Villain: A Novel
Harpercollins (Verlag)
9780063341364 (ISBN)
- Noch nicht erschienen (ca. Mai 2026)
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The Boys meets Assistant to the Villain in the electrifying, sharp, violent, and hilarious sequel to the highly acclaimed novel, Hench. Filled with a queer and neurodiverse cast, Villain asks the question: what happens when a diabolically brilliant henchperson looks back at their already storied career and thinks, I can be so much worse.
The hench once called Anna, now known to her colleagues and enemies as the Auditor, has carved out a wicked name for herself. Any superhero unlucky enough to cross her path knows her potential and powers. Surely, her recent success should taste sweet: she has an incredible job with lots of perks, her boss will literally annihilate anyone who crosses her, and her greatest enemy, the former hero Supercollider, has been utterly defeated-literally ground to a still-living pulp.
But the Auditor still has her sights set on a greater work: destroying The Draft, the organization that makes, trains, and manages the world's most powerful superheroes. These "heroes" have shown time and time again that they do more harm than good (she has the spreadsheets to prove it), and now is the time to stop the damage at its source.
Yet all is not well for the Auditor and her fellow evildoers. Her employer, Leviathan-the world's most feared supervillain-is not coping well with Supercollider's defeat at someone else's hands. As their relationship deepens, her work-life balance increasingly involves navigating the feelings of someone who doesn't believe they have any. Moreover, her unlikely ally and unexpected friend, Quantum Entanglement, has reappeared, forcing the Auditor to confront all the ways they deceived each other. Tension and uncertainty haunt the Auditor, and the fear that their triumph is about to crumble looms over all of them.
The Auditor soon finds herself facing down an opponent unlike any she's taken on before-not another superhero, but someone like her, someone much more dangerous: The Draft's Chief Marketing Officer. Their conflict isn't a test of physical prowess, but ideas, and as their fight escalates, she'll need more than preternatural pattern recognition, data analysis, and a horrific imagination to meet this challenge. It's guerrilla ad warfare, and the Auditor might have finally met her match.
Natalie Zina Walschots is a writer and game designer whose work includes LARP scripts, heavy metal music journalism, video game lore, weirder things classified as "interactive experiences," and, unfortunately, experimental poetry. Her first novel, Hench, was a finalist on the 2021 season of Canada Reads and nominated for a Locus Award for Best First Novel. She plays a lot of RPGs, participates in a lot of emotionally harrowing LARPs, watches a lot of horror movies, and reads a lot of speculative fiction. She lives in Nova Scotia with her partner and four cats.
"Witty and inventive . . . the pleasure of the novel is the slow rollout of the rules. Creating a universe involves inventing lots of little problems, and the solutions here don't disappoint." - New York Times on Hench
"Hench is an engrossing take on the superheroic. It's smart and imaginative; an exemplary rise-of-darkness story, one I won't soon forget...I honestly can't wait to see what Natalie Zina Walschots does next with the genre." - NPR Books
"Walschots playfully pokes at both office politics and comic book absurdity while offering gripping action and gut-wrenching body horror. The inventive premise, accessible heroine, and biting wit will have readers eager for more from this talented author." - Publishers Weekly (starred review) on Hench
"A fiendishly clever novel that fizzes with moxie and malice." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review) on Hench
"In this refreshing, subversive, and darkly humorous debut novel, poet and journalist Walschots slowly reveals the nuances of her superpower-filled world, keeping readers guessing. Hench reads like a comic without the illustrations and is packed with subplots and rapid-fire wit. With a diverse and inclusive cast of characters, Walschots' original tale performs a brilliant and exciting variation on the superhero trope and is not to be missed." - Booklist (starred review)
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 26.5.2026 |
|---|---|
| Reihe/Serie | Hench Series |
| Verlagsort | New York, NY |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Themenwelt | Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Science Fiction |
| Schlagworte | ace characters • Adventures • anti-hero • Antihero • Asexuality • asexual love • assistant to the villain • bad guys win • bad heroine • be your own boss • bi characters • Bisexuality • bisexual love • blue shield of silence • Body Horror • Body-Horror • books about superheroes • books for my grandmother • books for my mother • books like joker • books like soon i will be invincible • books like the boys • boss gifts • boss gifts for women • Capitalism • cheap gifts • christmas gift ideas for her • christmas gifts for geeks • Christmas gifts for mom • christmas presents • Comic books • damage report • data entry • Data Science • Data-Science • defying expectations • DOOM • Espionage • fandom holiday gift guide • Fantasy • funny boss gifts • funny christmas gifts for women • funny female protagonists • funny gifts for boss woman • funny gifts for boss women • geek gift giving guide • geek holiday gift guide • gift exchange • gift exchange games • gift for girl • gift for sister • gift guess books • gifts for artists • gifts for comic book fans • gifts for comics fans • gifts for fans of the boy • gifts for grandma • gifts for mcu fans • gifts for nerds • gifts for pop culture fans • Glass Ceiling • Good versus Evil • good white elephant gifts • grossman • Hench • hench book two • henchmen • henchperson • hench sequel • hench villains • heroism • holiday party gifts • horror christmas gifts • humorous • jobs with benefits • Lean in • left Hand • love poems for supervillains • lqbtq+ characters • millennial characters • Millennials • Modern • natalie zina walschots • neurodiversity • novels about supervillains • office politics • overcoming expectations • police state • Post-traumatic stress disorder • PTSD • realistic fiction books • revenge • revenge narrative • revenge tale • Science Fiction • SciFi • scify • secret santa gift • sff • Soon • Spreadsheets • starter villain • stocking stuffer ideas • stories about redemption • supercollider • superhero action • superhero book • superhero books for adults • superhero politics • superheros • superhero thriller • superhero world • supervillain books • supervillains • surveillance state • temporary workers • temp worker • the boys what to read next • thumbscrews • Trauma • Urban Fantasy • Vengeance • Villains • villains in love • Workplace Romance • xmas gifts for wife • xmas gifts for women • yankee gift exchange • yankee swap |
| ISBN-13 | 9780063341364 / 9780063341364 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
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