Pacing is slower than Six of Crows but definite similarities. Bardugo’s prose truly shines through in Ninth House. Bracket your expectations for Hell Bent though. It’s simply not as strong as Ninth House, imho.

Perhaps an unwarranted thought on my part, but I can’t help but feel that if Bardugo dedicated more time to building out the mortal world and hellscape instead of Yale’s architectural wet dream, perhaps she would be able to actually write a dozen books (bit much, perhaps a six would suffice) and fix the pacing.

I’m holding on for the third book despite Hell Bent massively disappointing me purely because I enjoyed Ninth House so much. Here’s to hoping!