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.
Ahh, the awaited sequel that I finally got to. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as exciting as I had hoped it would be. Still, that doesn’t mean I won’t be picking up that sequel immediately when it comes out!
Hell Bent is the follow up story following our protagonist, Alex Stern, as she journeys to hell (and hopefully back) to rescue our old favourite, Darlington. An incredibly dangerous journey, and one well-hidden, of course. With no one left at her disposal to risk her dangerous journey, and people wanting to stop her at every turn, will Alex be able to succeed in bringing back her long-lost mentor?
The characters for the most part were still excellent, as usual. I like that they all have this very human quality, since they don’t always perfectly fit their trope, making them more complex and nuanced characters. There aren’t too too many characters present, so it was easy to have a deeper dive into their characters. Particularly Alex and Darlington are heavily heavily focused on in this book, unsurprisingly. Some characters make a reprise from the first book, but overall I didn’t find them to be too important.
Ah, the plot. This is where I really struggled. I don’t think it was bad necessarily, but I feel like there wasn’t as much happening as I had hoped. It really blends in with many other books that I have read that have a similar theme, and didn’t really stick out as anything that special. There were also a couple of plot points that I’m not sure were totally necessary or that helpful in building the story. Overall I thought the plot was a bit weak, but this may be due to my high expectations based on the first book.
Speaking of my expectations, the world-building was also lacklustre in my opinion. While Ninth House had all the happenings of Yale and adjusting to the secret society life, this book really only had Alex tunnel-visioning on saving Darlington. There is a lot that happens and Alex does travel around, but in general it felt more like subsidiary little (and I mean little) plot lines to continue her on her quest. It didn’t feel as expertly woven together as I have come to expect to really make this magical world come to life. But again, this could just be my overly high expectations.
Overall, I wouldn’t say I was disappointed per se, but I certainly thought the book would be written differently. So I would just say it was different from what I expected, not that it greatly fell short of an objective standard. I think I really was just biased here by my expectations, so take that with a grain of salt for sure. After all, I still am looking forward to the next book!
Overall Recommendations
Hell Bent is the second book in this series following Alex Stern in her magical secret society at Yale. In this book Alex attempts to enter the underworld to rescue her long-lost mentor who had been taken by the shadows. All alone in her efforts as she is stripped of power and privilege, will Alex be able to finally be able to rescue Darlington? The story is heavily focused on this quest, so if you like adventure and heist, you won’t be disappointed with this sequel.
Down the Rabbit Hole 
I felt the exact same way!
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