Reviews tagging 'Classism'

Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

48 reviews

sfdogmom's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

so good

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Classism, Animal death, Death of parent, Blood, and Misogyny

oxfordcommas91's review

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I really enjoyed the second installment of the Alex Stern series. It was once again packed with pulse pounding run ins with dark magic, complex relationships, and a plot to keep you on the edge of your seat, but was more sophisticated and succinct than its predecessor. The gift of not needing to do all the world building set up from the first book means that Alex and her cohort of darkly funny, talented co-conspirators could hit the ground running in a desperate attempt to bring golden boy of Lethe, Darlington, back from the underworld. The action in this one was unmatched and I thoroughly enjoyed getting a fuller picture of Dante, Oculus, and Centurion as they came up against their toughest battle yet. 
Hell Bent, like “Ninth House” once again warns us of the dangers of too much power concentrated in too few hands, but this time, it may be her protagonists who need the reminding. 
Gripping and fun, this one gets my first 5 star review of the year!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Toxic relationship, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Grief, Animal death, Drug use, Murder, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Police brutality, and Classism

Minor: Vomit

marg0tte1109's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Addiction, Sexism, Torture, Classism, Gore, Self harm, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Violence

frawst_disasta_reads's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

This is dark and full of tense but enthralling action and characters.

To me it was more enjoyable than NH.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Murder, Gore, Blood, Death, Classism, Violence, and Grief

Moderate: Misogyny, Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Addiction, Cancer, and Slavery

iamastraythought's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.5

God this book took me so long to read but it was incredibly good. It's just the kind of book that you have to sit down and really focus on to get going, and I don't usually have that kind of time. Hope there's a third, I love Alex dearly.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Classism

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

prairieraven's review

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Car accident, Gore, Addiction, Body horror, Gun violence, Murder, Racial slurs, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicide, Mental illness, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Eating disorder, Rape, Abandonment, Sexism, Slavery, Drug abuse, Hate crime, Sexual content, Violence, Cancer, Child death, Confinement, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Stalking, Torture, Vomit, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Classism, Cursing, Police brutality, Racism, and Toxic friendship

paduckling's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Blood, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Drug abuse, and Grief

Moderate: Mental illness, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Classism, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Forced institutionalization, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Police brutality, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Slavery, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, and Vomit

frantically's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Just like Alex and Daws in this book, Hell Bent felt a bit...lost without Darlington to help it along. 

I truly wish I could talk to Leigh Bardugo in 2019 and ask her what her plans for this series were because surely, it couldn't have been this. I don't know if it's the pandemic that hit her just as hard as it did the rest of us but this installment feels so disjointed from Ninth House. 

While we thankfully lose the false and overdone academic pretentiousness that so many dark academia novels bring with it (I'm sorry to destroy your dreams but I'm doing my history degree at one of the eldest unis in Europe and unless people have been hiding their dark pagan rituals from me, it's truly all not that deep), we also lose the fun that getting to know all the Societies and their own intricate histories was. While Lethe, and thus Alex, was very involved in the Societies' happenings in NH (...as they should be), we get close to none of that in the sequel which is really disappointing — why did I start making annotations in NH about all the Societies to keep them apart if it's all useless? 

But then sometimes it also feels like Bardugo used the basic dark academia tropes in NH to get us all invested so now she can bring out her fucked up version of Alice in Wonderland (complete with a rabbit!) into the world and if that's the case, respect to her. 

This book is very much character-focused ("but Hanna, you said it's plot-driven!" those are different things to me OK), we learn that — surprise! — Alex isn't the only one here with dark secrets and actually even "the good guys" like Turner (whom I absolutely loved in this book) have their own demons (sometimes literally...) to contend with. First, only Daws and Alex, then a bigger team of mischiefs, try to find a path into Hell on campus and I loved to see them figure all the clues out and how the history of the Societies was involved in it (at least some of my annotations were worth it!). 

There's another murder mystery that I (and the characters) honestly could've done without, faculty members dying with most everyone (even Alex and Turner) going "yeah that just seems like slightly weird but still regular murder :)" is what I want from my thrillers not from my Sci-Fi. 

Then, there were the trips into Hell, for which "trips" is honestly enough of a description. Just straight up wild. You can tell how much effort Bardugo has put into researching different religions and their descriptions of Hell/hell-esque realms/the afterlife and as a religious history nerd, I greatly enjoyed the more "theoretical" aspects of that and the discussions about it. What actually transpired in Hell is the fucked up Alice in Wonderland stuff I was talking about — just wait and see. 

Not to out myself once again as a white man's hoe but I have no shame in admitting that I'm mainly here for Darlington. Sorry but that man is exactly who I'd fall for (history nerd, you remember) and, not to spoil anything, but while Darlington may not be completely with Darlington 2.0, I, for one, am just loving him even more. 

While there's no explicit present romance, there are some surprisingly spicy thoughts from both Alex and Darlington (especially Darlington) about the other and I'm extremely ready to see where that goes. 

We get some more of Alex's "Lady of the Wheel" stuff (sorry, I listened in German!), not as much as I would've liked, especially because it was such a big revelation in NH, but after all, there was a guy to get back from hell, so I'll forgive it for now. 

I still love these characters dearly and even though it seems we're gonna keep going into weird territory with the ending, I'm still fascinated by the world as well, so even though this book was at times a mess and completely over the place, I will be warily looking forward to the next book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Police brutality, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Gore, Grief, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Sexism, Blood, Confinement, Death, and Death of parent

Minor: Self harm, Torture, Sexual assault, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Classism, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Rape, Slavery, and Suicide attempt

crownoflaurel's review

challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Classism, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death

maregred's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Death of parent, Addiction, Violence, Blood, Classism, and Death

Minor: Sexual assault