Reviews tagging 'Stalking'

Wer die Hölle kennt by Leigh Bardugo

29 reviews

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

beebeewin's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.75

Once again Leigh Bardugo killed it with this novel! I loved how this novel built the world of magic at Yale out, with the magic extending beyond what we learned last time. That meant the story was kept fresh as I still felt like there were all these mysteries that needed to be unfolded. Also, I appreciate that some of the mysteries are still yet to be solved. It was very interesting to learn more about all the characters and it really deepened my understanding of their motives and personalities.

I will say my one fault with the novel is I felt like Michelle was the one character I didn't learn anything about before her death.

I don't know if this will be something rectified in later novels, but I wanted to hear more of her story. Overall, the plot was interesting with how all the parts weaved together and the charcters relationships felt like they developed beautifullly. It will be interesting to see how the relationships and lingering plot poonts from this novel feed into the next. This novel was a perfect addition to the last one and I didn't want to stop reading at all. I am so excited for the next novel as I want to see how everything plays out. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Stalking, and Murder

Moderate: Police brutality, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexism

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

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: Addiction and Sexual assault

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

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

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, Death, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Stalking

black_cat_iiix's review against another edition

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

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

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

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

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

britreadsbooks_'s review against another edition

dark hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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Content Warnings

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

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

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