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kat_is_reading's review against another edition
dark
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
pelfweaver's review against another edition
5.0
This book may be brief, but it packs an incredible punch. The way it weaves dread with an almost surreal sense of time is truly something else—equal parts amazing and unsettling. The concept stuck with me, and I know I’ll be thinking about it for a while. It’s one of those reads that stays with you, not because it’s comforting, but because it challenges you to confront the endlessness and absurdity of eternity. Absolutely worth the read if you want something that makes you think long after you close the book.
sherriemarkman's review against another edition
2.0
Interesting premise but too dark and violent for me.
persypie's review against another edition
4.0
“How do you pray if you don’t know what God is like?”
Hopeless, philosophical, and hunger-inducing, A Short Stay in Hell is a sinful treat that will have you contemplating the meaning of your very existence.
What is time in the infinite? What is knowledge when fragmented? What is better — the void or eternity? These and more questions will remain unanswered during your stay with this short novella.
Hopeless, philosophical, and hunger-inducing, A Short Stay in Hell is a sinful treat that will have you contemplating the meaning of your very existence.
What is time in the infinite? What is knowledge when fragmented? What is better — the void or eternity? These and more questions will remain unanswered during your stay with this short novella.
jamilamoure's review
5.0
This is a rather disturbing, thought-provoking novella. Read it in a single sitting. One of the most horrific hells I've ever pondered. I'm sure it will be in my brain until the day I die. Some parts reminded me of Peter Beagle's A Fine and Private Place, others of Orson Scott Card's short story "A Thousand Deaths." A good read, but don't expect a happy ending. It's about hell after all.
Available very inexpensively as a Kindle book.
Update: It's been nearly a year since I read this and I still find myself thinking about it. I originally gave this three stars because I didn't like the darkness, the subject, or the main character, but I'm going to have to raise my rating to five based on pure mind-bending power.
Available very inexpensively as a Kindle book.
Update: It's been nearly a year since I read this and I still find myself thinking about it. I originally gave this three stars because I didn't like the darkness, the subject, or the main character, but I'm going to have to raise my rating to five based on pure mind-bending power.
cookie_keko's review against another edition
2.0
edit: I have thought about it more and tbh I didn't care for the story past the premise, it became rather tedious. I understand it's a dissection of human thought and hope, With how the mundane can be torture, but it felt very "white horror" I honestly just kept listening cause it was only two hours on audiobook. If I had been reading it physically, I wouldn't have cared. It just goes on and on about the horrors of mundanity and how it's such a big task, but idk I end up not caring. As well as this weird use of people of color as a thrill, made me dislike the main character.
it was alright, it did have an interesting story and analysis of humanity, but it felt incomplete. I did enjoy it.
it was alright, it did have an interesting story and analysis of humanity, but it felt incomplete. I did enjoy it.
nyky's review against another edition
dark
reflective
4.25
A short read about a particular kind of hell where all that exists are other people and books of mostly gibberish. It is funny in that there is a lot of attempts to find meaning in suddenly coherent words in a sea of gibberish. There is the darkness of humanity in cultish figures bent on appeasing god via torture. There is the despair of loneliness and a grappling with a finite so vast it seems just short of infinite.