Villain

Hench #2

by Natalie Zina Walschots

The Boys meets Starter Villain and Assistant to the Villain in Natalie Zina Walschots’s electrifying, sharp, violent, and hilarious sequel to the highly acclaimed novel, Hench, in which the Auditor must confront the near-impossible in order to right the many wrongs in the superhuman industry…or cause more of them. She’s not picky.

Anna, better known to superheroes as the Auditor, has carved out a name for herself. Any hero unlucky enough to cross her path knows her potential and powers. Surely, success should taste she has an incredible job with lots of perks, and her boss will literally annihilate anyone who crosses her, and her greatest enemy, the former hero Supercollider, has been utterly defeated and literally ground to a pulp.

But Anna still has her sights set on a greater 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, 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. Moreover, her unlikely ally and unexpected friend, Quantum Entanglement, has vanished without a trace, leaving Anna to examine all the ways they deceived each other. Tension and uncertainty fill the air, and fear that this moment of triumph is about to crumble looms over all of them.

Anna soon finds herself facing down an opponent unlike any she’s taken on before—not another superhero, but someone like her…someone much more the Draft’s Chief Marketing Officer. This isn’t a test of physical prowess, but ideas, and as the fight spirals deeper and deeper, with new foes popping up every day—she’ll need more than just her superpower—data research—to keep ascending through the supervillain ranks.

It’s guerrilla ad warfare, and the Auditor might have finally met her match.

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Superheroes, Adult, LGBT, Queer

368 pages, Paperback

Expected publication May 19, 2026

Reviews

[Nadine in NY Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't even need to know what this book will be about - you're promising me more-book in the Hench world? that's all I need to know. Give it to me.


****


My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this early review copy.

It's been a LONG wait for this novel!! And it is everything you want it to be. Detailed RTC when I get a chance to gather my thoughts.

[Kaila]

Expected publication October 24, 2023

heavy breathing

Update: Expected publication October 1, 2024

Maaaaaan! I'm willing to wait for quality though

Update 5/20/2024

Noticed Amazon has the title listed as "Villain."

As we all know, the real villain is pivot tables. I assume the Auditor will have many worthy fights ahead of her in this novel.

[myo ⋆｡˚ ❀ *]

GIVE IT TO ME WHY AM I STILL WAITING

[Fal]

hmmmmmMMMMMM? Hench sequel? I am very intrigued…

[Cindy (leavemetomybooks) · Rating 5 out of 5]

* thanks to William Morrow for the NetGalley review copy (pub date: May 19, 2026)

I have been stalking NetGalley for this book for YEARS - the pub date changed a bunch of times, but now it’s coming out for real, and it was worth the wait. Longer review TK but goddam I loved this.

[mckenna]

please i will give you my firstborn child for this book i beg of you

please … i can’t wait until October

[scthoughts]

12/2025, arc secured!

I've avoided arcs for months now, but I had to make an exception and apply for this one 😂

**************************************

03/16/2025, @4:35am

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could read 100 more books set in this world. I want all the fascinatingly mundane inner-workings of the superhero/supervillain industries!

Stepping into her role as the Auditor, Anna (and the rest of Leviathan's retinue) are taking on a new foe: not a lone superhero, but the institution that empowers them, known as The Draft. In this complicated chess game of corporations, politics, violence, and (perhaps) love, is Anna a queen or just another pawn?

This series is so joy-inducing that I even had fun writing that blurb. Don't get me wrong, it's still dark and messy as hell, but I lapped up every bit of it. Hench totally surprised me by being one of the best books I read this year, and I can't say I like Villain as much (it would have been a very hard bar to reach), I'm so delighted with how this series is continuing. I think the 'problem' with Villain is that it definitely has some middle-book syndrome where it's clearly setting up a lot for later so there are long stretches where a lot is going on but little is being resolved.

That said, I just really like Anna, okay? It's that simple for me. I don't really care about plot if the characters are good and Anna (as well as the supporting cast) are great. Leviathan is bringing a whole new level of drama in this book, and weirdly I'm kind of glad that he's not...a good person. Like, he is annoying and dangerous and not great at boundaries, which makes him an unreliable boss and a pretty shitty partner. But like....he's a supervillain. I didn't want him to be this nice normal guy under the scary exterior, partially because that wouldn't make sense consider the amount of trauma he's experience and also because that would be boring to me! I want mess! There are some heartbreaking scenes in this book where his pain is at the center, and I loved those. Anna also becomes more unhinged in this one, and thank god she does! Go crazy, girl!

I love what's being built up with Quantum Entanglement/Decoherence. I love Mom as a new antagonist. I love the plot line with the other auditor. I love that Anna and June's relationship doesn't get magically fixed and that's going to be an ongoing conflict. I love Anna and Molly's presentations. I love all of the drama going on with the Future. I love Keller and Jav and Vesper and Doc Proton!!!

I need more right now (or whenever Walschots decides to put out the next book. Please, take your time. No Rush. I'm dying over here but No Rush. No, but seriously I can wait).

Thank you to Natalie Zina Walschots and William Morrow for this ARC in exchange for my full, honest review!

Happy reading!

Pre-review: I GOT THE ARC OMG GUYSSNJDJDJSKSKS

[Chantaal]

11/4/25: I JUST GOT AN E-ARC LET'S GOOOO

=======

OH MY GOD A SEQUEL???

Coming out in 2026.

[Rach A.]

this book is going to satisfy every piece of my soul I can feel it (in the meantime, I will sob until September 2024 because it’s not in my hands)

[Starr ❇✌❇]

THIS BOOK FINALLY HAS A RELEASE DATE AND A COVER??

[Chocolate Dip]

I am. Very. Looking forward to this.

[timber rose, book witch (semi-hiatus)]

i'm literally only halfway through hench and i'm already foaming at the mouth for this sequel!!!!!! evil queer women who love to analyze and strategize we RISE <333333

[Greg R]

Two words - fuck yes.

[Allyn]

I NEED THIS SO MUCH

[Landice (Manic Femme)]

I will be checking Edelweiss and Netgalley every week til I can finally read this. So so so excited!

[Madeleine Goodhead · Rating 5 out of 5]

Villain has quite a tonal shift from Hench; despite body horror and corporate evil and Anna descending into villainy in the first book, I found it to be kind of... lovely? I consider it a comfort book. Villain was not comforting to read, because all our beloved characters get a lot more complicated and a lot more messy. I was really impressed with how much depth Walschots was able to add to this cast of superpowered people. The bug supervillain who delivers grand monologues in the third person felt like a real person by the end of this book. And he's a bug!

I do think that at times, this exploration of Leviathan, the Auditor, and Quantum/Decoherence came at the cost of the novel's pacing. I read Hench in one sitting, but it took me almost a week to finish Villain. At first, while reading, I thought that was a bad thing, and felt a bit disappointed about the way this book meanders, the way it is sometimes character driven rather than plot driven. I was still enjoying it, but it wasn't what I had envisioned. By the halfway mark, I realized that this book actually totally slaps, and though it reads very differently from its predecessor, that isn't a bad thing.

My absolute favorite part of the book is the last chapter, which is maybe my favorite fight scene ever. I should have known I'd love it: the fight at the end of Hench was amazing, and outclassed a lot of "magic" fights I've read (or seen) before. Like, look at Marvel movies: the fight scenes have the benefit of being visual media, and yet they feel so lacking in creativity. Why do they keep reverting to just punching each other! You guys are basically magic! Walschots, on the other hand, is so creative with her fight scenes, really thinking about how these different abilities might interact with each other. She also portrays them through a kind of disturbing, realistic lens that I rarely encounter, and LOVE. The final showdown of Hench had me feeling bad for Supercollider, even though by that point I hated his guts. Walschots fight scenes are both sad and epic, the violence poignant and meaningless. Despite ending very differently to Hench, the last few pages of Villain really brought me back to the book one final fight, capturing that same incredible depth, the same conflicting emotions. I am so in awe of how she depicts of the actual cost of human suffering that is rarely captured so viscerally in other stories, whether those be Marvel blockbusters or other fantasy books.

There are perhaps a few scenes that should have been cut, namely the lengthy introductions of Draft execs that made me feel like I really was in an office meeting (although maybe that was the intention?), and while we're talking about the Draft, I gotta say that most of the Mom stuff felt directionless and more like set up for book 3, which detracted from the pacing.

TLDR: this is a very different story from hench, despite continuing its themes and having mostly the same characters. It's also really great, and if you want to see more of Anna's story, then read it!

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me this arc in exchange for an honest review!

[lola · Rating 5 out of 5]

ARC

In the acknowledgments the author writes that she wrote this book, wholly, four times before she was satisfied with the story. four times!!!!! fuckin 🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡 thank you for your perseverance it was a evil little joy to read

[Evie]

I hate that Assistant to the Villain has been attached to this book because that one was pretty bad (very juvenile, definitely should've been Young Adult) and Hench was ridiculously amazing, I loved it so much. I don't know who made that decision but they're not even remotely on the same level; it's like mentioning Twilight when recommending Anne Rice or Dracula, just because they all have vampires. Hopefully it gets removed from the official promotions later, but probably not unfortunately. Very much looking forward to Right Hand!

[Mollie]

update 9/17/24: still missing hench. had a notification that this was supposed to be published today but it’s ok bc it’s coming august 2025 🤞🤞🤞 + name change and synopsis hype?!

update 12/27/23: i’m reading the assistant to the villain rn bc i thought it could fill the hench shaped hole in my heart. it is in fact making me miss hench more and more. i need this sequel so bad to cope pls pls pls i’m this close to rereading hench now bc i miss it sm💀

GIVE IT TO ME NOWWWWWW. please

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pls pls pls NetGalley, Hench was my favorite book of 2020, I have been dying for this sequel for 5 years, PLEASE MAY I HAVE THE ARC

Update: Thanks be to William Morrow, NetGalley, and most of all Natalie Zina Walschots I GOT THE ARC

Finished the book update: RTC. Pls pls pls give me a third book. It can’t end like this.

[moka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Henches, superheroes, sidekicks, and villains are back for round 2 in this long awaited sequel to HENCH #1 by Natalie Zina Walschots!

Plot Summary: Anna and the crew at Leviathan are recovering from the events of Book 1 including the defeat of Supercollider there are some FEELINGS being dealt with. Working through this, they are taking on the Draft. Not a superhero but a super-corporation. And Anna meets her nemesis.

Review:
Being a newcomer to Hench #1 this year, I didn't realize how long awaited this sequel was...and that the author mentioned having to start completely over about 4 times. Dates were pushed back and it sounds like the author had a hell of a time getting this one done. So, firstly, thank you to Natalie for completing this project.

The first book came out in 2020 and a lot can happen in the years since then that the author would have been writing. She mentions herself that she isn't the same person and Villain is definitely a very different book than Hench. We still have the same relative punchy fun writing style that layers in character development, clever plotting, and social commentary. But as things develop, different themes are explored more heavily and relationships between the characters get a bit messier as they usually do when feelings and humans are involved.

I enjoyed the sequel overall and much of what I loved about book #1 was the same for Villain. That being said, I would check trigger warnings because the heat was definitely turned up a notch in this one. Both for content but also relationship development. I'm not a fan of poor communication and misunderstandings or assumptions (or really any kind of toxic nature) between characters when it comes to intimate relationships but this is a personal preference. There is a lot explored here around power dynamics and agency between people with strong feelings about each other. While it definitely is interesting to reflect on psychologically speaking, it wasn't comfortable to read (not that books have to make us feel comfortable).

Once again though, I appreciated the diversity of Walschots characters like the first book and there is a lot of representation here. One of my favorite parts of this book is the plotting, the fallout, the scheming, the rebellion/rage against the machine disguised as cartoonic villainy. There is a lot of commentary and themes around social justice, corporations, evil masquerading as heroism.

I love the ending - Walschots is a pro at creating tension and sparking curiosity and the last page was no exception...so, will there be a book 3? I'm not sure this story is over yet but we'll see.

Thank you William Morrow for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

[Margaret Schoen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a review of an ARC from Edelweiss.

Anna was just an ordinary accountant, picking up gigs from villains, when a run-in with superhero Supercollider left her crippled, broke, and bent on revenge. Years later, she has become the Auditor, a loyal second in command to ultra villain Leviathan. He's brooding over the outcome of his last battle and their relationship has begun to take a different, more intense turn. Meanwhile, she's dealing with the Draft, the entity that runs superheros, which is out to get her and everything she's worked for.

OK, before the review a plea to all fantasy, sci-fi, whatever genre authors whose books have complex mythology and a bunch of characters and there are multiple books in the series. I know you have been living with this story and know all the in and outs of the plot and what beef the characters have with each other etc. But the last book came out two years ago, and I have read many other books since then! So please, either give me a "previously on.." summary at the beginning, or a sentence or two when someone comes in? Help a girl out!

Ok, that out of the way, this was really good. Less action hero fighting, and more darker than the last book (see, I remember something!) and mid-way through seemed to verge heavily into romantasy. This was less about the world-building and superhero-ness of it all, and more about character, and how we deal with trauma. It leaves things on a bit of a cliff-hanger, and I am curious to see where the Auditor goes from here, and to see how the Draft fights back going forward.

[Lis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read Hench in one sitting until 3:00 a.m and when I finally looked up with eyes as dry as the Sahara all I could think was MORE. This takes a fantastic first novel and adds a layer of depth and darkness that I was not expecting to come from a superhero novel.

Natalie Zina Walschots does a fantastic job of ratcheting up the tension in this novel so slowly and so meticulously I swear by the end I could feel Leviathan's pincers on the back of my neck. Multiple times I caught myself not breathing. This is a doozy of a sequel and went in a direction I did not expect and throughout the whole novel I was captivated by this world and the depth and trails of the Auditor, now that the Draft is finally taking her seriously, even if Leviathan might not be.

In the author's note Walschots says it took her 4 times starting again from scratch to write this novel and shows in how detailed well crafted this book is. I'm going to have to reread this one a few times for it all to sink in.

I will be the first person in line for the 3rd book.

Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow for this ARC!

[Nessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hear me out friends. This is not a romance. Far far from it. But this is my most anticipated book for literal YEARS and I got the opportunity to read it early thanks to @harpercollins and @netgalley .

Villain is a sequel to the much acclaimed Hench, a darkly funny story of a woman damaged and betrayed by so-called heroes and aligns herself with a villain to take down their organization bit by annoying bit. Villain is where Anna, now known as The Auditor comes into her own using data analytics and great instincts to take down The Draft, the corporate overlords that have been churning and burning heroes for generations.

This story was everything I've been waiting for, humor so dark it's almost midnight, body horror so deeply unsettling but like....oddly right in the moment, and strong insightfulness into the concepts of heroes and villains and an ongoing love for those people just trying to make a paycheck in a fucked up world.

This book comes out in May and I can't recommend it enough, but be sure to read Hench first. While it....might...be possible to read it as a standalone, I feel the universe is richer for the world building in the first book

[Dan Holland · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not know that Natalie Zina Walschots "Hench" was going to get a sequel. But when I saw the arc on Netgalley I demanded my friend Emma buddy read it with me since she got me on the first book . "Villain" picks up right after that finale. Available from William Morrow books 14 July 2026.

The Auditor (Anna if you don't know who you are dealing with) removed the Draft's biggest Cape from the board. He isn't dead, just a tangled up meatball, in constant suffering. Unfortunately her spreadsheets did not account for the impact this would have on her, now rescued, boss Leviathan. Dude is in a funk now that his nemesis is gone. Having emerged in direct conflict she is now in the crosshairs, and those wanting to make a name for themselves are gunning to even the books.

Reasons to read:
-If you ever wanted to have the data that shows the problem and a workplace that would support solving it
-Banter with someone who can unmake you
-Sad Boi hours
-Did a sweater vest become frightening?
-Malicious listeria

Cons:
-That's definitely an HR violation and a real big red flag

[Nikki P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has multiple publication dates across different sites (Oct 1 2024, Oct 4 2024, Jul 2025, Aug 2025) but the book is no longer listed as preorder(physical copies ONLY) on amazon and on the publisher website as of today(Oct 1) and is out of stock on both. However, the digital versions on amazon and other websites are listed under the different publication dates in 2025, the physical copies on other websites are listed under varying dates that are NOT Oct 1, and there is no delivery date for my preorder book, so who really knows when this will come out 🫠

EDIT: Spotify has the audiobook releasing on Oct 4 WITH a countdown so that's probably the most official we can get. It's also worth noting that the description of the audiobook says the release date is actually Oct 3, but the countdown to Oct 4 seems more legit. Also you would think that if today was the release date the cover would be revealed/the author would post about it somewhere but that hasn't happened.

[Ebbs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Villain picks up right where Hench left off, and is extremely about [The Big Thing that happens at the end of Hench], so I definitely recommend having it fresh in your memory.

Anna really goes through a lot in this one, huh? She’s The Auditor now, and life is a lot different with the level of power and resources she has access to. Watching the choices she makes, the solutions she comes up with was fascinating, and sometimes a little heartbreaking, ngl! And Quantum is back with a kicky new name change, and I love her so much.

Several times throughout I was like ‘ohoho, I see what you’re going for, Walschots! I am picking up on your themes and parallels!’ This does seem to be a case where some of the things I noticed are waiting to be satisfyingly concluded in the third book, but that’s sure to be announced soon, right?

I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Zoe Lipman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting a lot more from this book (and this series). I was expecting something a little more like the Renegades trilogy by Marissa Meyers. I wanted that level of action and intrigue. But I found this series and this sequel to be rather slow.

I also wanted this sequel story to be more fast-paced than the previous book.

I found this book to focus more on the emotional aspects, how the characters were dealing with the emotions and aftermath of what had happened in the previous book. Almost like a really long epilogue, but also not. I don't know how else to explain that.

This is still a fun story in a very fun world. And, randomly, I feel like this would translate really well to a tv show (The Boys meets Severance).

Thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!

[elana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved Hench and have been sweeping NetGalley since I saw a sequel was coming. I’m so happy I was approved for a review copy.

The plot was so riveting and developed in ways I never expected. Walschots did an amazing job keeping the momentum of the previous book and even upping the ante.

The characters and relationships also developed in a way I’m so happy with. I was so thrilled….But then to immediately follow up with the ocular enhancement reveal!? Having that point of conflict was an amazing way to remind us just who she was involved with and the reader could really feel the highs and lows The Auditor was experiencing with their new dynamic.

A great sequel to a great book!

Thank you William Morrow for the Advanced Review Copy