Reviews with content warning for Slavery - Hell Bent

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Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

124 reviews

_likethefruit's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective 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

As a sequel to Ninth House, Hell Bent is a fantastic book with an epic adventure to hell. Unfortunately, the epic level of this journey is so complex, and loaded with so much history and context, that the book is sometimes an information overload. I kept wondering if I missed too many details from the previous book, but in reality, the author was dropping more world building so casually that it felt pre-established. This made the book a little harder to read, but the adventure was totally worth it. Total book hangover after this one!

Content Warnings

constancet's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Content Warnings

simplykatherina's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous challenging 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: Complicated

Once again I want to travel to Yale solely to see the architecture described in this book. I felt like we got really good character development from everyone in this story, and I connected with Alex way more in this book than in the first one. I also really enjoyed the snippets taken out of diaries and catalogues that were sprinkled throughout the book because they actually related to the story and weren’t used solely for world building purposes.

This book had the ability to be dark and creepy without feeling overwhelmingly so, which I really appreciated. I felt that the pacing really worked in this book, and even though it took a while to get to the crux of the story it didn’t feel like anything was unnecessary along the way.

I definitely thought that this was a duology so I feel a little bamboozled by that, but I’m anxiously awaiting book #3 now!

Content Warnings

leexpen's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous dark mysterious sad 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

📝 SYNOPSIS:
I love you to Hell and back. Immersed in a world of occult magic, Alex vows to return her mentor from Hell with the help of her friends and a magical gift that is hers alone.
👩‍🏫⛪️👻📜💀🐇😈🧛‍♂️🎩

👍🏻 RECOMMENDATION:
💚 READ it!

💬 FAVORITE QUOTES:
[PENDING]

👓 FORMAT:
🎧

📑 COMMENTS:
• Um, this is a sequel? LOL I jumped in here, and it works fine.
• In the contemporary fantasy setting, Bardugo captures the dark academic aesthetic well. When it comes to the real-life setting, the northeast and California are believable (but I haven't spent enough time in Connecticut specifically to judge that). The magic system is convoluted, but the loose logic does fall apart at the end.
• The characters are complex, three-dimensional, and flawed. Their races and genders influence them in meaningful ways. Some are more lovable than others, but they are all understandable. Mercy & Turner are my personal favorites! The antagonists are rounded, too.
• Apt imagery and metaphors flow into the prose. There's plenty to dissect if that's your thing. (It's mine!) I'd love to see it on the page, particulaely to see the tome excerpts.
• Why did they switch audiobook narrators so late into the story? It was jarring, and it pulled me out of the story! The character's voice is defined, but I also hate it. It adds nothing to the story. Overall, Part Two lags.

Content Warnings

itsheyfay's review against another edition

4.75

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: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

emkawe's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark funny mysterious sad 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: Complicated

Content Warnings

paula357's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Content Warnings

jacksons_books_and_music's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional tense 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: Complicated

I was told Hell Bent had better representation than Ninth House, but I’m not sure that’s true. Like in Ninth House, there were clear attempts to call out racism. In the acknowledgements is even a book recommendation on Yale’s racist history. But unfortunately, there were also moments in Hell Bent that were offensive, regardless of intent. Info about a particularly offensive moment is at the end of the review, under “Slight spoiler.”

At first, I thought I liked the story of Ninth House better than Hell Bent. But after thinking about it, I’m not sure that’s the case. It’s still a very well-written book.

I felt certain reveals weren’t set up as well as the reveals in Ninth House, even though they were set up well overall. I enjoyed the villains in Ninth House more, even though these ones were still engaging.

I love a lot of the characters and enjoyed getting to see more of their backstories and growth. That’s where the book really shone for me. There were many exciting, engaging, and emotional scenes. There was a moment when characters are trying to cover up something they did that had me laughing out loud. The friendships and teamwork were beautiful!

I don’t want to spoil these moments by listing them. But I definitely look forward to the next book in the series!

Slight spoiler:

This was not a big part of the plot, hence why I still gave this book a high rating, but it’s still a big problem.

I thought the protector symbol for Turner, the only major character who is Black, should have been different. I understand the author might not have wanted to compare the only Black character to an animal, but all the other characters had animal protectors. So, it was weird when Turner was the only one who didn’t.

I thought it was disrespectful to use an oak as his symbol, given the violence that involves trees that has historically been committed against Black people in the U.S. I get Bardugo wanted to use something strong and dependable, like a “mighty oak.” But it just doesn’t work and is actually really offensive. I wish she had realized this or someone had pointed this out to her prior to publication.

Content Warnings

lizethsreads's review against another edition

4.0

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I think the thing I love the most about this book is the fact that Alex is a morally grey character. I truly feel like Ninth house did a really good job of weeding out the public for this series, because I thoroughly enjoyed the first book and this one was just as enjoyable if not more. Darlington was just the perfect character to contrast Alex. I absolutely love Leigh Bardugo's writing. She's queen of bringing her stories to life. Can't wait for book 3.

Content Warnings

katemarie99's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional funny sad tense fast-paced

Was considering a 4.5 at first but no -- it deserves the whole five. That destroyed me 🙃🙃🙃

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