To me, that’s when the most powerfully rewarding moments of the story occur: in stillness, in the quiet interludes in which the characters are at last allowed to speak to us, to speak to each other, to be vulnerable, and to feel the depth of horror of what they experienced. At bottom, it all boils down to this: you’ve got all these really interesting characters caught up in a web of complicated relationships and carrying enough emotional baggage to fill an entire stadium-but as readers, we never get to spend enough time with them, and they never get a moment to just breathe, because they are always running off after some new mystery or some new unexpected plot turn (which are, more often than not, revealed to be nothing more than red herrings), and we are always chasing after them, hoping they would just stop and sit and think. I think my profound dissatisfaction with this series stems generally from my sense of its inadequate execution. This series has become for me like that one relationship that I know isn't really working anymore but that I cannot quit because every now and then, something good would happen and for one brief blissful moment-I would forget all my reasons not to stay. 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.

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. But when faculty members begin to die off, Alex knows these aren’t just accidents. 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 Galaxy “Alex” Stern is determined to break Darlington out of purgatory―even if it costs her a future at Lethe and at Yale.įorbidden 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. A simple plan, except people who make this particular journey rarely come back. Alex Stern is back and the Ivy League is going straight to hell in #1 New York Times bestselling author Leigh Bardugo's Hell Bent.įind a gateway to the underworld.

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