Hell Bent, by Leigh Bardugo
2.0 Stars
1-15-2024

Ooof. The author has a real gift for creating stories that seem like they will be excellent, and then steadily tumble downhill in quality until they finally end in a rumpled and dirty heap at the bottom of failure-valley.

Some criticisms: 1) the author takes a low magic setting and then spins it up way too fast to where people are using Burning Hands as an at will power, travelling between dimensions, negotiating with demon lords, etc. etc. It makes the universe feel papery? fan-fictiony? like the author did not have a consistent idea in their head of the world they are trying to create. 2) the idiot ball is broken out of its locker and sees a lot of use here. "We're being hunted by doppelgangers who want to drain our life force, and we can't get rid of them till the new moon! Ok, everyone split up and go to their seperate apartments. Also make sure to go to work and school this week, that's clearly important at this time of imminent and life threatening danger". "We must try to rescue this person despite all odds!/predictably gets 18 people killed doing so" 3) the main character is constantly said to be a rattle-snake, a real hard bitten survivor, a dangerous, low-down, no good baddie, but the proof really is not there. At one point the evidence given of this unique hardness is that she lied to her parents, which is like the most universal human experience ever. The constant refrain comes off as silly after a while. The protagonist is not a complete cinamon roll, but she's also really, really not that bad.

In the moderately positive column, there are fun bits scattered here and there through out the story. E.g. the party is being tempted by a demon; to one person it offers political power and visions of becoming a Senator, to another person career success and wealth, to another the curing of her ADHD and the ability to finally focus on and complete the thesis paper that she's been nibbling at for the last ~6 years.