A review by surdiablo
A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

A great novella featuring a concept with tremendous potential, borrowed from The Library of Babel short story by Borges. The writing style is pretty straightforward and it's a far cry from Borges really, so the ideas are easy to grasp. I was hooked from the very beginning and couldn't put it down, regardless of its depressing nature. It's designed to make you wonder about insanity deriving from the infinite, which the author succeeds at very well. However, I gotta confess I am a bit underwhelmed as well, regardless of everything I have mentioned so far. It feels like the book could have been significantly better if it had an additional 30-50 pages, or was a 300-page novel even. Everything felt somewhat undercooked, which prevented me from fully experiencing the intended impact. Like I said before, it's a concept with a lot of potential, so the story could have used additional or different developments perhaps, fleshed out things further, etc. I would highly recommend it anyway because it's really memorable regardless of its shortcomings since the latter mainly originates from my own expectations.
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