How to Become a Henchman, A Novel

The Henchman's Survival Guide

By: J Bennett

Narrated by: Amanda L. Gregory

It's time to root for the henchman!

Welcome to Big Little City, a semi-reality town where everyone who isn’t already a hero or a villain wants to become one. Well, almost everyone....

Alice just needs to keep her head down, earn her college degree, and then she’ll finally be able to escape this crazy place and find a real job. Too bad a super scary villain just blew up the restaurant where she works and her paycheck along with it!

Now Alice finds herself running low on funds and employment options. Her tuition bill is due, and the university doesn't take promises or tales of woe. As luck would have it, one of the town’s most famous villains is holding henchmen auditions. The gig would earn Alice the money she needs; all she has to do is betray every instinct and play the "Fame Game" she despises.

Oh, and she’s also got to beat out the other competitors who might just kill for the limited henchmen spots.

Author J Bennett is back with a brand new, action-packed superhero series. With a keen social eye and her trademark wit, J Bennett weaves a story of a futuristic world where good and evil are both beholden to ratings.

Is Alice willing to risk life, limb, and her integrity to land the role of a lifetime and the juicy paycheck it brings?

Find out why it's so much fun to root for the henchman!

©2019 Endeavor Reads (P)2020 Endeavor Reads

interested to see where it goes

the book
I found the world building very interesting and the characters varied. it had some interesting, different, and even familiar takes on the world it is based in. while I really enjoyed the book something about it makes me not in love with it but I wouldn't kick it off my book shelf either. I'm really excited to see where the story goes and how it develops. There were some interesting twists to the story that I didn't see coming and really surprised me that is pretty rare.

the narration

I had a few issues with the narration.

1. she didn't seem into it her inflections and tones didn't always match up with what was going on in the book she didn't always sound excited when the characters did or sad when they did it was like she was reading.

2. all the male character's sounded the same. all male heros had the same voice, (which is fine really) all of the story males sounded the same (was a little confusing) I'would of rather she just didnt do a voice.

3. this may be the production honestly but I could hear voice changes where it had either been cut together of there was a break sometimes from one book to the next of the same narrator it sounds little different and you have to get back into the groove of the voice. with this book there were times from sentence to sentence I thought maybe someone else was speaking for a moment because the tone changed abruptly.

while overall I liked her voice and think she did a good job these production or editing or idk what issues made it a little harder for me to get into the book and it just seemed that less money was put into the production then could have been. I don't blame the narrator for these issues and think it could have been better if production was improved

Awesome

I loved these characters and this world. I can't wait till the next book comes out.

Original Take on Supers

Appreciated the world building and the MC’s back story. This is the first book in a series, so it leaves you wanting more (though it doesn’t end on a cliffhanger).

A surprise and delight

This book surprised me on all fronts! I'm going to try to leave out any spoilers but I'll be commenting on trends and themes so be warned.

Firstly, the whole series was excellent. The characters were deeper and more complex than I expected. The typical tropes were played into well but there was still plenty of surprises! Secondly, for a hero book, not everything was sunshine and rainbow and the trauma that was discussed was captured well. The reluctant protagonist made for a really interesting read. The world is designed as a not-to-distant future and its easy to see the path that we could take to get us there. Given the story is captured in the title, the reader knows where the destination is but it is still an enjoyable journey. Almost certainly passed the Bechdel test, but I would have to do re-read to be sure.

Initially I found the narrator a bit slow although the voices were great. I moved the speed up to 1.1/1.2 and that was perfect for me. It was super easy to distinguish characters and that's always what I look for.

I read the whole series in 3 days and recommended it to my family.

Great world building in a plausible future

I enjoyed this tale of superheroes in a not-too-distant future. The World building is well done and the plot moves along briskly. The central character of Alice is identifiable with anyone growing up in the age of social media and reality television. the narration is solid, and I never had any difficulty understanding who was speaking at any given time.

Fun

In an alternate world, Alice lives in a town that thrives on superheroes. When she looses her job, she tries out for a position as a henchman. She has to figure out how to pay for college.
Opinion
Fun, fun, fun. I enjoyed entering this fun and exciting world but shutter to think it could happen.
I also enjoyed the almost monotone accents that the citizens (narrators) use. Truly a fun book.

Challenging dialog well performed!

This story depicts a world evolved to deal with the challenges of future generations which the COVID virus has made current.
The diversity of human gendered and non-human characters is very well performed by the narrator.

Amazing

loved it, I have to admit I was thrown off by the conversation that was done like the Spacey texting you see nowadays, but fit extremely well. the distutopian society that J Bennett has created is well paste and fun to listen to.
I definitely will be giving the rest in the series and finding out where this Author leads us.
well worth the credits.

Good book to fall asleep

Slow and boring being the good points of this book.
Put it on when you're trying to sleep.