I was actually not a huge fan of Ninth House when it was first published back in 2019. King of Scars was published in 2019, Rule of Wolves was published in 2021 and not to mention the Shadow and Bone Netflix adaptation was also released in 2021. So, I got washed away in the hype of all the Grishaverse content that I read Ninth House and moved on relatively unfazed about it.
I did give Ninth House a 4-star review on Goodreads so I did enjoy it, why I enjoyed it I don't remember. It's been a while.
Either way, I was still curious about Hell Bent, so without further ado, here's my review of Hell Bent (with some opinions about Ninth House as well):
Darlington threw up his hands, claws receding, a handsome young man in a fine wool coat once more.
Hell Bent, near the ending of the novel
In the first novel, Ninth House, Alex Stern is the sole survivor of an unsolved homicide. Raised in LA, Alex was a drug dealer and high school dropout. But, when she was offered a spot at Yale, one of the world's most elite universities, she packed up her life and moved to New Haven. There, she was tasked by Ninth House/Lethe to monitor the happenings of Yale's secret societies. But the activities and business of Yale's high-ranking players are much more paranormal and extraordinary than she initially expected.
In the second novel, Hell Bent, Alex needs to find a way to get into Hell. She needs to bring back Darlington at any cost, so, she assembles a group of her allies to save him from Hell. But, in order to do so, they need to uncover some of the societies' most closely guarded secrets. So, when Yale faculty members start dying, Alex quickly realises that they're not accidents and if she wants to save Darlington, she's going to have to dive deeper into the past history of her university.
So, prior to reading Ninth House, I don't think I had read many dark academic novels. Even now, I only recently completed The Atlas Six trilogy so my dark academia knowledge is lacking. So, the world-building was one of the things that caught my attention immediately. I was curious about what dark academic novels were like. So, Ninth House and Hell Bent both get points for their great world-building. According to Leigh Bardugo's Instagram, a lot of the settings in the novels actually exist in real life as well!
The pace and the plot, on the other hand, was not as impressive. In Ninth House the plot development was slow. So slow, that when I read Hell Bent, I couldn't remember half of what had happened in the first novel. I usually don't mind slow development, fantasy novels (usually high fantasy novels) are often slow in plot development or tension etc. so, I usually can tolerate the plot being slow; and when it's done well, I enjoy slow development. But this is an urban fantasy and something about these novels made me so bored.
Regarding the plot specifically, the second novel felt anti-climatic. There were also many moments where I started to enjoy the plot/world-building/character development/character tension etc. BUT we're not given enough time in a scene to fully experience it. While Ninth House was slow, Hell Bent was filled with too many twists and turns. So, I had issues with the plot of both novels.
I have conflicting feelings about the characters as well. Alex is our main character in these novels and it's her journey that we, as readers, are supposed to be invested in. She's an outsider who was allowed into Yale because of her extraordinary ability to see Grays (ghosts of the dead). While I do like her as a character, something about her just didn't click with me. I just couldn't find myself to be invested enough in her character and her journey. I don't know why. Maybe this book series just isn't for me.
Darlington is the character that keeps me coming back. He's charming, gentlemanly and smart. He's a mentor/(boy)friend figure to Alex and is nicknamed 'the gentleman of Lethe'. Although, in hindsight, maybe I like his character because he reminds me of our beloved Nikolai Lanstov from the Grishaverse (the quote I included above was very reminiscent of Nik, hence why I included it). So, really I guess not much actually holds my interest in this series.
Overall, it's very clear I have mixed feelings about these novels. While there were some aspects I enjoyed, there were also many parts of it I didn't really enjoy. I'm two books in so I may stick around and read the final novel in this trilogy and see where this goes (Alex x Darlington is ENDGAME! It has to be after what I read in the second novel). Ultimately, let's say I'm currently undecided about how I feel about this trilogy.
That's it for my review. Have you read this series? If you have, let me know what you think. I'd love to hear your opinion. Thank you for reading and I hope you all have a good day.
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