#galaxy stern

[james-farrow-did-nothing-wrong]

Leigh Bardugo said today at an event that all the diverse characters she portrays come naturally at her because the world is diverse. She's not looking for a black character, a disabled one nor a queer one, they are just part of the world so they are part of the worlds she creates. She also said that what is not normal is having a story full of white hetero and abled people, reality is diverse and so are her stories.

When she was explaining this she had to stop a few times because the auditorium kept cheering at her. Hope she felt all the love the audience was trying to show.

[purplebass]

2024 books - hell bent by leigh bardugo (alex stern #2)

Welcome home. Welcome back. We missed you. I missed you more than I should have, more than I wanted to. I went to hell for you. I’d do it again.

[rosiethorns88]

Dropping the latest Sketch-a-Wish, voted on by my lovely Patreon members for January! Featuring a tense scene from Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo!

Spoilers for Hell Bent below!

This is one of the few examples of me putting in the WORK for the background, only because it's such a character itself. Il Bastone is a real world setting from Ninth House / Hell Bent, and even though they are scant, there were luckily a few interior photos available for me to reference to create the Virgil bedroom, where Alex and Darlington are having a tense conversation in this scene. I took some liberties on the design but a lot of the structures, accents and patterns were either pulled from the interiors or exterior facade of the Anderson Mansion. (especially the stained glass windows and painted tile fireplace!).

I spent a ridiculous amount of time on the painting over the fireplace to capture a small world-building segment from Hell Bent that I think has a modest symbolism of Alex's and Darlington's new relationship here. A fun little puzzle for those who want to try to research it!

[i-read-and-then-i-draw]

“He’d told himself he was giving her a chance, being fair to this girl who had washed up on his shore. But he’d let himself think of her as someone who had made all of the wrong choices and stumbled down the wrong path.

It hadn’t occurred to him that she was being chased.”

another year, another reread of Ninth House

[twobitzz]

i love when authors write women who engage in self destructive behavior to claw their way to esteem in an elitist environment when they already have twice the character and skill than those around them

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

“How was Spain?” “Hotter than expected”

Oh this man, I love this man

[fancymuffins-and-wannabecakes]

The " Went to Hell and all I got was this lousy demon" gang and this absolute gem of a meme

[salmonsushi13]

I’m so normal for Alex oml

anyway take some alex stern fanart cuz the amount of art for this fandom is actually sinful. like fym i can’t search up any character and get a shit ton of fanart bro

[toads-treasures]

Hi hello I devoured Ninth House and Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo in approximately 72 hours and I don’t think I’ll ever stop thinking about Them.

[academtits]

Darlingstern moments that play in a ceaseless loop in my head, Vol. I

The fact that Alex was sweaty as fuck the first time they met and made Darlington roll up her sleeve to check for track marks

Darlingtons prudish shock when Alex takes her shirt off in front of him

The fact that they got shitfaced and broke a bunch of Lethe glassware??? Like she got Mr. Lethe to be like “fuck the rules”? And they passed out in the parlor???

Alex’s foot/hand/arm fetish

When Darlington complimented her Queen Mab costume, then said “didn’t someone say love is a shared delusion?” And “two people reciting the same spell”

Darlington getting annoyed when some guy hits on her

The “incident”

His heart hurting for the wanting of someone

The fact that Alex literally has constant imaginary conversations with him and everything reminds her of him and she always assesses how he would feel about her actions

[sarahfarinaillustration]

where are my Ninth House & Hell Bent buddies at?

[wingedshadowfan]

Darlington’s fate is highkey terrible… he’s half demon and leashed to a girl forever. Maybe deep down he wants that in a kinky way but 💀

for real, darlington is such a tragic character.

searching for the arcane ever since he was a kid, training for something more that he can't even see, the parents who literally didn't want to parent him and tried to freeze him out of black elm, the conservative and kinda abusive grandpa who turned sick and paranoid and asked an underage danny to mercy kill him (and he did it), living by himself and scraping by until he made the hiram elixir without any knowledge of or guidance by the societies and was found passed out hours later by a mailman on the stairs of the house he'd fought with his everything to keep.

sandow appears at his hospital bed, offers him the key to everything he's ever wanted, and danny becomes darlington. he becomes dante. then he becomes virgil. somewhere inbetween he embodies lethe. he'd been going through the dante applications when sandow called in and basically said, "hey, we went ahead and recruited someone who was born able to do what you've always wanted to do and almost died trying. here's her file."

and we know alex's history - that file is incredibly fucking concerning to say the least. and darlington tries, he really tries to make her feel at ease, to make everything easy and digestible for her, and what does he get? the aurelian ritual blows up in his face and he has to lie to defend the lethe delegation. he learns why and begins to understand alex, but he's still ill-equipped to deal with someone like her, someone who's been through so much. then the halloween party at manuscript, a complete shitshow of getting drugged, practically assaulting his dante under the influence, but also seeing himself as a knight in the mirror with a sword in his back, seeing alex as queen mab. understanding it and yet not knowing what it means throws him in for a loop. he starts to figure alex's mysterious past out, but even more than that, he incidentally starts to figure the nexuses out, and sandow can't afford him to. getting swallowed by the hellmouth while alex lets it happen is one thing, blaming himself for it all is another.

a whole year of rebuilding black elm in hell, torturing and getting tortured, and crying out to alex, because no one else can hear him (and who could know his soul?) and he's somehow connected to her of all people, the puzzles and the games, the murders, being spat out both man and monster . having killed his parents and trying to come to terms with not being able to not love them despite all they've done. now also being chained to alex for life in servitude, finding out his virgil didn't even like him, going back to hell with the intention to surrender himself, escaping but accidentally indirectly propping the door to hell open, his grandpa's gray still talking about legacy after everything he's sacrificed, finding said virgil's body in his car trunk. GOD.

this guy has never caught a damn break. he's 23. his future is already fucked up, he's a beast on a leash and a beast of a different kind seems to be holding the other end of it. and he doesn't mind, of course he doesn't: alex is his gentle ruler, his monstrous queen, a horrid girl who carried his soul out of hell. and now they're going to send back everything that slipped out. together.

[lilithh6]

okay but why are Ninth House and Hell Bent literally so underrated????????? i need to find my people to lose our mind together over darlingstern

[butchcaseyjones]

i love the ninth house fanart where dawes looks beautiful and put together but cmon. look me in the eyes. she's got debilitating anxiety, can't talk to people, and has been writing the same dissertation for six years. this is how i pictured her for the entire book (affectionate)

[a-library-ghost]

“I’m the Wheelwalker. You have no idea what I can do.”

feral hell bent galaxy stern doodle

[atinycelery]

Having my fourth reread and idk why I didn't notice it before. The parallel. Not that I'm saying Leigh is perusing old tropes in a boring way, I'm saying if you squint, you can see a pattern; and it's not a boring pattern, it's a cool one because they don't exactly look similar, they just have hints of similarities

Daniel Tabor Arlington the Third, Gentleman Demon / Gentleman of Lethe

Kaz Brekker, Dirtyhands, Bastard of the Barrell

Both have their own dark personas and could possibly kill you where you stand, literally

Inej Ghafa, the Wraith, the girl who at the beginning of the story is lost because she was kidnapped from her family. Has her own talents in acrobatics and homicide

Galaxy Stern, Wheelwalker, the girl who at the beginning of the story is lost because of her powers. Has her own powers and has a penchant for homicide. Doing her best

Nina Zenik, Heartrender, redhead, loves to eat, loyal to her friends. Will kill for their safety

Pamela Dawes, phD student of the occult, Oculus, redhead, loves to cook when she's stressed, loyal to her friends. Will kill for their safety

It's very cool.