It is also very refreshing to see a story like this in which the main characters have no powers and the narrative is firmly on their side. Hench is an ambitious book (especially for an author’s first novel) that is willing to engage with a lot of complex and charged topics and unabashedly take sides, while remaining fast-paced and entertaining, and it genuinely impressed me. It feels weird to say something so explicitly positive, but it’s true. I did end up having some quibbles here and there (as I tend to do I’ll get into them later in this review), but overall I can’t help but say I absolutely loved it. I finally got around to reading it (in more or less one sitting) this week, and, well. If anything, this book seemed too perfectly designed to push my buttons so I worried it might be too good to be true, but I was cautiously optimistic nonetheless. I also tend to enjoy what I’ll call “competence porn”, which it looked like this might be (it is). Anyone who’s known me for any length of time is probably aware that I love stories that subvert expectations and explore the perspectives of characters who normally tend to be glossed over (villains, servants, etc), or which attempt to interrogate tropes through the lens of “what if we take it seriously and let reality ensue”. This book has been on my to-read list for a while, ever since I happened to see the author in some Twitter conversation earlier this year (I don’t remember the context, for better or worse).

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