This book is fast furious compelling and angry as hell. -- Seanan McGuire New York Times
bestselling author The Boys meets My Year of Rest and Relaxation in this smart imaginative
and evocative novel of love betrayal revenge and redemption told with razor-sharp wit and
affection in which a young woman discovers the greatest superpower-for good or ill-is a
properly executed spreadsheet. Anna does boring things for terrible people because even
criminals need office help and she needs a job. Working for a monster lurking beneath the
surface of the world isn't glamorous. But is it really worse than working for an oil
conglomerate or an insurance company? In this economy? As a temp she's just a cog in the
machine. But when she finally gets a promising assignment everything goes very wrong and an
encounter with the so-called hero leaves her badly injured. And to her horror compared to the
other bodies strewn about she's the lucky one. So of course then she gets laid off. With no
money and no mobility with only her anger and internet research acumen she discovers her
suffering at the hands of a hero is far from unique. When people start listening to the story
that her data tells she realizes she might not be as powerless as she thinks. Because the key
to everything is data: knowing how to collate it how to manipulate it and how to weaponize
it. By tallying up the human cost these caped forces of nature wreak upon the world she
discovers that the line between good and evil is mostly marketing. And with social media and
viral videos she can control that appearance. It's not too long before she's employed once
more this time by one of the worst villains on earth. As she becomes an increasingly valuable
lieutenant she might just save the world. A sharp witty modern debut Hench explores the
individual cost of justice through a fascinating mix of Millennial office politics heroism
measured through data science body horror and a profound misunderstanding of quantum
mechanics.
