justjaqueline's reviews
609 reviews

adventurous sad

Did not finish book. Stopped at 46%.

I read half of this and realized I could not care less. The sections of the book are interesting, but the overall story just didn't grip me.

Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots

Go to review page

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I cannot watch The boys. While I would love to because of the political commentary on how "goodness" and "villainy" are shaped by the narratives we construct around them, the gore is just too much for me.
So I was overjoyed finding this book!!
We follow Anna, a woman whose entire livelihood is uphended when she comes in contact with an "hero" while on a job. Her job? Data analysis for supervillains. While the morality of it is dubious, the job market is what it is, and a woman has to eat. Did she deserve a catastrophic injury for it?
The whole book is about this question.

Anna is every bit as contradictory as you'd expect by someone on the "wrong" side of the law. I'm not sure where her idealism ends and her thirst for revenge begins, and neither does she, to be honest. Her every relationship is complicated. You can't be sure if you're reading the romantic undertones right because they're everywhere. Girl, so confusing.

I think the book suffers a bit from a tell-don't-show effect at times. I listened to the audiobook and I got so confused many times because of scenes changes in the middle of the action. I want to see what is happening while it's happening, please do not give me a rundown of the facts like I'm reading a diary. It got better as we got to the climax, thank God.

Overall, I think this book explores its themes in interesting ways, with enough nuance to not fall into predictability. I will absolutely read the sequel.

(Also if you liked this, I think you'd like Vicious by V.E. Schwab!!)

Content Warnings