Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

72 reviews

listette's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

I had a really hard time getting into this book and felt like the book is moving really slow at times.

Most of the action was at the final pages and I must say that hell was a bit of a letdown.

The characters are still so loveable and I’m looking forward for more

Vampire Tripp Shenanigans

Content Warnings

blissofalife's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging 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

As convoluted and detailed as the first! It all comes back around, and every little thing tied in. And I mostly followed all of it. Great character building and witty writing. Can’t wait for the next!

Content Warnings

morganish's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

Well, dear reader, I thoroughly enjoyed Hell Bent.

I don't typically have a lot of books that I anticipate, but I've been waiting for this one since I closed the pages on the last one. I hate that this is true, but it's actually pretty rare for me that I finish one book and then immediately feel the need to read the next (if it's available). So when it happens, it's just... a next-level positive reading experience for me. Ninth House gave me that, and I'm happy to report that, for the most part, Hell Bent did, too. This second entry in Leigh Bardugo's Alex Stern series finds our main protagonist building a tentative alliance with some familiar names (and dealing with some mysterious/dangerous subplots) as they work to figure out how to save fan-favorite Darlington from Hell.

What Worked For Me

The Pacing, and Balance of Plotlines: I honestly got so sucked in that I didn't take much time to smell the roses or do too much critical analysis. I just... enjoyed it. I liked almost all of the plotlines. Unlike Ninth House, where as much as I loved it, the main plot felt confusing and murky to me at times, and the book overall seemed just a bit overstuffed. Maybe it's just because I know the world better, or because the main plotline's stakes revolved around a character we actually know.

The Worldbuilding: I don't have anything especially grand to say, and I don't know that I think other people will love how the magic functions here, both literally or as metaphor. Magic is very much a metaphor for power here, a tool that is utilized to help the privileged accomplish their goals. There are some moments throughout the series of people doing casually horrific things tied to real-world brutality and exploitation. The metaphor at times becomes intentionally thin, so that you're not really looking at magic at all, just at people with power behaving in predictable yet awful ways, without much in the way of growth or clean justice. But I do like how Bardugo writes magic, as something that even the powerful don't really know how to use, but something they hoard. It works in a very academic sense, too; knowledge of ritual and language and incantation which builds upon itself. There's an interesting sense that magic (and knowledge) is meant to be safe, but that actually there are no rules, and no one is really in charge, but that there are a lot of scholars and rich people and bureaucrats that think if they establish organizations like the societies, they'll get a grasp on it. It also allowed magic and what exists in the sort of magical sphere to feel much, much bigger than the books suggest, but to show you very little of it; only what our protagonists care about pursuing, and what they accidentally interact with.

The Characters: I just like them! This isn't some sort of objective statement about how all characters should be like this (although I've made my feelings about a preference for protagonists like Alex Stern known in other reviews before). I just like them, they all worked well together, and they all felt realistically gray and flawed enough to feel three-dimensional and real, which is probably one of the things that helped me sink into the world so easily.

What I Have Mixed Feelings About

The Themework: This is complicated. I really do like, on certain levels, how the book casts an unflinching light on the way that wealth and academia can operate together, enabling hyper-privileged elites to do great harm in the world. Bardugo largely doesn't play at metaphor; she states directly into the text over and over and over that power and privilege harm the system and everyone standing downwind. But there are times the protagonists are in some ways the very people she's speaking about. She doesn't take them to task nearly as harshly, or she makes excuses for them because they have trauma in their pasts. (She does not state this directly. More it's implied by how the text treats those characters). The underprivileged characters never quite learn how to detach from the powerful umbrella they've suddenly found themselves under. And no one seems to really learn the "right" lessons about systemic privilege. Alex herself repeats over and over that the only good she knows is how to protect the people she cares about in her immediate sphere, and that there is no other morality. Because the book ends in a certain way, I'm not 100% sure there are going to be any future books. (Probably, but the ending seemed like it was left in a such a way that if there wasn't, it wouldn't be completely infuriating.) So it's unsure if the novel just leaves us there, with a bunch of characters who both seem to know the system is bad, but who still like Lethe and Yale and magic, still identify with it and see it as a kind of home. The reality is, IMHO, that none of these characters are quite ready to fully fight the system yet. And are actually in pretty real danger of simply being absorbed into it, whatever the narration may state to the contrary.

What Wasn't My Thing

Not Much! There were a couple of moments where my engagement (which was overall very high) stuttered out for a chapter or too. And I do think the story goes to a place around the last leg of the journey where my investment did wane a bit. But knowing other readers and what they liked from the first book, I think I'll be in the minority there.

Who This Is For/Content Warnings
The Alex Stern series really does earn the moniker "dark fantasy" in a more traditional, classic sense. Lots of really fucked up stuff happens, the characters absolutely morally gray (at times walking the knife's edge of believability). While there's sexual content and hints of romance, I'd say this isn't the kind of "dark fantasy" you see in the type of fantasy romance books for adults that are popular right now. It might have the same types of archetypes and tropes, but I'd say this leans a bit more toward the ASoIaF side of content - most of the violence (including sexual violence) exists in this series to highlight the themes. The grimdark elements here do NOT exist here as primarily tonal choices. The goal doesn't seem to be, at least to me, to shock or titillate the audience only for its own sake, or to create cheap stakes. There is theme work happening here. On the flip side, so far the way the dark elements work in this story have been what I would call expository, rather than conclusive. Which means, it's trying to draw stark, unflinching attention to the horrific realities of ivy league academia, not really in trying to offer solutions. If you like that (or can hang with it) and you like dark academia, urban fantasy, and/or a series with a lot of dangling mysteries/questions, jump right in. And if you're a fan of the first, I have a hard time imagining you not liking this one... unless the only thing you care about is Darlington being immediately returned to the real world on page 1.

Warnings for:

Multiple conversations referring to past sexual assault, short description of implied magical sexual assault (maybe inside the protagonist's head). Lots of gore and violence. Ghosts, and corpses in various unpleasant states. Police investigations and police characters, several scenes focused on racism within the police force, including the immediate aftermath of the murder of young Black man by police. Use of a magical artifact which had been used to hunt escaped slaves. Casual mentions of violence toward homeless people; a scene which takes place in a mental hospital, with other mentions of a past time in mental hospitals. Bullying of children, including one intense scene which almost leads to death. Bodily injury and blood rituals. Brief mentions of drug use and cravings. Murder is a major theme of this book, including by protagonist characters. High-ranking members of the military proactively plotting murder. Stealing and a pretty weird desecration of a foreign national's corpse. Graphic, prolific on-page nudity. Lol, at this point, I figure you get the picture; this is just probably not a great series for people with major triggers, or readers who prefer fluffier reading material.

Content Warnings

roobadger's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

cjladygoodman's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

Content Warnings

piratesandprophecy's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

i have but a few things to say:
1. book of the year. book of the fucking century. leigh threw her whole spookussy into this one.
2. i never expected to be willing to fight a goddamn adult hippopotamus, the most life-threateningly homicidal animal i know of, for tripp helmuth, but here were are.
3. if darlington and alex don’t get it on in the next book i’m suing. the level of mutual pining and horniness here breaks the scale.

Content Warnings

deedireads's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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? No

4.75

All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.

TL;DR REVIEW:

Hell Bent was an awesome sequel to Ninth House. I loved diving deeper into these characters and their relationships, all while happily along for the plot ride Leigh Bardugo is famous for.

For you if: You like dark fantasy/academia (and already read Ninth House).

FULL REVIEW:

Hell Bent is the long-awaited, much-anticipated sequel to Ninth House. It’s the second book in the Alex Stern trilogy (although until I read this book I totally thought this was a duology 😅) , an adult dark academia/fantasy series about Yale’s secret societies by our queen, Leigh Bardugo.

We knew from Ninth House that this was going to be a wild ride, and it definitely didn’t disappoint. No spoilers here, but I will say that the story picks up a few months after the last book ended. And whereas Ninth House was more of a world/character introduction by way of mystery (“what happened to Darlington?”), Hell Bent is all about deepening our relationship with those characters while we ride along on the unputdownable plot journey Leigh is famous for (“OK, so how do we save him?”).

I loved getting more time with our motley little crew: fierce but loving Mercy; soft but strong Dawes; moral but loyal Turner. I also felt like Alex kept her badass, unapologetic nature while also growing a bit more mature, but in a way that felt organic for us as we’ve gotten to know her. And of course, Leigh’s skill at using a non-linear timeline to keep us engaged and guessing without making things confusing was on full display.

So the good news is that this was totally worth the wait. But the even better news is that it doesn’t look like we’ll have to wait as long between books 2 and 3, because she’s already hard at work on the finale.

And finally, for those of you who’ve already read this, I’ll just say: glow sticks. #IYKYK.

Content Warnings