Our prompt for October is “a book featuring body horror" and we've chosen “Hench” by Natalie Zina Walschots.
About this month's book:
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 a 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.
About QWord:
QWord is a book group for local LGBTQIA people, run by QStory Northampton. We read and discuss literature with queer themes and/or written by LGBTQIA authors. The group was originally founded in 2011 and came under the QStory umbrella in 2021. We meet monthly and read a wide range of books, including novels, short stories, graphic novels and poetry, chosen by our members. New members are always welcome and you don’t need to be an experienced literary critic to come along!
You can sign up to get email reminders about QWord meetings as well as other QStory groups at the following link. Choose which emails you want to received and unsubscribe at any time: https://wordpress.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d354a1ff1dac1cc953f8e8354&id=3770c4a5a8&fbclid=IwAR1ISC6NokzmujFkrQpJgFRwGGV-po8-6lL4a3uigoPn9aiSEl3-6g0L6ek