A review by bzliz
Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots

adventurous dark funny medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book is a gleefully grim, gruesome, straight up gnarly take on the relationship between morality and power and how different heroes and villains really are. It is not going to be for everyone but I personally loved it. I saw this recommended by on TikTok by people who were let down by the lack of actual villainy in Assistant to the Villain and I’m so glad I finally got around to this. 

Be mindful of the content warnings and be warned: there are no heroes here. 

Anna’s journey begins as a temp Hench who focuses on data entry for minor villains. During a confrontation between her sleazy boss and Supercollider, she becomes collateral damage. While she recovers from her injury, she begins working on The Injury Report, which analyzes the cost of superheroism. Her work leads her to a job with Leviathan- a top tier villain with a personal score to settle- and there she begins her quest to dismantle heroes by haranguing them into showing their true colors. 

Natalie Zina Walschots weaves a complex web of morality and makes us confront the reality that under the right (or wrong) conditions, we all become villains.  What is power? What is vengeance? What is heroism and what is the cost behind every seemingly heroic action? The diverse cast of characters have a huge range of races, genders, sexualities, disabilities and super-abilities. Normally I love the simplicity of having things spelled out for me but here I like the ambiguity. Does Anna have powers? I don’t know. Does anyone truly deserve the consequences they face? Debatable. 

The story does start a little slow to ease readers into the world but quickly ramps up into the politics of a world where children are tested for powers and essentially groomed into the perfect vigilantes. As I mentioned before, there are no heroes here and Anna absolutely flourishes with her confirmation bias once she starts the Injury Report because as far as we know, she doesn’t look into the cost of villainy. She is driven by pure spite after her encounter with Supercollider and I love her for it even if she’s not actually a loveable person. 

I cannot recommend this book enough but for real, mind the content warnings. 

Content warnings:
Blood, death, injury, violence (on page):
lots of superhero type fighting with a bigger focus on the collateral damage and specific harm caused during conflict between people with special abilities. See later warnings for greater detail.

Body horror, gore (on page):
visceral descriptions of injuries like shattered legs, spinal cord injuries, etc.
Additional warning with spoilers for the end of the book:
Because he is generally impervious to most damage, there are many, many pages of Quantum Entanglement using her powers to manipulate Supercollider’s body in on itself until he is a gross, fleshy ball that is somehow still alive. It is particularly gruesome and they have to carry the “body” around to meet the biometric requirements to get to Leviathan’s holding cell. It is super gross and not for the squeamish.

Medical content (on page):
Anna endures the hospital and then separate recovery after Supercollider shatters her leg. After she’s become a big enough thorn in his side, she is kidnapped and in the midst of forced brain surgery when Leviathan and team rescue her.

Murder (on & off page):
Hits are put out on several characters including Supercollider’s former sidekick and Quantum Entanglement’s former lover (and his partner). These occur off page but there is discussion of them and fallout from them on page. Supercollider intends to murder Anna on page a few times. There could be some debate about whether the pre-story off page death of Leviathan’s mentor was a murder but I’m saying it is.

Torture (on & off page):
Anna is tortured semi off page during her captivity then is forcibly having her brain operated on when she is rescued. Leviathan is undoubtedly being tortured during his captivity but only the residuals like too-bright lights are on page.

Car accident (on page):
cars are thrown by the heroes constantly with no regard for who is around or who is in the vehicle. During the climax, multiple characters are thrown into cars so hard the metal wraps around them so I think that counts here.

Emotional abuse, gaslighting (on & off page):
Supercollider and his crew kept Quantum Entanglement held in a support role to make him look good and then framed her for the murder of her former lover to discredit her to the public.

Kidnapping (on page):
Anna is abruptly kidnapped at the start of chapter 4. Leviathan’s death is faked while he’s held in captivity which I’m calling kidnapping adjacent so it’s worth mentioning.

Infidelity (off page):
Quantum Entanglement cheated on Supercollider with plenty of people. This is planned to use against them but he already knew about it and tolerated her indiscretions to save face.

Panic attacks (on page):
Anna has panic responses to certain things that remind her of Supercollider and she outright says there are times she has to hide in a closet to have a panic attack before getting back to work. The description here is less frequent and less lengthy than the violence. 

Sexism (on & off page):
Anna’s first boss, E, uses her in his presentation to show diversity because he wants to be presented as progressive villain even though it’s not genuine. Off page, Quantum Entanglement is forced into a support role to make her male counterpart look better. Gendered insults are used- “bitch” off page, which she repeats on page to Anna, and “cunt” on page, during the climax of the book.

Toxic relationship (on & off page):
Quantum Entanglement and Supercollider definitely have a toxic relationship and a case could be made for Anna and Leviathan also. It’s not the focus by any means.

Vomit (on page):
Anna’s date near the beginning vomits when an injured man gets in their cab. Nausea is mentioned many times throughout but that odd the only specific instance of vomit.
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