Hell Bent

Hell Bent is a phenomenal follow up to Bardugo's Ninth House. It takes all the lore of the first book, and absolutely sets off running with it. (Though I did miss seeing more rituals happen in Hell Bent!) We find out more about the secret societies and how they all began, which added weight to the world. We travel to Hell and back, which...ooooof. But the best part of the book was when the team finally dragged Darlington back into the real world.

Seeing him on page as an actual member of the team was so much fun – up until this point he'd only been in the books as a memory. Seeing Darlington contribute and be more ‘real' made the journey looking for him much more tolerable. Alex grows a lot in this book, but she also quite stubbornly remains who she is. She's learned how to manipulate the people around her into doing what she wants or what she thinks is right. It was...I don't want to say fun but at least interesting to see her dominate other people like that. She's taken so much shit in her life, to see her succeed in something was fantastic.

Speaking of Darlington and Alex, I sure hope we get some resolution to whatever romance we're dancing around in the last book. There's a tremendous amount of sexual tension between them, and I know I'D love to see them both get some happiness. There's been so little of it in either of their lives.

I liked what we saw of the Lethe team (Dawes, Turner, Mercy, Tripp, etc) in this book, and I loved that we got more backstory from everyone. I just wish maybe these characters were even more fleshed out, even more whole. Instead, they still remain something of stereotypes, which while it does work for this kind of book in this sort of setting, leaves you feeling less than full.

REGARDLESS, I enjoyed HELL BENT, and I can't wait for the next book.