I like this book more than the first one. The story is as good as in the first one, and the way it's told I think flows way better in this one, largely because it doesn't split the story and setting in two the same way which the first book did. Where Ninth House introduced us to many aspects of the world of Lethe is Hell Bent more focused, the collage and collage societies takes more of a back seat in this book, and works beautiful as a setting for the story. While we focus on what's important for Alex Stern, which is to rescue Darlington.