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A review by aoki_reads
A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck
5.0
I’d like to think that for all of us avid readers and lovers of books — that Hell in the form of a seemingly never-ending library would be a walk in the park.
Try again.
“After this long I am not bitter— I barely feel at all. Now I only search.”
This is one of those novellas that everyone should read.
Based on Borges’ The Library of Babel, you, as the reader, are thrown into existential crisis and dread with Soren Johansson, a Mormon damned to an incredibly unique Hell.
Like other reviewers, I felt an endless sense of unease, sadness, and bleakness while reading A Short Stay in Hell. I’ve learned about the grimness of repetition, the feeling of emptiness when hope is lost, and ultimately— that our mortality should be appreciated.
I cannot imagine wandering aimlessly for eons. Falling endlessly for light years. Reliving what feels like the same day over and over and over again. And the only way out is to find my story in a library that goes on for thousands and millions and trillions and zillions of years.
Oh, the hopelessness I would feel. And once hope is gone, what do you have left?
This book is dark. It’s full of emptiness, despair, dread, and a somberness that will keep you thinking for a while. But, it might also make you more appreciative of who you are and what you have.
I do wonder if Mr. Johansson is still falling.
:(
Try again.
“After this long I am not bitter— I barely feel at all. Now I only search.”
This is one of those novellas that everyone should read.
Based on Borges’ The Library of Babel, you, as the reader, are thrown into existential crisis and dread with Soren Johansson, a Mormon damned to an incredibly unique Hell.
Like other reviewers, I felt an endless sense of unease, sadness, and bleakness while reading A Short Stay in Hell. I’ve learned about the grimness of repetition, the feeling of emptiness when hope is lost, and ultimately— that our mortality should be appreciated.
I cannot imagine wandering aimlessly for eons. Falling endlessly for light years. Reliving what feels like the same day over and over and over again. And the only way out is to find my story in a library that goes on for thousands and millions and trillions and zillions of years.
Oh, the hopelessness I would feel. And once hope is gone, what do you have left?
This book is dark. It’s full of emptiness, despair, dread, and a somberness that will keep you thinking for a while. But, it might also make you more appreciative of who you are and what you have.
I do wonder if Mr. Johansson is still falling.
:(