Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

14 reviews

emilywemily6's review

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

I still really enjoyed this book, but the major themes differed greatly from what I loved and what intrigued me in the first book. This book was less dark academia/Yale and secret society lore, which I missed. And while the plot had plenty to twists and turns, some parts were slow and I didn’t really see where the book was going. This book takes the series in a different direction than the first, and I’m not sure if I will like that direction as much as the first book. Though I’m excited to read more in the series and see how it goes!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Cursing, Violence, Torture, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Bullying, Gore, Death, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Kidnapping, Sexual content, and Body horror

Minor: Animal cruelty, Drug use, Animal death, and Medical content

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

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

chronicacademia's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Death of parent, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Addiction, Blood, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, and Racism

Minor: Alcohol, Cancer, Cannibalism, Medical content, Stalking, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

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

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

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

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

theotheleo's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Murder, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Violence, Cursing, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Torture, Child death, Racism, Blood, and Mental illness

Minor: Emotional abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Rape, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Death of parent, Suicide, Slavery, and Medical trauma

cady_sass's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

Struggling to put together the words to express my disappointment. The second installment lacks all of the dark academia, secret societies, and cult vibes that I loved about Ninth House. Of course they are still AT Yale, but there is little actual school content, there’s even less discussion about the actual Lethe work and the other 8 houses and the rituals, which is the content I want. 

The entirety of this novel is about Darlington, which, as I said in my review of Ninth House, we don’t know nearly enough about nor did we spend enough time with him in the first book to actually care about him. Everything else about the world they built falls away and the only thing that matters is finding Darlington and bringing him home, and the hell that comes along with it (pun intended). To that point, it’s completely nonsensical and out of character for any of these characters to care about Darlington too, except for Pam who is by far the best part of the whole book. Tucker has no reason to join them in their endeavors. The friend (I literally already forget his name) has no reason to risk his life here. ALEX has no real reason here either- they make a point, over and over again, to tell us how she feels nothing and everything she does is self serving. NONSENSE, all of it. 

I get that this might do it for some people but for me it’s a let down. I’m sorry, I just don’t care about Darlington. Give me more secret society shady dealings and unsanctioned rituals and detective work and leave the hell portals at home. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Death of parent, Murder, Death, Animal cruelty, Toxic friendship, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Vomit, Abandonment, Body horror, Classism, Kidnapping, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Misogyny

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

scripturient'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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Rape, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Death, Police brutality, Murder, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Animal death, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Misogyny, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, and Mental illness

Minor: Torture, Suicide, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, and Racism

Just basically ALL the trigger warnings.

laurenkimoto's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Rape, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death of parent, Violence, Drug abuse, Gore, and Gun violence

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Grief, Addiction, Alcohol, Colonisation, Hate crime, Self harm, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Gun violence, Medical content, Alcoholism, Gaslighting, and Racism