
Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo, published 10 January 2023.
TheRightHonourableHarpyEagle: What was that?
The second book in the Alex Stern dark academia series. Not disappointing. Not outstanding. Lots of backstory. No real plot. No 3D characters. Why did it take them so long to rescue Darlington? Anorexic rabbit on cover.
2/5 Harpy Eagles
TheLadyDuckOfDoom: Too much or too little editing
I don't know what went wrong with the editing of this book, but: the timeline in this book is fucked. At one point, they discuss that they desperately need a fourth person for the ritual, but they already met and recruited them before that. At another point, Alex and her friend have been gone for 2 days after Halloween, pointed out because her friend tells her she has been asleep for 24 hours. Their roommate asks where the hell they have been, and they say ohhh the sweets exchange and then some random house caught fire??? This does not check out at all.
Either, the storyline was different at the beginning, and the editor pushed so much around that these inconsistencies occurred, or this is an all over the place pandemic book where the editor was not really working on.
Their friend might be dead, but lets just eat soup and go about our day, no need to look after him? Does not fit the characters. The 2D characters who all got a backstory because they are needed now. Aaand, vampires do exist, because they are needed for the story.
Also, do we need to be constantly reminded about the demon dick shining like a light house?
The only redeeming quality of the book is Alex herself, refusing to sacrifice herself. The plot "twist" at the end was shining just as bright as the demon dick, though.
This book reads like a standard urban fantasy, but with younger characters and executed or edited worse.
When you brew up a concept one time to much, the tea tastes just like water.
2/5 duckies
TheMarquessMagpie: Hell no
I just did not care. Like, at all. So much of it was just meh.
I don't think I'll pick up the next book.
Characters reappearing out of nowhere just for effect - or in my case just a shoulder shrug, because we just don't know enough about any of them to care. Vampires! No story needs vampires anymore. Let's just ignore the fact that one of the gang might be dead, because there's soup.
This read like YA with a dash of "what can I add to make it badass"… but in the end it still felt like YA because there was basically no depth to it.
Also, the glowing demon dick. What the.
2/5 Magpies – not a complete train wreck, but quite the disappointment