A review by readingcat1832
Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots

• Loveable characters? No

2.5

this one had a strong start and then slowly deteriorated until i felt i was forcing myself to get through the book at around the 50% mark. i might have more thoughts later, but for now, i just need to air my grievances over just how much this book hammers exposition down on you. it felt like reading an author's outline more than a finished draft for large portions of the book, with huge swaths of information summarized to us instead of actually written out. one example is

anna discussing her growing closeness with leviathan with her team---an important relationship in the book that we NEVER get to actually see build in the first place. another is anna's kidnapping by supercollider: we jump forward to anna already having been kidnapped, literally dropped right into seeing her tied to a chair, when the previous chapter saw her cuddling and hanging out with june. then we go back as anna recounts the events of her kidnapping, then jump forward again. anna's recovery after her rescue is also mostly summary.

it left the book feeling oddly disorienting and didn't allow for me to have much of any emotional engagement, which is a shame because the first hundred or so pages were compelling and enjoyable.