Reviews tagging 'Stalking'

Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

27 reviews

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: 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

laurenmahoney25's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.0

This was a fantastic sequel, and I’m really excited to see where the next one goes. I was so happy to get more POV of Dawes and Turner, and to see Alex and Darlington interact. I’m so interested to see their relationship evolve, and

the way post-Hell Demon Darlington is absolutely feral for Alex had be obsessed

. I didn’t love this one quite as much as ninth house, as it was very different in tone and theme. I missed some of the dark academia elements and the ties to the real world. Still a great sequel worth the wait! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Grief and Stalking

Minor: Sexual assault and Addiction

meliemelo's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

It's hard to follow up a masterpiece such as Ninth House, and I get the feeling that Hell Bent might have been difficult to read. I found the pace a bit lacking at the start, but it does catch up towards the end of the book, and I preferred the second half overall.

Even though it didn't quite captivate me in the same way Ninth House had (and I had just reread it), I did thoroughly enjoy Hell Bent, and was delighted to get all the characters back. There are some great ideas in there, and I like the way the universe gets expanded, although I felt this same expansion could have been explored a bit more. As I already mentioned, I especially enjoyed the last part, and am looking forward to seeing where it'll go from there.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Death, Death of parent, Violence, Sexual content, Child abuse, Gore, Bullying, Grief, Physical abuse, Rape, Blood, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Stalking, Murder, and Gun violence

Moderate: Confinement, Vomit, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, and Misogyny

savvylit's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

Hell Bent disappointed me. Where Ninth House was an engaging and character-driven fantasy/mystery, Hell Bent was not. Perhaps it's unfair to expect a sequel to match its predecessor, but I really had hoped for more.

Hell Bent had practically zero character development. Granted, readers do already know the whole cast from the first book. However, that doesn't make following the adventures of incredibly two-dimensional people enjoyable. One of the most interesting characters in this series is Darlington. He ultimately barely says or does anything in Hell Bent, which I found frustrating. I would love to know more about Darlington. I also desperately want him and Alex to acknowledge their attraction to one another.

Lastly, what is with the plot of this novel? It's absolutely all over the place. Readers are taken on a disjointed journey from Yale to Hell and Yale to Hell. Meanwhile, there's a new professor leading Lethe and some murders have occurred on campus. AND Alex is a bounty hunter for her former drug dealer/enemy Eitan. The inclusion of Eitan drove me nuts! That entire subplot felt like it was just included to make the final scenes go smoothly (IYKYK).

All in all, this sequel left me wishing that Ninth House was a standalone.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Violence, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Stalking, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

black_cat_iiix's review

adventurous 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Classism, Blood, Body horror, Sexism, and Animal death

Minor: Torture, Panic attacks/disorders, Gun violence, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Suicide attempt, Stalking, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Racism, Misogyny, Medical trauma, and Murder

aprilbethp's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Murder, Racism, Rape, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Biphobia, Body horror, Child abuse, Colonisation, Sexism, Animal death, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Police brutality, Slavery, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Death of parent, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, and Stalking

Minor: Violence, Trafficking, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

britreadsbooks_'s review against another edition

dark hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, Sexism, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, and Stalking

Moderate: Drug use, Colonisation, Gun violence, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Sexual assault, Vomit, Animal cruelty, Racism, Slavery, Animal death, Ableism, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt