Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

28 reviews

camiclarkbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

Yooooooooooooooooo!!!

I could not consume this story fast enough! Everything that happened had my mouth hanging open and going through the whole spectrum of emotions. 

Leigh Bardugo is a genius. 

How much longer until book three though???

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Death, and Violence

Minor: Drug abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Emotional abuse, Grief, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Drug use, and Police brutality

imaginaryalchemist's review

dark emotional 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? Yes

4.5

As soon as I finished Ninth House I knew I had to read the sequel, and it didn't disappoint!

One of my favorite aspects is the characters. They all play off each very well in my opinion. It's always entertaining to see Alex banter with everyone, I love how much of a smart ass she is. My favorite character would probably have to be Mercy, I'm glad she got more screen time and development in this novel.

I am curious to see how she handles everything moving forward, if she'll try to distance herself from Lethe and Alex.

I also enjoyed the murder mystery aspect, just like I did in Ninth House, and how it blended in with the overall story. I do wish the societies had played more of a role, they're very interesting and I'd like to know more about them.

I'll be eagerly awaiting the third installment in the Alex Stern series, and I plan on checking out Leigh Bardugo's YA series. I enjoy her writing style

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Grief, Sexism, Violence, Addiction, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Misogyny and Sexism

There are frequent mentions of rituals that often involve body horror. Murder is a major plot point. The main character's past, (which involves drugs, an abusive relationship, death, s*xual assault, forced institutionalization, and murder) is frequently brought up.

vagrantheather's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious fast-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

5.0

Dark, adventurous, grim, morally gray, loveable. The people are immaculate, the setting nostalgic, the writing clever. The senses of adventure and fear, the hope and grief and shame. The characters are thoroughly developed, deep, real. Their motives make sense.

I read Chai's 2 star review criticizing the lack of quiet moments for processing, and I get that. It probably could be a more powerful story if the pace relented for just a moment and let our dear Galaxy think. But it doesn't diminish my absolute delight over this book. Still a 5 star read from me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, and Animal death

Moderate: Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Minor: Police brutality and Adult/minor relationship

uncreativeoops's review

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

starweather's review

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

0.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Trafficking, Violence, Grief, Rape, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Antisemitism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Classism, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Police brutality, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Adult/minor relationship

badwaifu's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Animal death and Blood

Moderate: Sexual violence, Police brutality, Adult/minor relationship, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Death, Drug use, and Murder

martinatan's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Leigh Bardugo owns this ass

ok ok some thoughts that ran through my head, but not a cohesive review because I will always be too insane and biased about her writing to write something balanced:
- she strikes again with the calculated development of

unconventional and intense  romance! i swear that she makes an art of slipping in well-placed sentences that convey barely restrained emotional tension. I feel like similar to Kaz and Inej in the Crows duology, Alex and Darlington have such a specific set of neuroses that make them tragically terrible for each other but maybe even worse if they were to be paired with anyone else or left alone. Their dynamic is heartbreakingly good with a little sexual tension as a treat.

the rest of the plot was pretty good too.
- Also I am enjoying this crew becoming

more monstrous, as their world becomes increasingly hellish. There’s something inherently queer and found family-ish about a bunch of university age adults coming together over murder and blood magic. don’t @ me.

- She did a great job of introducing antagonists into the story and slowly revealing and resolving conflicts throughout. This is something that was done well in the first book and I was pleasantly surprised that it was still so satisfying and fresh in this one.
- I was similarly worried about attempting to replicate the mixed timeline format from the first book but it was just as effective, just made me wary at first because the opening to this series was such an immediate draw for me and to see it attempted again felt like she was setting myself up for disappointment. but it did NOT disappoint.
- I was also anticipating more backstory and development for characters introduced in the first book. This met my expectations and I found their histories to be really compelling, if not admirable or enviable.

I was so delighted by snippets of Dawes and Turner POVs, and I really hoped Dawes would become a more central perspective. This didn’t quite happen but I see a lot of room for that in the next book.

- The book deals with issues of race and exploitation in an okay way.

I think Turner’s story was important to tell, and his actions in the moment of his flashback made the most sense for a “sympathetic cop” character to me, but all the same, his decision to not leave the force even after this traumatic moment in his career feels maybe disingenuous to me? I wish there had been more follow up about how this moment affected him afterwards. In fact, his emotionlessness being sort of explained away as a defense mechanism or a technique he developed for professional settings does not bode well for me. A Black character, by a white author, written to have no emotions? In the face of an extremely painful and fucked up line of work that sees the death of a lot of Black people? I’m sure Bardugo did her best to deal with it, but I assume it’s near impossible to do justice to Turner’s storyline in her position. Still processing this.

That’s what I’ve observed and analyzed about the situation with regard to Bardugo writing a Black character in a low fantasy setting.

I could say more but I’m done ranting for now. This book truly thrilled me and I was happy to delve into this world again.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Body horror, Drug use, Hate crime, Misogyny, Murder, Violence, and Vomit

Minor: Classism, Confinement, Addiction, Alcohol, Cursing, Drug use, Sexism, Slavery, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Medical content, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Self harm

tanishah's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Animal cruelty, Grief, and Cursing

Minor: Slavery and Police brutality

aprilbethp's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Murder, Racism, Rape, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Biphobia, Body horror, Child abuse, Colonisation, Sexism, Animal death, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Police brutality, Slavery, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Death of parent, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, and Stalking

Minor: Violence, Trafficking, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

pinkyoshi's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Adult/minor relationship, Addiction, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Violence, Rape, Self harm, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, and Grief