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frantically's review against another edition
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Sexism, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Drug abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
margauxjpg's review against another edition
dark
emotional
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Blood
Moderate: Racism and Sexual content
littlekingleo's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
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
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Racism, Suicide, and Violence
Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, and Torture
wayside's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
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? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, and Drug use
Minor: Racism, Rape, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Classism
emmanating's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death and Drug abuse
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Addiction, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Racism, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, and Suicide attempt
frushhan's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
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
4.75
I LOVED this book. In my opinion it’s better than Ninth House because there’s not as much world building and you get to actually know the characters. There’s a lot more happening and you finally get to meet people from others pasts as well as main characters. I was weirded out by the vampire/touch on fantasy but overall a great book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Drug abuse, and Murder
Moderate: Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, and Police brutality
cj_tatertott's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
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? It's complicated
4.75
Absolutely loved this book and can’t wait for the next one! I’m excited to see what the Lethe gang gets up to next!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Police brutality and Murder
Moderate: Death
Minor: Drug abuse and Racism
eyvina's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
i couldnt put the book away, even if there were some flaws. was a great moment
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Addiction, Racism, and Vomit
Minor: Suicide attempt
risaleel's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
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? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Torture, Violence, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Police brutality, and Injury/Injury detail
maddiereadswords's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-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
1.5
Well, I liked this one better than the first one, so that's not nothing. I will say I think the pacing is WAY better in this one; it didn't feel like I had to slog through half the book to get to the plot, but the flip side of that is that there was SO MUCH going on in this one that it was almost too much. There's literally an entire side plot that makes absolutely no sense if you think about it for a second longer than Alex does, but then at the end, surprise! Turns out it's just a loophole to fix a problem that didn't actually have to exist (or that at least could have been solved more creatively, because this fully just felt so lazy to me, not gonna lie.)
Some of the characters are marginally less flat than in the first book--specifically Turner, Mercy, and Tripp--but Alex, Dawes, and especially Darlington still are absolutely not working for me. Also the beginnings of a romance getting shoehorned in at the end is just...sure, this might as well happen I guess.
At the very least, this book didn't make me as actively angry as the first one; I was mostly just bored and annoyed with all of the characters and with Leigh herself. Like I said with the first book, her prose isn't bad, and I think this one did a marginally better job at actually saying something than the first one did, but it still was not for me. If I hadn't been bullied into reading these books by my sibling I absolutely would have DNFed. I'm glad other people can enjoy them, but they are absolutely not for me. (That being said I will be reading the third one when it comes out because I love to be a hater. ✌ Maybe she'll surprise me and stick the landing, but I'm not counting on it.)
Some of the characters are marginally less flat than in the first book--specifically Turner, Mercy, and Tripp--but Alex, Dawes, and especially Darlington still are absolutely not working for me. Also the beginnings of a romance getting shoehorned in at the end is just...sure, this might as well happen I guess.
At the very least, this book didn't make me as actively angry as the first one; I was mostly just bored and annoyed with all of the characters and with Leigh herself. Like I said with the first book, her prose isn't bad, and I think this one did a marginally better job at actually saying something than the first one did, but it still was not for me. If I hadn't been bullied into reading these books by my sibling I absolutely would have DNFed. I'm glad other people can enjoy them, but they are absolutely not for me. (That being said I will be reading the third one when it comes out because I love to be a hater. ✌ Maybe she'll surprise me and stick the landing, but I'm not counting on it.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Racism, Violence, Blood, and Murder