Hell Bent

Hell Bent Book Review by Leigh Bardugo

I just didn’t like this book. I really wanted to. I love Leigh Bardugo and her Six of Crows duology are some of my favorite books of all time. However, her adult novels just don’t do it for me.

One, I barely remember anything from the first book. Now, this one is on me. I could have reviewed more or even re-read the first book. I liked Ninth House enough to buy Hell Bent, but I do feel like Bardugo could have also done a better job of reintroducing the last book’s important events.

Any time previous events were brought up, it genuinely didn’t ring a bell for me and it lessened the impact of Hell Bent overall as a direct sequel.

Additionally, Hell Bent has so much terminology that isn’t necessary in any way, shape, or form. I remember this being a criticism of Ninth House as well, but it is twice as bad in the sequel.

Bardguo spent more time in the first installment describing and reminding readers of the societies and all the titles, but she tosses that to the wind in this book.

If she thinks readers will remember what Praetor or Virgil or Dante are, she is absolutely wrong. Or, I’m just stupid compared to the average reader (which I don’t think I am), but the terms made things overtly verbose and pretentious without offering any kind of substance or value.

The actual plot of the novel I found tedious. It can be summed up by: Alex and her hodgepodge group of friends make several trips into hell in order to save Darlington (Alex’s mentor from the first book), who is trapped there. That’s it. It should be exciting, but it’s…not.

The trips into hell are nonsensical and long, Alex is whiny, and none of the characters had any reason or solid motivation to help Alex. Some of them don’t even know Darlington. Alex herself shouldn’t have wanted to risk life and limb to rescue Darlington.

They were friends, but that was it. Alex had known him for a short amount of time and their relationship wasn’t strong enough for me to believe that Alex would risk her life and the lives of others multiple times in order to save him.

None of it came across as realistic and I found all of it unbelievable to a high degree.

This disillusionment was the nail in the coffin for this novel. None of the characters behaved in believable ways and I didn’t find any of the relationships dynamic, interesting, relatable, or moving.

Alex as a protagonist gets increasingly irritating as the novel progresses and her staying involved with Lethe and the societies confused me further and further considering how risky, time-consuming, and damning it is (literally).

Unfortunately, there isn’t anything about this book that I really liked. The writing is fine, some of Barudugo’s more imaginative chapters I appreciated, but as a story I found the entire thing lackluster and a monotonous use of my time.

I did finish it (with much skimming involved) because I had already bought it and I do feel some kind of allegiance to Leigh Bardguo (although that indebtedness is gone after this drivel).

I will say that I recognize that perhaps Hell Bent came at a bad time in my life where there’s a lot of other things happening. Maybe I would have liked it a year ago or around the holidays or during summer. But, in the time I read it, it did not scratch my reading itch and instead makes me want to swear off Bardugo’s adult novels forever.

Recommendation: Ninth House should have been a standalone novel.

Score: 3/10