Hell Bent: A Novel (Ninth House Series, 2)

#1 New York Times Bestseller • Goodreads Choice Award Winner"A tour de force of suspenseful pacing and empathetic writing." ―The New York Times"All hail the queen of dark academia!" ―NPRWealth. Power. Murder. Magic. The Ivy League is going straight to hell in the sequel to the smash New York Times bestseller Ninth House from #1 bestselling author Leigh Bardugo.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.

Amazon.com Review

An Amazon Best Book of January 2023: Murder, magic, secret societies, a gauntlet to hell—Bardugo is a fantastic storyteller who knows how to keep the reader both guessing and completely transfixed. Hell Bent seamlessly picks up the thread of Ninth House, with Alex Stern trying to find a way to get her friend and mentor out of hell. Literally. Obscure texts, magical artifacts, puzzle-loving demons—Alex has her hands full, plus a murderer on campus and her “job” as enforcer for a dangerous thug. And let’s not forget the monsters (real and otherwise), ghosts, and supernatural events that she seems to draw like a dark magnet. The second book in the Alex Stern series (which will make you want to go back and read the first all over again) is cinematic, surprising, and unputdownable. —Seira Wilson, Amazon Editor

The New York Times

"A tour de force of suspenseful pacing and empathetic writing... The beauty of Hell Bent is that for all the bleakness, the sense of wonder somehow still remains."

NPR

"All hail the queen of dark academia!... Ninth House and Hell Bent may be Bardugo's first books for adults, but you'd never know it, or care, because you're so busy following all of the action... you'll want to capture your copy quickly."

The Washington Post

"[T]he return of protagonist Alex Stern and her mystical version of the Ivy League is very welcome... Watching this damaged loner bring together a squad of ride-and-die friends is endlessly fun, and Bardugo finds new depths to most of her supporting cast."

BookPage (starred reviewed)

"Gut-wrenching and deeply human, this book will tug at your heartstrings even as it chills you to the bone.... Standing head and shoulders above the already impressive Ninth House, Hell Bent is one of the best fantasy novels of the year.."

Booklist (starred review)

“Bardugo doesn’t flinch from the dark sides of magic and human nature….This portrait of a survivor’s dogged determination to accomplish her goal will appeal to readers of dark academia, urban fantasy, and horror.”

Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Vivid, intelligent, and funny at just the right moments, but best of all are the complex characters.”

Book of the Month

"Hell Bent is a taut, complexly plotted headrush, stocked full of complicated monsters, entitled academics, and grifters big-time and small."

Chicago Review of Books

"Hell Bent is just as outrageously good as Ninth House, if not better... This mystery runs on vibes, and the vibes are unparalleled."

Paste Magazine

"Hell Bent is everything fans of Bardugo’s Alex Stern series could have asked for: It’s thematically richer, its characters are more complexly rendered, the darkness lurking at the edges of its New England-set world of privilege is more frightening, and its wit more biting."

SFF World

"Although Hell Bent is one of my first reads of 2023, I can confidently see it being a top read of the year by the end of it."

About the Author

Leigh Bardugo is the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of the Alex Stern series and the creator of the Grishaverse (now a Netflix series) which spans the Shadow and Bone trilogy, the Six of Crows duology, the King of Scars duology―and much more. Her short fiction has appeared in multiple anthologies including The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy. She lives in Los Angeles and is an associate fellow of Pauli Murray College at Yale University.

Reviews

News