Reviews with content warning for Police brutality - Duivelsvlucht

*Extremely long sigh* I made a mistake because I thought this was the final book, not the second in a trilogy. I read it thinking it was going to wrap everything up and ended up pretty disappointed. I was wrong!! That being said, I don't think Hell Bent hit it out of the park like I thought it would. There was so much action and (dare I say) extraneous plot devices that I got whiplash. This isn't the first time I felt that way with Bardugo's writing. I think it worked in Six of Crows, but not as much here. The darkness requires some sitting, some stewing. I think Bardugo needs to fully commit to the audience - is this adult? Mature YA? There's sexual violence, but no sexual autonomy or processing. There's physical and emotional violence, but it doesn't settle. There's urgency, but less understanding. Things aren't reckoned with. College kids don't always act like college kids, cops don't act like cops, people are just kind of...off? I wanted to sit more in the big moments and implications, but found myself getting rushed along despite the first ~300 pages dragging.

I'm giving this a 4 because I love the premise of the series, and I hope that Bardugo can pull it off with the final novel. There are SO many interesting things going on, and I think she can recapture the balance of the first book, answer the big questions, and actually explore power, class, racism, sexism, colonialism, and violence in academia.

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selkiesrcool's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious 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

4.5

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rotidoti's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-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

4.25

Not quite as good as the first book but it reads so much quicker now that you have much more context to everyone and everything.

Leigh Bardugo's writing style is so enrapturing and I had an incredibly hard time putting this red down when I needed to do productive tasks.

I loved this story a lot!! My only complaint was that the romance aspect felt a bit out of nowhere and forced. Otherwise, brilliant all around.

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akal's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

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uncica's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I didn't like Hell Bent when I first started reading it. However, as the story progressed, I became more and more immersed in the world.

Hell Bent gives us a lot of background information on some of the key characters on their journey to save Darlington from hell. I love the found family trope in this book, especially the relationship that continued to develop between Dawes and Alex. Also, Bardugo made Alex’s roommates more relevant in the story, which was needed.

I wasn’t the biggest fan of the introduction of

vampires

in this world; however, as I continued reading, they made much more sense to the point where I felt like they were necessary to the story.

Also, I appreciate the magic system in these books, in general, because magic comes at a price.

I wish Darlington were more present in Hell Bent, but I understand why Bardugo had to make him scarce.

Overall, highly recommend it if you liked Ninth House!

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cursed_sapphire's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.25

The first half of this book was slow, complicated, and all over the place. I only kept reading because I wanted them to go to hell (literally) as I was very curious how that would be depicted and what that would entail.

I'm ultimately glad I stuck with it, as the last 40% was I-couldn't-put-down-the-book good. Once the character group was finally assembled and Bardugo got to show off her skill at writing character interactions, I was hooked.

I will also say that the plot picked up significantly near the end as well. The first half of the book seemed like a jumbled mess of too many ideas and plot threads that weren't meshing well. The last half of the book tied everything together in an interesting way, although I will say there we many ideas I felt could have been cut with no real loss. The murder was forgettable and distracting, as every time this plot popped back up, I had long forgotten it was even happening. And even in the end

, when it turned out the main villain was behind the killings,

it still felt like an unnecessary, irrelevant afterthought. I also felt that a few scenes involving Eitan could have been cut or combined with no real loss to the story.

The latter half of this book, while structured in a somewhat bizarre way, was also much more compelling. In the first half of the book, despite Eitan and the murder investigation, I never felt the stakes. Perhaps it didn't help that the plot of this book

centers around finding Darlington, who has been gone so long at this point I started to wonder why we needed him back at all and thus

felt unfocused, as Alex was ignoring the newly introduced plots in favor of constantly thinking about resolving the plot from the last book.

They needed to go to hell so much sooner.

I think you could have cut most of the stuff with Demon Darlington trapped in Black Elm completely, or at least resolved it more quickly, as it felt like an afterthought. If he had instead come through the portal with the demon/vampire things near the beginning, and the book was about trying to hold out until Halloween when they could return them to hell, I think the book would have been more tense, concise, and interesting. Maybe there was a full moon near the beginning/middle of October that they used to descend, and then they have to stay alive while Alex is also trying to keep Eitan happy and keep her grades up.

The main villain and the new head of Lethe were also underused and therefore felt superfluous. The new head of Lethe could have been interesting.

Both the part where he asked Alex about a specific ghost from his past and the ending talk between him and Alex showed the character had potential. I

If he gets some more time in the next book to develop or at least show more nuance I think he could be a welcome addition to the cast, but in this book the character fell flat, never feeling like a threat or an ally as he's lost between the many other threads of the story. The main villain, on the other hand, felt almost entirely unnecessary. Even the big reveals involving his identity and involvement in the plot felt underwhelming. He could have been cut entirely as the story currently stands, replaced with other hell-based threats.

Darlington could have suffered from generic demons, the murder plot cut entirely, and you would lose very little from the overall story. Alex could have discovered her weelwalker powers could help her get in and out of hell while fighting the vampire demons, and you could perhaps introduce Golgarot near the end to set him up as the big bad for book three who wants to use Alex's wheelwalker powers to keep a permanent doorway to hell open if needed.

This review has so far been predominantly negative, but I will say I came away enjoying this book. It felt like an overambitous first draft only edited to remove typos, but it felt like the first draft to an amazing story. The last part of the book was darker and more atmospheric, with tangible threats that tied in with all the main character's struggles. The group of protagonists were very enjoyable when they all finally grouped up, and I wanted to see more of all them working together. The characters themselves were made much more compelling as they descended into hell, and that really helped color the rest of their interactions moving forward.

While I have a ton of nitpicks and issues, I think the largest problems this book had were structural. It felt like 2-3 books mashed together. Elements were introduced abruptly and quickly forgotten, only to resurface and finally be compelling in that last 40%. Even the characters and plot points I complained about could have been interesting in another installment, as all the stories presented had interesting components. But with them all fighting for attention, they made the book feel like a scrambled mess of useful parts desperately trying to fit together to function as a cohesive machine. I think that either this series needed to split up into more, shorter books, or more ideas needed to be cut. However, I still found this messy, cluttered jumble compelling, and after that ending, I'm excited to see how all this will conclude in the final installment.

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20sidedbi's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Brilliant but WOAH check the content warnings.

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