Hench

I went into this book wanting to root for the bad guy, but ended up cheering for no one. The good, the bad, and everyone in between seemed like shadow characters, doing what they were expected to do, with no true motivation.

The gang of henches believes that being on the anti-hero's team is a more honest living, and fighting in the name of good and morality is just delusional. Even if Anna supposedly has math and spreadsheets to back up her argument, it doesn't hold up to scrutiny. She, herself, is the cause of pain, destruction, and damage, but she isn't accountable for it in her mind. 

There is a lot of telling, and not a lot of showing. Case in point, there are multiple ways in which the author creates once-removed ways of telling the story, instead of bringing us into the action (e.g. the reporter angle, the surveillance “eggs”). The author really leans into the cartoon-y evil caricatures: I mean, most of Anna's relationships are built on evil giggles.

The best way I can describe the reading experience is that the author was trying to be theatrical and over-the-top funny / scathing / witty - but I either had to (metaphorically) force my laughter, or I didn't laugh at all .