Wealth. Power. Murder. Magic. Alex Stern is back and the Ivy League is going straight to hell in #1 New York Times bestselling author Leigh Bardugo's Hell Bent.
Find a gateway to the underworld. Steal a soul out of hell. A simple plan, except people who make this particular journey rarely come back. But Galaxy “Alex” Stern is determined to break Darlington out of purgatory―even if it costs her a future at Lethe and at Yale.
Forbidden from attempting a rescue, Alex and Dawes can’t call on the Ninth House for help, so they assemble a team of dubious allies to save the gentleman of Lethe. Together, they will have to navigate a maze of arcane texts and bizarre artifacts to uncover the societies’ most closely guarded secrets, and break every rule doing it. But when faculty members begin to die off, Alex knows these aren’t just accidents. Something deadly is at work in New Haven, and if she is going to survive, she’ll have to reckon with the monsters of her past and a darkness built into the university’s very walls.
Thick with history and packed with Bardugo’s signature twists, Hell Bent brings to life an intricate world full of magic, violence, and all too real monsters.
The series
In the Alex Stern series, the boundary between life and death is thinner than you think—and for Alex, it’s a line she’s learned to walk.
Read full series description
Set in a world where the supernatural lurks just beneath the surface, Leigh Bardugo’s Alex Stern novels weave a gripping narrative of magic, mystery, and the complicated morality of a universe brimming with secrets. At the heart of the series is Alex, a flawed and fierce young woman with a gift she never asked for: the ability to see ghosts. This extraordinary power thrusts her into a world of hidden societies and arcane secrets, where the line between right and wrong is constantly shifting.
Bardugo’s world-building in Alex Stern is as lush and atmospheric as it is haunting. From the hallowed halls of Yale to the shadowy corners of the occult, every setting is rich with history and danger. But it's the complex characters that truly bring the story to life. Alex, with her troubled past and her complex relationships, isn’t just a survivor—she’s someone you can’t help but root for, even as she navigates a world that demands impossible choices.
The Alex Stern series is part urban fantasy, part dark academia, and part psychological thriller—seamlessly blending all these elements into a tale that never lets you breathe easy. Bardugo explores themes of power, identity, and the haunting effects of trauma, all while keeping readers on the edge of their seats with every twist and turn.
If you crave a story that mixes the supernatural with the psychological, the eerie with the emotional, Alex Stern offers a journey that is as darkly mesmerizing as it is unforgettable.
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