Fantasy

I just finished reading Hell’s Gate, and I thought I should be sharing more book reviews here. For this title, I listened to the audiobook. If you’ve read this one, please leave a comment below to say what you thought!

I’m going to rate this one 2.5 out of 5 stars. While admirably complex in its world building, Hell’s Gate gets bogged down by melodramatic characters, and the book itself lacks a satisfying conclusion.

This novel could have been edited down to a third of its length and not lost any of its memorable plot points. The characters are numerous enough to confuse most readers and the story’s point of view shifts constantly, forcing the reader to try and remember who some of these point of view characters are. The plot itself is solid enough, but lacks momentum to hook you for the sequels. Cursing is nearly constant in many portions, often making the dialogue feel unnaturally frustrated and pointless.
Overall, it’s well-written but needs a good edit to trim it down to keep your interest. I found myself bored in many places and I kept expecting some plot twist or resolution that would make sense of it all. Instead the book ends on a literal cliffhanger that should have resolved some of the plot points.