Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

172 reviews

msradiosilence's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

TLDR; 2 rating, Bardugo somehow included more racist stereotypes, and this is more dark contemporary fantasy than dark academia.
Content warnings at the bottom. :)

Once again, I don’t like authors writing outside of their lane. And not only is Alex a racist stereotype, but also Detective Turner.

Per my last review, there’s been a ton of criticism about Leigh Bardugo, a white person, writing from the perspective of a Latina woman, and now in the sequel she’s written in the perspective of a Black cop. And not only is Det. Turner a Black cop in the wake of everything that has happened between 2019 (when Ninth House was published) and now (read: police shootings [sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_killings_by_law_enforcement_officers_in_the_United_States, https://www.statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-death-by-us-police-by-race/]), but he’s

a cop that has murdered his white partner, albeit a racist man.

And it’s incredibly ironic considering Bardugo specifically has a scene where

Det. Turner and Alex use a table to track down a murderer for their ritual and he demands they break the table becuase of its origins to track down escaped slaves DESPITE THE FACT that the police as an institution in America were created to track down escaped slaves [source: https://naacp.org/find-resources/history-explained/origins-modern-day-policing#:~:text=The%20origins%20of%20modern%2Dday,runaway%20slaves%20to%20their%20owners.] but I digress.

Another gripe, this one much smaller after the major dislike reason, is the part

with the rabbit.

My running theory is that Bardugo mentioned the rabbit much earlier than it was in the final draft and moved it around, but no one caught it so it just reads like the reader missed something, when in fact they were never given the information about Babbit Rabbit in the first place to miss.

I don’t think I’m going to waste my time or money on another one of the books in this series. If I desperately need to know how

Alex and gang defeat the big bad vampire demon things,

I’ll google it.

Rating: 2
Would I recommend? No. I refuse to recommend books I disagree with on a morality issue. 

Content warnings: Death, Violence, Murder, Racism, Blood, Vomit, Police Brutality, Animal Death (on page), Drug Abuse, Drug Use, Overdose, Suicide Attempt, Slavery (discussed), Sexual Assault/Rape (from last book, discussed)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Suicide attempt, and Murder

amberlfaris's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Murder

Moderate: Drug abuse

Minor: Vomit

mae_dexter_author's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny hopeful informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racism, Toxic relationship, Blood, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

kattybusiness's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Stalking, and Sexual harassment

plantgal_jill's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Drug abuse, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape, Torture, Vomit, Police brutality, and Suicide attempt

mlewis's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Blood, and Grief

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, and Stalking

Minor: Slavery

molly_storm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I put off listening to Hell Bent for ages after getting it on Audible, because I figured I would really need to focus on it - the time skips in Ninth House had really baffled me at first but by the end everything made sense so I figured this one would be the same. 

I was definitely not disappointed in the plot! Three nights in a row, I stayed up past 4am listening to this audiobook after going to bed. It flows beautifully - I know a lot of people have said that it’s too fast or feels rushed but I disagree wholeheartedly. 

I’m excited for the story to continue in the 3rd one!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Toxic relationship, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Blood, Police brutality, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, and Classism

By and large, the above triggers I feel are present are handled appropriately and are not there for gratuitous reasons.

marinaaurelia's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Stalking, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Vomit

frankieclc's review against another edition

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Blood, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Rape

chinaskye12's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death and Sexual assault

Minor: Self harm, Sexism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Suicide attempt