I re-read Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo just before reading its sequel, Hell Bent. I still love it, and you can read my review of it here. I have been waiting over two years to read Hell Bent; unfortunately, I am on the fence over whether it was worth the wait. I did enjoy reading it, but certain elements have been introduced into the series (the way that Hell Bent ends, I am sure Bardugo is turning it into a series) that I could do without.

WARNING: There be spoilers ahead if you have not read Ninth House.

I was a big fan of the TV series Supernatural. For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, it was a show about two brothers who hunt monsters. The first few seasons were entertaining and thrilling. I appreciated the humour in the series and the brothers were nice to look at. Then at some point early on in its 15-season run, angels and demons were introduced, and the show got bogged down with God and Lucifer, and Heaven and Hell. The show became repetitive and annoying. By the time I got to season 13, I was hate-watching it.

By the end of Ninth House, Alex Stern realizes that Darlington has been consumed by a hell beast and has been transformed into a demon, and she begins hatching a plan to rescue him from hell. Now that I have finished reading Hell Bent, I feel as though this series has gone all Supernatural on me. The majority of Hell Bent is first spent on locating the Gauntlet on the Yale campus, which will allow Alex and her Scooby gang to open a portal to hell so that they can retrieve Darlington’s soul, and then spent on Alex and her Scooby gang dealing with demons that have escaped from hell. There is very little interaction with the eight Houses of the Veil and all the crazy, unethical magic they get up to, and when Turner asks Alex for help with a murder investigation, the investigation just becomes an afterthought for both the characters and the reader, which is disappointing because I thought the murder investigation was one of the strongest elements of Ninth House.

Ghosts are very much still an important part of Hell Bent, but only because of Alex’s ability to commune with the dead and to use them for their strength when they inhabit her body (like, where the heck did the Bridegroom go??). Bardugo introduces another type of supernatural being into Hell Bent which I am none too pleased with, as I feel as though she is straying back into YA territory.

What I love about Ninth House is the magical realism of the setting. I love the idea of Yale University being this place where magical societies gather to use their power for mundane, real-world tasks such as drafting contracts, predicting the stock market, or helping a music diva recharge her voice by having a bird shit down her throat. I love how the characters question the ethics of the magical power the societies have, and how magic is used in the novel to examine socio-economic politics, classism, gender roles and other societal concerns. The characters still question the ethics of magic use in Hell Bent, but I am still waiting for Alex to burn down the Houses of the Veil.

So why did I enjoy reading Hell Bent? Because of the characters, of course, and the snappy dialogue between the characters. I may not be happy with the introduction of demons into the series, but I will keep reading just for the characters. Alex is constantly being reminded of what a monster she is, but she is not a monster. She is morally ambiguous, she is a vigilante, she is a woman caught up in a bad situation and just trying to keep her head above water, but she cares about people, and she has a sense of responsibility. Otherwise, why would she bother trying to save Darlington? I always liked the relationship between Alex and Darlington, and their relationship takes on another dimension that will be interesting to continue to read about in the next novel.