Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

48 reviews

chinaskye12's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death and Sexual assault

Minor: Self harm, Sexism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Suicide attempt

hopefully_purple's review against another edition

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

4.75

Brandon Sanderson has his famed “Sander-lanche” but there needs to be a term for Leigh Bardugo’s roller coaster. This is such an excellent part 2 of 3!! A lot of times part 2’s leave you with more questions than answers, kind of like a lull in the story that’s just meant to be a set up for the main event in part 3. But Hellbent does not feel like that at all. It grips you just like Ninth House, and the mystery is just as multi-layered. If you liked Ninth House, 10/10 you will love Hellbent. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Death, Misogyny, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Self harm and Suicide attempt

blissofalife's review against another edition

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!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing

Minor: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Slavery, Police brutality, and Stalking

helenferg'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: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Blood

Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

sevenmotions's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm

taryn_reads_b00ks'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? Yes

4.5

   4.4/5
What a ride!- I enjoyed it quite a lot. Alex Stern and Darlington literally own my ass lol. Hell Bent not only holds up the first one in this series, but smartly builds upon its exposition-heavy predecessor in a satisfying way that strengthens the characters, and fleshes them out. Bardugo impresses in the way that she is able to propel the character-driven narrative forward while maintaining a careful balance: engaging in fantasy world-building while simultaneously reigning in the story- never allowing it to become trite or to lose a sense of direction.

Biggest obvious complaint: still no s3x scene (wuhwah)…. to the point in which it is actually glaringly strange that that none of these college kids are getting it on?!?!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Self harm, Violence, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Racism, Rape, and Sexual assault

martinatan's review against another edition

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

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

booksandteatime's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Death, Gore, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Blood, Vomit, and Suicide attempt

sauvageloup's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

4.0

while slow to get started, hugely enjoyed this, especially after half way

pros:
- the ingenuity and originality of the magical system is fab, I love the dark rituals and magic that the societies come up with.
- the plot is intricate and intriguing, with plot twists, but theres always hints that the reader can spot afterwards

like with Michelle wearing turtlenecks to show shes in league with the vampire, and Anselm suddenly changing personality because hes possessed. they were both clear but subtle and I didnt see it till after the reveal

- I do really like the characters, they're all so different and their own people, Alex, Darlington, Turner, Dawes and Mercy, but also all the side characters have their own motivations 
- the writing is very good, with some rly vivid imagery and turns of phrase that I wish I'd marked
- I love the extremely grey morality in how we have a lot of compassion for Alex, but she is a dark soldier of a character and so is Darlington. that's never minimalised and actually takes front stage in the book.
- the setting is basically a character itself and while I didnt really fall in love with it, I still appreciated the research and beauty of it all
- I also liked how it didnt shy away from linking magical exploitation to real life, like with the runaway slaves map, and how it was never brushed aside. it showed the dark side of the magical and wealthy.

cons:
- it's a dense book, with a lot of time switches near the start, which threw me. keeping track of characters can be tricky and I definitely needed the summary of the 1st bk to remember a lot of things. the complexity if the book all comes together near the end but it takes some getting your head round and was partly why it took me a longer time to read.
- I do kind of wish the series had started at a different point. leigh mentioned it might have been a much longer series and I kind of wish we'd seen the events with hellie and Alex's introduction to lethe by Darlington first hand, rather than in erratic flashbacks. it was hard to feel very invested in Darlington's return for a lot of it because we dont get to view himself ourselves, only through glimpses through Alex.
- sometimes things happened in the plot that felt a bit random, too much out of nowhere.

like when they got the tattoos of the salt animals that would repeatedly save their lives, it was just snuck in there as a little ritual they did like on a whim. why didnt they do some more protection earlier on? while some plot points came together nicely, sometimes it did feel kind of episodic and thrown from one plot point to the next, rather than a tightly woven web. but that also sort of fits the chaos of Alex's character so idk

 

but overall I did really like it, especially the badass last scene and I very much want to read the next one. (it was also amazing to meet and see leigh talk, would do that again also)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Addiction, Racism, Self harm, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol

focus on animal death and violence in one graphic scene. the self harm is to do with cutting an arm for a magical ritual the suicide attempt/thoughts are a brief mention by a side character but do come up a couple times

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

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