I have never liked The Secret History; I will admit to seeing why it’s such a favorite based on the general aesthetic (practically inventing ‘dark academia’) but that’s about it. Don’t @ me; this is not a ‘convince me’ thing. This particular hill of mine is why I was a little surprised that I liked Ninth House (Alex Stern 1) and I still like her story in Hell Bent (Alex Stern 2). The plot is pretty basic: rescue Alex’s former mentor/friend Darlington from Hell. Alex, Dawes, and a few others recruited to the cause need to figure out how to open the Gate, how to survive long enough to get Darlington and get out, and how to not get caught by the administrator types who would prefer everyone just do as they are told.
One of the big things that keeps the story interesting, and the plot does drag for about 2/3 of the novel while Alex is trying to figure out what to do, is that a handful of the side characters, especially Mercy and Turner, seem like they could be one note, but then turn out to have a little more unexpected depth. Turner, the supernatural mystery liason at the local police department seems kind of like Mr. Rules, but it turns out that he’s done some unexpected things in the past and he’s got some kind of but not really surprising ambitions. I’d forgotten that Mercy may have gotten dragged into the societies stuff near the end of the last book, but she definitely gets into things on her own this time, even if she never develops much personality. Tripp similarly never gets much personality, doesn’t get to do much, gets forgotten for while, and then when the rest of the group finally remembers him, that’s finally when he might have a suggestion of something interesting.
The ‘we may have brought something bad back with us’ bit ends up playing a role in the end feels a little overdone because it turns out to be the answer to quite a few problems in some ways, and the Wheelwalker/hell fire thing is not explained very well; maybe it’s me not remembering the last book but given that part of Alex is what plays a big part in how events turn out, a little more info would be useful. Eitan seems pointless other than the introduction of Reiter who seems like he might be more relevant next time.
For whatever reason, the whole secret society thing works better when there’s a balance of decent and not in most every character expect the ones who either are or become full demons, vampires, or whatever else. I rather doubt I’d much like Alex if she were real, but she’s less bad in some key ways than most everyone else on the other side. I have to admit lastly that the cover is a tad bit freaky, and then a bit too obviously a symbol for a handful of people and events.