Hench - Review

Author: Natalie Zina Walschots

Genre: Adult/ Superhero

Format: Paperback/ Early Edition

Pages: 416

First a huge thanks to William Morrow for an early copy of Hench! 

This is one of those books that I had heard nothing about until I saw on promoted AD on my of my social media's, and then immediately fell in love with the idea of it. I grew in a house was the Keaton Batman was King, and I've seen almost all the Avenger movies with my Dad and Brother. So I was a hundred percent on board for a book told from the bench point of view.

Hench is the debut novel of Natalie Zina Walschots, so I had no clue what I was in for when I cracked this bad boy open. Apparently what I was in for was a world of feelings and a love for Anna. This is book is much more than just about the bench point of view. It's about going through trauma and how that trauma shapes and changes you. It's about the people you always thought would be by your side leaving, about betrayal and love. And, in some ways a found family.

Simply it's a book about life, but with superheroes and villains thrown into the mix to make it all a little more complicated and painful.

The absolute aces thing about this book is the representation in this book. It was there and normalized which I loved. Anna's team wasn't whitewashed and it wasn't a cast full of straight people. People got to be people without someone trying to put a neon sign above it. They were there being them whether hero or villain and it was lovely to see.

But, hands down the thing that makes this book so easy to read is Walschots writing style. Hench is told through Anna our main characters as she goes through her life as a Hench for better or for worse, and it's mostly for the worst. At so many points in this book Anna could have given up and no one would have blamed her, but through the pain and trauma she got up again and did was right by herself and her friends. She isn't out to save the world, just balance the scale for everything the Superheroes are doing wrong. For all the people they are hurting. For all the life years they have taken. And, it's written in such a wonderful way that I couldn't put it down.

I am a pretty slow reader for a lot of reasons, but I read Hench in little less than a day!

Another great thing about Hench is how relatable the side characters are. Odds are anyone who reads this knows someone like Jav or June or Greg. Which makes you feel for these people on a human level. Because Hench, or not, they are human. It was easy to get attached to characters and then hurt when they weren't there anymore.

It's also a wonderful nerd book with fun Easter Eggs moments throughout. I got so excited to see a Farscape reference I nearly choked on what I was snacking one! It's full of wonderful superhero tropes that are tried and true and then exposed for what they are. Plus, it was nice to see the human element played up in Hench. We get so caught up in the super part we forget that some of them are human, or have very human people in their lives.

The world of Hench wasn't made too complicated and I think that works in favor for the book. It's the same world you can see when you walk out of your door. The same you see in any of the comics about superheroes. You know it, and Walschots uses that in her favor so he can dive deeper into the story itself.

A story that grabs a hold of you doesn't let go. What I like about the pacing of Hench is that it's not linear. It jumps through the major moments in Anna's life, but in a way that you can follow without having to pause, or go back. Hench is only eight chapters, but each chapter is a pivotal moment that leads up to the end of the book itself. I had no problem keeping track of the timeline as we jumped, and it kept the story from going stale and slow a bit. It also makes it very hard to put down because chapter sort ends in a way that you want to know what's about to happen.

Ugh, and that ending. I know Hench is set to be a stand-alone, and it totally works as one! Everything that needed to be tied was, and while it was open-ended, ending. I didn't feel like I was denied anything. However! If there was a second book, I'd buy it because I adored Anna and this world, and would willing to dive back into it!

Also, the sub-plot that was thrown in there was brilliant! It was the perfect sort of juicy backstory to kind make you forget how bad things were, and it was so well done!

There is such a human element to this book that I feel it makes it work. It's not about the Superheroes and Villians going at each other in an epic battle. It's about the people around those battles, the fodder that no one really thinks about. Hench wasn't a book I knew I needed until it was my hands, but I'm in love with it. And, a little with Vesper, but that is neither here nor there.

It's so much more than a Superhero book and so wonderfully done that I can't wait to see what Natalie Zina Walschots writes next. Because she has become one of my new favorite authors of 2020!

Buy, Borrow, or Skip: I saw buy! This is a book I could see myself reading again because I feel like there were small moments of genius that I missed. I was so focused on the main story that there was something that I missed.

Hench comes out on September 22, 2020!  

HAPPY READING!!