Welcome to Litsy!

Another marvelous reread. Though I surprised myself by being less satisfied by the ending than I was the first time. As much as there is a full arc for the main character, there are platonic and potentially romantic relationships feel like they were just getting started. Likewise, there's a major character or two who, while the backstory was important, I also feel is just getting started in their own arcs. 1/2

This was good old fashion popcorn urban fantasy that is entertaining and escapist. We see our heroine slowly slide deeper into villainy as she deals with a slowly burning rage at what heroes have done to wrong her.

“To seek vengeance and power instead of cowering when the world punishes you. That‘s what they think evil is, do they not?”
#March2024

I really enjoyed this. A new spin on the world of superheroes and supervillains, and a great narrator. Good use of text messages too.

Unbreakable meets V for Vendetta.
Vicious and fascinating and fairly feminist and inclusive.
Does not pull any punches (pun intended) in examining the hypothetical fall out of super humans, both good and villainous, among regular humans, the collateral damage and the many ways to abuse power. The super humans are still 'human' in all the ways that make things messy.
1/?

Admirable arrangement: only one of us gets to be a dumbass at any one time. 😂

After a slow reading summer, I was re-energized in September and read 21 books. The tagged book was my runaway favorite but all of these are excellent and highly recommended. So, read Hench if you want to root for the villains, The Genesis of Misery if you like your space opera big & bold, Monstress just because, Craft in the Real World if you‘re interested in writing and Florida if you enjoy short stories. On to October!

This. Book.😍Anna is a low level villain‘s henchman trying to make ends meet when a superhero swoops in to save the day killing henchmen & injuring Anna. While she‘s recovering, Anna decides to run the numbers, do a cost benefit analysis of hero activities. What she finds draws the attention of a powerful villain & together they set out to reveal the truth about heroes. You‘ll root for the villains in this one—I did! Fun & imaginative & excellent.

Any book that references Farscape is a winner for me.

I e always preferred most villains.
So much ❤️ for this book!
This is a new favorite.
I hope there is sequel coming. 🤞
I also ❤️ The Boys and I couldn‘t get Homelander out of my head as Supercollider. I wonder if that was intentional.
I highly recommend this for a fun read.
This was also my February #Doublespin pick.

I‘m ready for the day with my current read and my morning snack — peanut-butter pretzels! 😂 #hench #nataliezinawalschots #superheroes #supervillains

Once again going about it a funny way if I really want to hit #BookSpinBingo! All my free spaces are taken and then some, ahaha.

I guess my next aim is the column with The Blind Barber, which is the #DoubleSpin.

Anyway, I enjoyed Hench, for #BookSpin, but the last 50 pages went a bit too far and got a bit too dark. Not such a fan of that part. Mostly a pick, but that... nah.

Finally got my #BookSpinBingo card set up. No idea how I'm gonna make bingos here... as soon as the numbers are announced, promptly I don't want to read a n y t h i n g. Oops.

I know I need to read Hench, The Blind Barber and The Gilded Wolves (the latter for a book club), so I guess I'll try for 2nd down and 2nd across, and see where I get.

I've started on the #BookSpin (Hench), which is so far okay but not really going places yet!

A bit long in the tooth at some points, however this was very clever. It was more humorous than I expected. I loved watching Anna grow and gain more confidence by the end. I really hope there is a sequel as I would love to read more from this universe.

With that, I have completed my first line in #BookSpinBingo in I don‘t even know how long!! Yay 😁

Up next!! I really hope the momentum for reading continues. It‘s been several months since I‘ve been on a roll like this!

I‘ve had this one sitting on my shelves for a long while now. I‘m excited to dig in!

I‘m not much for superhero stories. I had hoped to like this one more, but I think it just wasn‘t my thing. There were parts that were interesting, but mostly I just wasn‘t very interested. I also didn‘t quite agree with her hypothesis – yes, there is some collateral damage to innocents, but much of it is to the “bad guys”, anyway. The guys who are intentionally trying to do bad things to innocents! The author‘s note at the end was interesting.

This book is amazing. I love the world building and the behind the scenes look at the support staff of villains and heroes. I want to live in this world. Is it wrong that I secretly want to be a hench?

This story has a great concept. It follows a henchman trying to find work in the villain industry and after an accident quickly get passionate about the business. I loved the fact that the author know's how to critic the 'good ' and the 'bad' side. Which makes it that you don't 100% know who you are cheering on .I adore our main character. She's has a way of thought that anyone can relate to. She also has a way of work that I found humorous.

What if superheroing and supervillaining were businesses? And what if villains employed people known as henches? Our heroine, er, villainess, Anna is a hench.

She ends up in the crossfire when superheroes foils a villain‘s scheme. While recuperating she calculates the cost of the damage which she extends to other rescues, starting a blog which catches the attention of Leviathan who offers her a job. Then she can really bring her talents to bear.

When I watch superhero films, I wince at the casual destruction that they cause incidentally. 'Hench' is about someone who temps for villains and gets caught in the crossfire - but while recovering from her injuries, she starts to do something about redressing the balance.

“Anna Tromedlov,” I croaked.
“Am I speaking with . . . the Palindrome?”
😅

💖 💖 💖 💖 💓

This unflinching look at the darker side of heroism was funny and sad and somehow real — it could easily have been an examination of any flip side, really. A reminder that things can‘t be taken at face value, and that all of us can effect the world. Plus, it really was funny.

A much more nuanced look at good vs evil and the collateral damage when the two clash. Feminist hench and evil supervillain unite to take out heroes. The ending irritated me mightily, the beginning was a bit slow but the middle rocked!

Completed #doublespin

However, I highly recommend this book. Anna is a hench just trying to get a job. She ends up working for a villain just working with data. An encounter with a superhero injures her and shows her just how dangerous superheroes can be. She begins to tally up the numbers and finds superheros can cause more damage than the villains. Shes on a journey to take down the "bad" superheros and even out the numbers.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Ok I‘ve got about 100 pages left 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ really thought I had the day to finish it. Still struggling to realize I can‘t reliably read a book in seven days. I love the idea of a skip the line loan, but maybe I need to rethink next time.

Very unexpected skip the line hold. I remember Natalie from attending metal shows in Toronto. What a small world! She used to do reviews and interviews with musicians. Very happy for her success, looking forward to this!!!

Self-deprecation has splash damage.

3/5⭐ There was some nice quirkiness and I enjoyed reading the book, but only because it introduced concepts/questions/relationships I was looking forward to exploring that it just...didn't follow through with. Obscured moral/ethical points. Relationship foundations laid that never came to fruition. Distanced narrative with Anna just telling the reader what happened after the fact. A lot of great concepts with lackluster, disappointing execution.

“When the temp agency called, I was struggling to make the math work.”

#firstlinefridays @ShyBookOwl

review here: https://debbybrauer.org/#hench

This was a fun, chaotic, wild, philosophical trolley dilemma of a twisted super tale. Throw in some feminist kick-assery and you're in for a good time!

#CanadaReads2021

Soooo.... can we pause for a sec and talk about how on page 1 we discover the MC‘s last name is Voldemort (!!) spelled backwards, which I only realized because the author cleverly hinted I should try to see why their alias is The Palindrome?!

After having read a single page I have no choice but to rate this book 5 stars.

#CanadaReads
Anna is a little bit nerdy. She‘s a data analyst. And the hench-woman to an evil super villain. Data is the key to everything. “Knowing how to collate it, how to manipulate it, and how to weaponize it.” She figures out the human cost of heroes. And “discovers that the line between good and evil is mostly marketing.” It‘s a funny, action packed, and very clever story. I absolutely loved it!

This was so good! It was great from the start, but I got serious obsessive vibes towards the end, in the best way. I hope there‘s more coming soon!
Plot was original, characters were easy to love, it had me hoping for certain twists and sides stories the whole way.

Ughhh so good 🤘🏽🤘🏽🤘🏽

#2021 #LGBTQ #SuperVillains #WomenAuthors

This book was a bit slow to start but once it picked up, omg did it get good. Such a great premise, following the antics of superheroes and villains through their henches, one in particular. It‘s humourous, satiric, gruesome, and just so much fun. Such an original story, it was refreshing to read. I love rooting for the underdog and sometimes, the villain in stories, and this one just lets you go all out.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book is AMAZING! I'm really loving it so far! So is Chaplin! 😸💕📚 #catsoflitsy #littenkitten #chaplin

My first book from the #CanadaReads2021 shortlist.

Anna Tromedlov (read that backwards for fun) is a bisexual hench (a gender neutral version of henchman) doing office work through a temp agency. After being injured in the crossfire between a superhero & a villain, she uses her data analysis skills to show that heroes are actually detrimental to society. It‘s dangerous to expose truth, no matter what world women live in. Fast-moving, feminist & highly original. #LGBTQ #CanadianAuthor

“Pretty tough, then, for a nerd chick.” Blowtorch let his eyelids become heavy and he smirked at me. “That‘s hot.” He shot some sparks out of the tip of one finger for emphasis. It was extraordinarily embarrassing for everyone in the room.

(Internet photo)

“Okay everyone,” the woman with the call sheet said, clapping her hands for a moment of attention. “Remember your job is to make your boss more impressive. Loom, but don‘t mean-mug too hard. Try to project some intensity, but take your cues from E and don‘t go overboard. You‘re like … evil bridesmaids. You‘re here to make him look even better.”

“His facade has cracked at last. […] No amount of kintsugi will restore him now.”

(Photo: Japanese plate with gold lacquer repair, 17th century, Ashmolean Museum, seen on Instagram)

If you enjoyed the critique of collateral damage caused by superheroes in The Incredibles, then you'll enjoy this book. Anna is a temp doing data entry for a villain when she's pulled into his sinister broadcast as an extra; when she's injured by the hero who intervenes, she's promptly laid off. Thus begins her quest to quantify the damage a hero causes in her Injury Report, and perhaps a depth of vengeance she didn't know she possessed...

A really good debut novel from the POV of a supervillain's hench, a data analyst hellbent on revenge when a superhero casually ruins her life. It turns out when you run the numbers, heroes are bad for the world. I loved the snarky attitude, sharp writing, and whole concept. My main disappointment is I didn't connect much with Anna or her evil origin story. She's bisexual too! (On that note I think a romance subplot would have had me more engaged).

The premise for this book gave me The Boys-meets-Vicious vibes, so I was really excited to get a copy from the library recently (and also, how amazing is that cover??). This was a snarky, funny, at times dark and violent story, and I enjoyed it so much.
The world and the story were so inventive and fun, and I loved the administrative side of supervillains (and superheroes).

I started listening to Hench a few weeks ago, but podcasts distracted me and it returned to the library before I could finish, so I bought it from a local bookshop along with Spiral and a cute Sam (from Trick or Treat) sticker. It's really good so far!

Has anyone read Spiral??

Is there anything better than a new library #bookhaul ?!?? It‘s such a magical feeling of anticipation. 😍

I had never given much thought to those who work for the villains in superhero stories- those who make their coffee or do their taxes. This book changed that with Anna, a hench who gets seriously hurt by a superhero while on a temp assignment. Anna channels her pain and anger into math and calculates the never before acknowledged costs of superheroes. Her talents get her recognized by people on both sides of the good vs evil divide.⬇️

This book was a lot of fun. The chapters are very long. A 400 page book with 8 CHAPTERS! But honestly I didn‘t mind it.

Anna is a temp working for villains doing data research. She gets hurt by a superhero and starts researching how much damage superhero‘s actually cause.

This book makes you want the villains to win! I would definitely recommend it for someone looking to dip their toes into sci-fi.

#NovelNovember - Book 1 finished

Here are my goals for #NovelNovember

Finish Hench (started today) for #TheCoolestBookClubEver
Finish either Winter Counts (so incredibly violent) or The Space Between Worlds for #BOTM debut category
Start the Downstairs girl either in print or audio and start Howl‘s Moving Castle for #SwordandLaserPodcast