Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

71 reviews

hippievamp's review

dark funny mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Police brutality, Racism, Blood, Murder, Confinement, Death, Gore, Grief, Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, and Classism

Moderate: Drug use, Cancer, Fire/Fire injury, Stalking, Bullying, Gun violence, and Medical content

Minor: Chronic illness, Medical content, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Rape

raptorq's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Misogyny, Death, Confinement, and Animal death

Moderate: Alcohol

Minor: Drug use, Adult/minor relationship, and Rape

folkofthebook's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective 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

“Galaxy Stern,” Darlington said, his eyes flashing gold, “I have been crying out to you from the start.”

nothing makes me happier than when the second book lives up to the first book. and when it's even better?? 😩🤌🏼

“But I like this life better.”
“Better than what?”
“Better than what I was living before. Better than a world without magic.”

this is one of those series i read and can't help but feel envious of both the characters and the author. the characters for getting to live this life, and the author for having been able to dream it up.

“Life is cruel. Magic is real. And I’m not ready to die.”

one character that i really came to adore was mercy. i feel like she was all of us readers, wishing so badly to find a way in to live magic and leave the real world behind. tripp was also a very endearing character who brought some lighthearted comic relief in as well. i did not care for hellie after this book, esp bc the babbit rabbit story.

“Fuck off.”
“I did miss you, Stern.”

the agonizing slowburn of alex & darlington is SO DELICIOUS oh my god i just know the pay off is going to be well worth it.

“Come on, Darlington,” she said. “Let's give them hell.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent, Animal death, and Grief

Minor: Rape, Classism, Suicidal thoughts, Misogyny, Vomit, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Forced institutionalization

saucy_bookdragon's review

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

4.0

Hell Bent is an absolutely wild sequel to Ninth House, so much so there's literally a glowing demon dick and its just a minor thing. It's not even for smut its just there!

In this sequel, the crew is trying to figure out how to get into hell. Its an overall improvement on the first book! Its got a more intriguing and unhinged plot, Alex and the side characters have a lot more personality and development, and this is more solidly dark academia (especially with a focus on mythology and theology, we also finally find out what Alex is majoring in it's English). And where I found Ninth House to have inconsistent pacing and a disappointing answer to the mystery, I was m0re engaged with Hell Bent and the ending had me gagged!

Though I do wish this had addressed some of the other problems from book one. In particular, Alex still has some stereotypes tied to her Latina identity and Hellie is still not a character outside of Alex's own trauma. Though this book doesn't make these problems worse, it could have improved them.

Also Alex and Dawes are definitely in love I don't care if Darlington is also in love with Alex and probably endgame Dawes has more chemistry.

TWs: this book is about the same level of triggering as the first one, a little less so actually since there isn't any on page sexual assault. That said, there is a scene with animal death (a rabbit) that was gory and difficult to read. Other TWs are violence, gore, death, horror elements, murder, drug use, mentions of racism including slavery and police brutality, misogyny, spiders. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Murder, Death, and Animal death

Moderate: Racism, Misogyny, Drug use, and Drug abuse

Minor: Sexual assault

lancemama's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Grief, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Addiction, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Drug abuse, Death, Gore, Murder, Colonisation, and Violence

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

Minor: Death of parent, Gaslighting, Fire/Fire injury, Drug use, and Forced institutionalization

jacksons_books_and_music's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-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

I was told Hell Bent had better representation than Ninth House, but I’m not sure that’s true. Like in Ninth House, there were clear attempts to call out racism. In the acknowledgements is even a book recommendation on Yale’s racist history. But unfortunately, there were also moments in Hell Bent that were offensive, regardless of intent. Info about a particularly offensive moment is at the end of the review, under “Slight spoiler.”

At first, I thought I liked the story of Ninth House better than Hell Bent. But after thinking about it, I’m not sure that’s the case. It’s still a very well-written book.

I felt certain reveals weren’t set up as well as the reveals in Ninth House, even though they were set up well overall. I enjoyed the villains in Ninth House more, even though these ones were still engaging. 

I love a lot of the characters and enjoyed getting to see more of their backstories and growth. That’s where the book really shone for me. There were many exciting, engaging, and emotional scenes. There was a moment when characters are trying to cover up something they did that had me laughing out loud. The friendships and teamwork were beautiful!

I don’t want to spoil these moments by listing them. But I definitely look forward to the next book in the series!

Slight spoiler:

This was not a big part of the plot, hence why I still gave this book a high rating, but it’s still a big problem. 

I thought the protector symbol for Turner, the only major character who is Black, should have been different.  I understand the author might not have wanted to compare the only Black character to an animal, but all the other characters had animal protectors. So, it was weird when Turner was the only one who didn’t. 

I thought it was disrespectful to use an oak as his symbol, given the violence that involves trees that has historically been committed against Black people in the U.S. I get Bardugo wanted to use something strong and dependable, like a “mighty oak.” But it just doesn’t work and is actually really offensive. I wish she had realized this or someone had pointed this out to her prior to publication. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Grief, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Cursing, Death, Blood, and Violence

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Sexism, Misogyny, Gun violence, and Vomit

Minor: Abandonment, Suicide attempt, Adult/minor relationship, Slavery, Drug use, Sexual violence, Rape, and Sexual assault

joensign's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Murder, and Stalking

Moderate: Gun violence, Animal death, Misogyny, Animal cruelty, Rape, Sexual violence, and Racism

Minor: Abandonment, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, and Confinement

raintje's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Misogyny, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Blood, Murder, Death, Grief, Gun violence, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Police brutality

ajs501's review

adventurous dark emotional 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Physical abuse, Murder, Blood, Violence, Rape, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Gore, and Death

Minor: Self harm

adrienreads's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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

One of my favorite Bardugo books so far - incredible read, I loved it more than the first in its series. 

This book is dark, but if the first book was too explicit/intense for you, this one definitely felt "lighter", more-or-less. Still dark and horrific, but there was far less (on-screen at least) sexual violence, and overall I had a much easier time with this one. Again, still not "light reading" by any means, but worth noting. 

If you've loved Bardugo's other books, this one scratches that same itch, and more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Physical abuse, Classism, Death, Domestic abuse, Murder, Addiction, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Drug abuse, Gore, Grief, Police brutality, and Death of parent

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Trafficking, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, and Child death

Minor: Slavery, Misogyny, and Racism