Reviews with content warning for Racism - Hell Bent

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Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

106 reviews

enyltiak'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

As with the Grishaverse, I find myself so comfortably tucked into Alex's world—of Yale, of Lethe, and of magic. I'm brokenhearted to have to leave it. These books are a new favorite, a perfect read for anyone who enjoys magic, mystery, and darkness. This book had me gasping aloud, crying, slamming it shut in anxiety, and jumping up and down at clever steps and reveals. A masterpiece of modern fantasy and a must-read for any "dark academia" lovers. <3

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romiress's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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

4.0

I liked this more then the last one, and for me there was less dissonance over it being a weird RPF variant. The pacing was good, the characters were solid, and it pulled no punches.

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lynkera's review against another edition

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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

Hellbent is a fantastic example of a second novel being better than the first. The characters get more complex, the magic gets bigger, and my need to give Galaxy Stern a big hug increased 10 fold.

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prairieraven's review against another edition

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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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paduckling's review against another edition

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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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frantically's review against another edition

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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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