Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo Also by this author: Six of Crows, Summer Days & Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories, Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows, #2), Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1), Dead Beat (Ninth House Trilogy, #3)
Series: Alex Stern #2
Also in this series: Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1), Dead Beat (Ninth House Trilogy, #3)
Published by Flatiron Books on January 10, 2023
Genres: Paranormal
Pages: 484 •Format: E-Book •Source: Overdrive
Goodreads
Wealth. Power. Murder. Magic. Alex Stern is back and the Ivy League is going straight to hell.
Find a gateway to the underworld. Steal a soul out of hell. A simple plan, except people who make this particular journey rarely come back. But Galaxy “Alex” Stern is determined to break Darlington out of purgatory―even if it costs her a future at Lethe and at Yale.
Forbidden from attempting a rescue, Alex and Dawes can’t call on the Ninth House for help, so they assemble a team of dubious allies to save the gentleman of Lethe. Together, they will have to navigate a maze of arcane texts and bizarre artifacts to uncover the societies’ most closely guarded secrets, and break every rule doing it. But when faculty members begin to die off, Alex knows these aren’t just accidents. Something deadly is at work in New Haven, and if she is going to survive, she’ll have to reckon with the monsters of her past and a darkness built into the university’s very walls.Thick with history and packed with Bardugo’s signature twists, Hell Bent brings to life an intricate world full of magic, violence, and all too real monsters.
This book gave me the book hangover of all book hangovers. I was lucky enough to be able to binge this immediately after finishing Ninth House (truly, I think I started it the same day) and I forgot how phenomenal it is to be able to continuously stay in a world you are obsessed with. And obsessed I am. This series has quickly shot to the top of my all-time faves list, and I am seated for the final installment, Dead Beat, to release later this year.
Picking up a while after Ninth House leaves off, Hell-Bent follows a similar narrative structure that Ninth House did: open with a scene close to the end of the story, then rewind back in time to how we got there. However, this formula definitely works for these books, as it helps build momentum and tension (since they are basically mysteries). I was sucked into the story immediately and immensely enjoyed returning to the world of Yale, Lethe, and the secret societies over the summer and fall after the events of Alex’s freshman year.
***Spoilers for Ninth House below, you’ve been warned***
Hell-Bent follows Alex and Dawes’s pursuit of rescuing Darlington, who was pulled into a portal to hell in the previous installment. When everyone else has written him off as gone forever, they are determined to use their knowledge of the arcane and resources they have through Lethe to find a way to travel to hell to get him back. They discover, however, that they cannot do it themselves, so have to assemble a rag-tag group of characters to complete the ritual and trip to hell with them.
I honestly loved the premise of this book so much. It was fascinating seeing how Bardugo wove Yale’s history into a believable story as to why/how there would be a gauntlet that led to the opening of hell on the campus (I can see why she says these books take forever to research- they are very detailed and very convincing!) I loved seeing Alex start to trust other people more and take it upon herself to bring them into Lethe’s secrets (and why shouldn’t she after what they’ve saddled her with, after all?) I felt for her desperation to save not only Darlington but herself- her place in Lethe and at Yale, her “normal”, everyday life as a college student (secret societies aside) and her regular college experiences, a second chance so many are not granted. I ate up the introspection into the secondary characters’ darkest secrets, the things that haunt them, that must be shared in order for them to make the descent into hell. I especially loved Mercy’s character and how she took everything in stride and was a ride or die for Alex (pretty much literally) rather than being afraid of her once Alex confided in her. Leigh has built such a convincing, flawed found family around Alex in these characters that is believable in both its heart and dysfunction.
As with its predecessor, Hell-Bent gives off the most atmospheric, immaculate vibes. Dark, atmospheric, gritty, autumnal- as someone who’s never been to New England, I certainly feel as if I’m there when reading these books. The Lethe headquarters, Il Bastone, is not only a cozy setting but a character in and of itself in this novel, providing for Alex and emoting in its own way throughout the events of the story. There’s a melancholy that hangs over the story as they constantly research how to break into hell, and hell itself is an experience that is believably hard on both the mind and body, even when returning to the surface (“hell hangover”). The ghosts, rituals, and magical artifacts add an allure to the story that makes it all feel almost believable, that these secret societies and paranormal happenings really are happening right under our noses.
Overall: No notes, chef’s kiss, and every other cliché that points to perfection that you can think of. I’d read 10 of these books easily (though I think we’re only getting 3).
Leave a Reply