Hell Bent | Ninth House #2 | Dark Fantasy Review
Where to start with Hell Bent?! I have read many sequels in my time, but this has to be one of the best! It never felt stretched out, as though the author was trying to make one story into two or three, and I was so hoping to see Darlington again, but I won’t admit that too loudly :)
Hell Bent continues the story from Ninth House, Alex and Dawes are trying to bring Darlington’s soul from Hell but there seem to be a lot of people that are against them. And if they do make it to Hell, there is no telling if they will make it out alive, or what they may bring back with them.
The first thing that must be mentioned about this novel is the blistering pace that it set from almost the first page. I don’t think I ever stopped for breath whilst reading, but I also never felt as though I was being rushed to the end. Bardugo is a master at pacing, creating lighter moments that are still action-filled, and then contrasting them with longer more hard-hitting moments. This allowed me to continue reading almost constantly, but without feeling overwhelmed by the amount of information I was being given.
The new lore that is explored in this novel is also presented very nicely. It is not unloaded upon you in one go but sprinkled throughout the novel in manageable chunks. I particularly enjoyed how this was presented as it gave me the incentive to continue reading, even after the events had mostly passed.
The characters in this novel we met in the last edition of the series, but Bardugo does an excellent job of furthering the characterisation and deepening readers' connection to the story. As the novel progresses it was also nice to feel closer to some of the characters we glossed over last time, and this in turn helped flesh out the environment a lot more.
I don’t have many complaints about this novel, but I would say that Alex Stern’s characterisation still annoys me. She seems very two-dimensional and despite knowing a lot of events from her past, a lot of them seem reiterated as a way to explain things that she does and the way that she reacts. This, for me, feels a little unreasonable. Moreover, her anger seems to seep into everything in the story, and whilst I understand this may be something that Bardugo is trying to get across, I cannot help but feel it is not realistic.
Overall, I enjoyed this sequel more than I confess I expected to. The story felt fresh despite the location and much of the action being the same. The new lore and deeper characterisation of secondary characters helped this and the blistering pace carried me through to the end very comfortably. I would rate this novel an 8/10 and would highly recommend this series to anyone who enjoys Dark Fantasy and Romance.
