Hell Bent (Alex Stern, #2)
Leigh Bardugo
Wealth. Power. Murder. Magic. Alex Stern is back and the Ivy League is going straight to hell. 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.
I need a crash course on demonology and soul snatching because... what the hell just happened
0This has been my favorite chapter so far - getting the POVs of all 4 involved in the Gauntlet, learning the intimate accounts of their murders. Especially Hellie’s POV entering Alex at ground zero 🤯 I need more Gray perspective
0Ok so we spend all last book hiding Lethe and magic and the societies from Alex’s roommates, and now on a whim she decides to do a tell-all with Mercy? It felt like a convenient plot massaging that would come back around at some point, and now that Merch is involved with rituals and Lethe, I’m calling it now that she has some sort of magic ability
0Your rating:
0 0It took me a minute to orient myself in this again, I really don't feel that starting with a chapter pulled out of chronology really lends anything to these books, but thankfully there was a lot less jumping around after the start. I don't feel particularly strongly about the book one way or another, some parts felt a little too convenient, others a little too long, but on the other hand some sections I was really engaged in. I think my favorite parts were the flashbacks during the first "descent," it genuinely felt like Bardugo had fun writing those and playing with different POVs and I found it wildly engaging.
4
