In an ideal world, I would have parked my ass with a cup of tea and devoured all of Hell Bent--a book I have been desperate to read from the moment I read the final sentence of Ninth House--in about two days. But the world is far from ideal, so instead I came to it exhausted and in short bits of time in between dealing with family crises.

It's a testament to the book that I still enjoyed it this way, despite it not being the kind of book that benefits from distraction. There are threads from Ninth House, secondary characters that get to play a larger role in the hell heist at the center of the plot, and some murder and demonic trickery that demand a fair amount of attention. When I started reading, I got the sinking feeling that I had somehow forgotten everything that happened in Ninth House and would be screwed because I didn't have time for a reread. However, with a few Google searches to refresh my memory and some patience, things came together and I was impressed with how Bardugo brought characters' pasts to bear on both their present lives and their approaches to the arcane, and I liked the ways she built on the world she established in the series debut.

In short, I think that Alex Stern is one of the greatest contributions to dark academia, a rapidly-bloating genre in which aesthetic threatens to overtake substance. Leigh Bardugo easily stands out with intelligence, style, and teeth.

The interview she did with Goodreads in the run-up to Hell Bent's publication was a great primer for the book itself. It really brought the central ideas of this series into sharper focus for me, and I recommend it.