Hell Bent

4.5 ⭐️

One of my favourite things about these books is the way the system of magic in them is described/works. It's a kind of gross, visceral, exaggerated version of sympathetic magic. It's indulgent and disgusting at the same time and makes sense or follows a kind of internal logic that is really satisfying (in a way that saying magic spells and waving a wand is not - this has more of an anchor in the real world I guess).

I think I liked this more than Ninth House. I found the characters more vivid and deeper. While these books are super plot-driven, page-turner adventures, getting to know more of the characters in depth really added to this one. Sometimes the writing is repetitive (like using the same turn of phrase a few times) and sometimes the tone shifts in a weird way (moments of humour or levity that - while welcome and often genuinely funny - can sometimes feel a little awkwardly placed) but none of these issues actually took me out of the story.

I listened to the first half as an audiobook and read the second half.