REVIEW: Hell Bent (Leigh Bardugo)

Book: Hell Bent

Author: Leigh Bardugo

Premise: 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. But when faculty members begin to die off, Alex knows these aren’t just accidents. Something deadly is at work in New Haven.

This is the sequel to Ninth House, which I reread in preparation for this. Hell Bent is a slight shift with the introduction of new monsters and demons. There's two strands to this story: going to hell to save Darlington, and a murder mystery on campus. The latter takes a back seat, which I thought was a shame as I wanted that sort of mystery. However, the stakes were raised with the new monsters and I enjoyed the found family aspect. So another good installment to this trilogy. Bring on book 3!