving force of this novel.

Hench is not just thrilling, fast paced science fiction. It is a fresh, creative, funny and strangely poignant novel that weaves together themes of love, loyalty, vengeance and redemption.

I really liked the narrator of this book. The story was fun and kept me interested. Definitely want to read more from the author.

Hench is not a book I would typically choose to read, however, the description (and my love of villains) swayed my decision. In this debut novel, Walschots creates a world of heroes and villains. When the main character, Anna, goes to a temp agency, she is sent to the Electrophorous Industries (part of the villainous world), where her talents working with data and spreadsheets turn into a life-changing event. Hench is the story of power, revenge, and relationships. It is the best combination of Disney villains and the Marvel superheroes.

Alex McKenna pulls off great narration for the audiobook by successfully creating voices for all of the book characters and brings them to life. Full disclosure, I listened and read along with the eBook for the first half of the book. I then began to simply listen. I was engrossed in the narration and felt I was able to picture the action better in my mind.

Even if you are not a fan of sci-fi, fantasy, or graphic novel-like books, you should give this book a chance. I never read comic books growing up (yes, I am old enough to call them comic books), but I did watch Batman on TV, and I absolutely love the Marvel movies (Deadpool is my favorite). This is a combination of the best parts of all of these.

What a fun book! It plays with superhero tropes in new ways as we see the story through the eyes of a hench, who does temp work for villains. Her particular specialty is working with spreadsheets. And as crazy as that sounds it works perfectly here. I had the audio version and this was a case too where the narrator did a great job of bringing out the personality of the main character. The book has a B movie vibe with tons of action and humor that keeps the pace moving along at a good clip. Highly recommended if this sounds at all interesting to anyone.

Ordinarily I'm not big on superhero stories but the description intrigued me and I was not let down. This was witty, engaging and thrilling from beginning to end, with compelling characters and a narrator who really brought the story to life.

I listened to the first hour to give it a chance, but it was slow and didn't draw me in. I didn't care about the characters and the plot wasn't grabbing my attention either. The idea seemed interesting, but apparently it's not my type of book.

Anna is a Hench - working for a temp agency that hires out temporary help to villains in a world where superheroes, villains, their sidekicks, and henches are a part of everyday life. The audiobook is narrated by Alex McKenna. The narration gave me an immediate sense of Anna's personality. The timing of her speech and tone of voice really established Anna's frustration with her place in the world. I was immediately drawn into her story. Injured on the job and out of work, her curiosity and inherent talent for data crunching lead her to start a project tallying the collateral damage of superheroes. Her talents are spotted by one of the biggest villains and she is soon working for him. Anna is smart and resilient and sometimes a little snarky, which again, McKenna brought out really well. I was not as enamored of the other character's voices. I really liked her friends and coworkers - they are a solid bunch of unique and diverse characters, and I felt like their voices didn't ring as true to me as Anna's. The pacing is well-done. I felt like the rhythm of speech was very natural and the pauses and intonation lent a lot to the story. Perhaps because I listened to an advance copy, it was a little hard to tell where the chapters ended. I think they were very long chapters in general. Hench is definitely not a story I've come across before and I enjoyed every minute of it. Thank you to HarperCollins and Netgalley for the advance reader's copy.

This was such a fun book!
I loved the concept of following a hench working their way up the evil corporate ladder. It felt realistic even though it's set in a world with super heroes.
It started out really funny (I liked the sense of humour in the narration and dialogue) then got more serious in the middle, there were a few parts closer to the end that had more comedic dialogue (the auditor with quantum) and i wish there was a bit more humour throughout, it felt a little unbalanced.
I thought the friendship between Anna and June ended too.. easily. I thought maybe she would pop up again near the end. I also really didnt like June's voice. But that was it! Overall still a great read/listen :)

A hired (henchwoman is injured on the job. Through research and spreadsheets, she quantifies the human cost of heroes. Witty, creative, cinematic, and thought-provoking. Fans of superheroes - and arch villains - will enjoy this.

Hench
A Novel
by Natalie Zina Walschots
Narrated by Alex McKenna
Harper Audio
You Are Auto-Approved
HarperAudio
General Fiction (Adult) | Sci Fi & Fantasy
Also available as a digital review copy
Pub Date 22 Sep 2020 | Archive Date 17 Nov 2020

What a great twist on the super Hero trope. I am not a science fiction reader but this book and all it's twists definitely kept my attention. Thanks to Net Galley and Harper Audio for the ARC.
4 star

If superheroes actually existed, they'd be terrifying. How many buildings are knocked down in epic superbattles? How much collateral damage is ignored while the hero focuses solely on the villain and perhaps the one important person who's been put in danger? And absolutely no one cares about the henchpeople far outmatched by the hero that rush in anyway and get taken out almost as an afterthought.

And no one thinks about who does the data entry that keeps supervillain R&D running. Those death rays aren't gonna build themselves.

Hench is a great look at the ins and outs of superheroics. It takes a good hard look at the tropes and finds them wanting. Anna, our protagonist, worked as a hench on the data entry side of things until a superhero left her so badly damaged she would never walk without a limp again. That sent her into a spiral of data and calculations that led her to calculate exactly the cost superheroes had on the world, and the answer is enough to make her want to take action. It's data scientist vs superhero in a slow but brutal battle that will test the superhero more than any villain or natural disaster and might cost the data scientist a lot more than just a functional leg. If she can even survive.

It's a love letter in the same vein of John Scalzi's Redshirts or Sarah Rees Brennan's In Other Lands. The sort of book that highlights the inherent issues in the genre as thoroughly and viciously as only someone who loves these stories very much can. It's gorgeous, funny, heart-wrenching, casually queer, and most of all, fascinating in that keeps you on the edge of your seat way. Do not read before bed unless you've accepted you may not actually sleep that night. It's that hard to put down.

What a great twist on the superhero trope—thinking about the damage their “heroic” acts cause to both people and property. And who are all the “villains” henchmen/women? Why, there’s a temp agency for henches of course. This is an imaginative and smart fantasy for our times. Highly recommended.

Hench is a unique story of growth through the eyes of a "hench," In calculating the massive cost of the actions of so called "superheroes" after a super collision of her own, Anna discovers the true value of a super hero, and of what is right and what is wrong. With excellent, nuanced characters coming from all corners of this book, it is a deep exploration into life told not by the heroes of the story, but from the point of view of the rest of us.

However, the narration via the audiobook left much to be desired. The voices of many of the characters were harsh or even distasteful., leaving the listener wishing they would stop speaking. Being able to listen until the end anyway, really demonstrates the power of the story.

What a fun book. Set in a world where every teenager is tested for superpowers and those with them are recruited as superheroes. If they refuse to toe the superhero line they are then labeled as villains. Where does a villain get reliable office staff? The Hench temp agency, of course. Those henches that show promise, can then get offered a permanent contract from their boss villain.

I admit, I thought the beginning was a bit slow and the narrator’s voice a bit...off. But boy do things get interesting! And while there is humor, this book also gets DARK. I was hooked and I want more! There is definitely room at the end for a sequel. And I hope there is one.

Thanks Netgalley for the audiobook to preview.

Super witty, super charged, and super villainous! Anna is a normal temp hench, working for ho-hum villains to make rent. But when she finally steps out from behind her desk, she's severely injured by a superhero. The pain and unpaid time off leads her to start running the numbers on the damage to humans and material objects caused by the so-called good guys. Burning with revenge and hatred, Anna soon captures the attention of the online world and a true villain- Leviathan. Soon Anna is using her gifts with numbers and burning passion to ruin superheroes to use, but when the chance to get more than even against the hero who hurt her appears, it might just be her own fall she's engineering. Absolutely recommending this book, especially on audio. It's narrated by Alex McKenna, who brings the large cast to life. McKenna captures Anna's snark, Leviathan's otherness, and Supercollider's pompous entitlement perfectly! And for the readers who prefer short chapters... this is not that book, so audio will definitively work better.

This was a fantastic audiobook that has a timely story. It's not that the themes here are new -- I could name at least a good handful of books that explore the darker sides of heroes (and that's without even going into graphic novels) -- but this does refine some of those ideas for the modern day. Plus, a lot of these kinds of stories stick to superheroes or supervillains, so it's great to get this from the henchperson's point of view. I'm personally not one of those people who tends to enjoy a villain narrative and there are definitely some events that make me squirm, but I still loved Anna's story. Finally, as all good superhero novels must do, there are some uses of the powers we know and love.