Reviews with content warning for Police brutality - Hell Bent

TLDR; 2 rating, Bardugo somehow included more racist stereotypes, and this is more dark contemporary fantasy than dark academia.
Content warnings at the bottom. :)

Once again, I don’t like authors writing outside of their lane. And not only is Alex a racist stereotype, but also Detective Turner.

Per my last review, there’s been a ton of criticism about Leigh Bardugo, a white person, writing from the perspective of a Latina woman, and now in the sequel she’s written in the perspective of a Black cop. And not only is Det. Turner a Black cop in the wake of everything that has happened between 2019 (when Ninth House was published) and now (read: police shootings [sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_killings_by_law_enforcement_officers_in_the_United_States, https://www.statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-death-by-us-police-by-race/]), but he’s

a cop that has murdered his white partner, albeit a racist man.

And it’s incredibly ironic considering Bardugo specifically has a scene where

Det. Turner and Alex use a table to track down a murderer for their ritual and he demands they break the table becuase of its origins to track down escaped slaves DESPITE THE FACT that the police as an institution in America were created to track down escaped slaves [source: https://naacp.org/find-resources/history-explained/origins-modern-day-policing#:~:text=The%20origins%20of%20modern%2Dday,runaway%20slaves%20to%20their%20owners.] but I digress.

Another gripe, this one much smaller after the major dislike reason, is the part

with the rabbit.

My running theory is that Bardugo mentioned the rabbit much earlier than it was in the final draft and moved it around, but no one caught it so it just reads like the reader missed something, when in fact they were never given the information about Babbit Rabbit in the first place to miss.

I don’t think I’m going to waste my time or money on another one of the books in this series. If I desperately need to know how

Alex and gang defeat the big bad vampire demon things,

I’ll google it.

Rating: 2
Would I recommend? No. I refuse to recommend books I disagree with on a morality issue.

Content warnings: Death, Violence, Murder, Racism, Blood, Vomit, Police Brutality, Animal Death (on page), Drug Abuse, Drug Use, Overdose, Suicide Attempt, Slavery (discussed), Sexual Assault/Rape (from last book, discussed)

Content Warnings

plantgal_jill's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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mlewis's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious sad tense medium-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

Content Warnings

molly_storm's review

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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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gillianengelbrecht's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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

4.5

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shays's review against another edition

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adventurous dark slow-paced

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

3.75

In Hell Bent, Leigh Bardugo employs a non-linear narrative structure similar to Ninth House; we get a glimpse into a moment of crisis before returning to the beginning of the school year and learning how Alex came to that critical point. The story is told predominantly from Alex’s point of view, but with additional sections from the other characters. In particular, on the descent to hell, we see from the perspective of each of the four pilgrims the murder that qualifies them to descend, deepening our insights into the secondary characters. The not-quite-human Darlington also gets a stint in the second half.

Full review: https://shayshortt.com/2023/02/21/hell-bent/

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suchsweetsorrow89's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

3.5 really, but I thought the book was fun so it gets bumped a star. overall, compared to her last, I think this one is slightly better in the sense that I felt there were fewer random/unnecessary moments than in the first book (especially in moments that deal with heavy gender-based cases of abuse and assault). however, one of the negatives is the pacing of the book. I often found that the descriptions were a bit heavy at times and I felt that there was not as much connection and genuine interactions with the characters as there was in the first book, so the chemistry, while not feeling forced, just fell flat.

there are some specific things within this that I will spoil below, but all in all, I think this is a really fun read when you're looking to pass the time. in addition, I think the serious moments and reflections in this book are really stunning and you can tell how much leigh as evolved as a writer, philosopher, and world-builder.

- I would have liked to see more of dawes' backstory! while alex's story is special, it's also the story we have heard before. I thought one of the strongest aspects of ninth house was darlington's story, and I would have loved something similar for dawes, especially since she plays a more prominent role.

- on that note on darlington, I wish there were more of him. while I understand that's the 'point', I thought he fell way flatter than usual in his own thoughts and in his interactions with everyone after being rescued. it really did feel like he took more of a secondary/unnecessary role after his rescue, and it left me feeling uncomfortable in the wrong way (almost like it was defamation to all that his character was built up to be in the first book). I'm also not really buying that he would just surrender to alex, to his role, and to lethe as easily as he did.

- the twist was... just fine. maybe it's because I'm older, but I thought that this twist was a bit more expected than the first and just was not a page-turner in the way the other was.

- unfortunately, the ending did not make me really excited for the third book, since this new plotline just felt like a weird grab all while the one for the first book just made more sense? idk idk

Content Warnings

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark 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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