This novella was a wild ride

This book feels like the dreams one gets sometimes after a very long day or too much alcohol at a party. I’d say nightmare but it’s too funny for that. It’s funny-melancholy though, not laugh-out-loud funny.

Jules is everything a seventeen-year-old is, or can be, and that in itself is pretty terrifying. She thinks she has a massive, obsessive crush on British actor Marcus K. Dixon but the crush seems to actually be on his daughter Elle. Of course, she’s never met either of them, but after Marcus dies, she summons a demon (following a BuzzFeed tutorial, no less) to take her to Hell so she can bring him back.

Hell is, unsurprisingly, horrific, all the more so as it’s polymorphous. The demon, however, is unexpectedly endearing, sweet even at times.

Hell Bent made me terribly uncomfortable and I couldn’t stop reading. It’s brilliantly written, with very visual descriptions of all the hellish planes and creatures. The juxtaposition of Ashmodai’s cynicism, in his very specific not-your-usual-demon way, with Jules’ youthful sarcasm as she tries to be cool and make sense of life and hell, results in some hilarious moments in an otherwise bittersweet story. 4 stars.