Reviews

Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

Only show reviews with written explanations

lilymeibean's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

another addition to the alex stern series and i’m not sure how entirely to feel about it — the book picked up near the end but i feel like it’s drifting further and further away from dark academia and into a newer magic-centric world (which there’s nothing wrong with — but it’s very different from how the first was set up).

the story starts off pretty slow in this book till about the 60% mark and then it races to the end — which has its ups and downs, thank you

darlington

for providing us with your too-few witty remarks <3 there were a few time-skip moments that didn’t weave together as seamlessly as i’ve seen done before, they felt a bit repetitive at times. the plot twists did in fact catch me a little by surprise which was nice! i’ll probably stick with the series moving forward just to see where it goes but it def has a few weaknesses i hope won’t evolve in the next addition!

Content Warnings

jcsimbok's review

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dark hopeful tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This was a very solid sequel book. I really appreciate how much historical facts/myths Bardugo plays off of. This book/series very much blends the lines between good/evil. Alex is a survivor so she does what she needs to survive, but when she is loyal, she is LOYAL. So, I appreciate the development of her character figuring herself out. I will say, the magic gets a bit confusing. Maybe I just needed to slow down while I was reading, but I feel like I would benefit from a second read to catch everything I missed. Solid sequel, nothing too crazy. I'm worried that she is going to draw out the story too much with the third book, but we will see whenever that may be.

kaishi01's review against another edition

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5.0

absolutely feral right now for alex and darlington. screaming bc i need book 3. bonus points for the glowstick dick.

snail5's review

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slow-paced

3.0

cconant265's review against another edition

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4.0

This was a really good follow up to Ninth House. The story and peril is vivid, but at times it was confusing and I got lost which is why I can't give it five stars. It is definitely worth reading however for the nuggets of humor and cleverness Bardugo sprinkles in to an otherwise harrowing tale.

erinastin's review

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3.0

Maybe 3.5? I liked this one a lot better than the first but I was still missing any type of emotional connection to the characters. Leigh Bardugo created such a wonderful world, I wish we (and the characters) had had moments to ~process~ everything that was going on. Like this was some big T trauma and I feel like maybe we could’ve dug into some of the emotional implications of literally going to hell and back.