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A Short Stay in Hell
An ordinary family man, geologist, and Mormon, Soren Johansson has always believed he’ll be reunited with his loved ones after death in an eternal hereafter. Then, he dies. Soren wakes to find himself cast by a God he has never heard of into a Hell whose dimensions he can barely a vast library he can only escape from by finding the book that contains the story of his life.
In this haunting existential novella, author, philosopher, and ecologist Steven L. Peck explores a subversive vision of eternity, taking the reader on a journey through the afterlife of a world where everything everyone believed in turns out to be wrong.
“Profound and disturbing, A SHORT STAY IN HELL is a perfect blend of science fiction, theology, and horror. A terrifying meditation on faith, human nature, and the relentless scope of eternity. It will haunt you, fittingly, for a very, very long time.” – Dan Wells, author of I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER
“An irresistible invention. Peck has somehow squeezed all of human experience, not to mention near-infinite expanses of space and time, into one miraculously slim novella. You won’t be able to stop thinking about this book.” – Ken Jennings, author of BRAINIAC and MAPHEAD
In this haunting existential novella, author, philosopher, and ecologist Steven L. Peck explores a subversive vision of eternity, taking the reader on a journey through the afterlife of a world where everything everyone believed in turns out to be wrong.
“Profound and disturbing, A SHORT STAY IN HELL is a perfect blend of science fiction, theology, and horror. A terrifying meditation on faith, human nature, and the relentless scope of eternity. It will haunt you, fittingly, for a very, very long time.” – Dan Wells, author of I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER
“An irresistible invention. Peck has somehow squeezed all of human experience, not to mention near-infinite expanses of space and time, into one miraculously slim novella. You won’t be able to stop thinking about this book.” – Ken Jennings, author of BRAINIAC and MAPHEAD
88 pages, ebook
First published March 21, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 9,877 reviews
March 29, 2023
jesus fucking christ
October 30, 2024
*nods wisely* true hell is being in a huge library and still not finding anything good to read
September 4, 2018
i wasn't sure i was going to like this one. the concept is ripped from a borges story about a library containing an infinite number of books; every permutation of every possible arrangement of letters; shelves and shelves of endless volumes, many of which are pure gibberish.
and in this book, this is one of many possible hells.
it seems zoroastrianism was the one true religion. oops. sorry all you suckers and mormons and buddhists - you are all going to hell. but hell is not forever, all you need to do is locate the story of your own life in this library, and you are allowed to leave. that's all.
but in the library of babel, that could be more difficult than you might think. and what is your "true" biography?
There's a second by second account of our lives, probably in multiple volumes, a minute by minute account, an hour by hour, a day by day. There's one that covers the events of our lives as viewed by our mothers, one by our fathers, one by our neighbors, one by our dogs. There must be thousands of our biographies here. Which one do they want, I wonder?
good luck finding even one of those. good luck finding a book in which you recognize a paragraph, a phrase, a word.... most of the books will just look like this: sdkfhsdihfdofgnlkdfgnodhgfgn
and so on and so on.
borges kind of leaves me cold. i find his stories to be interesting cerebral exercises, but their execution leaves me as a reader unmoved. but i liked this spin on borges very much. it was wonderfully sad and helpless, but it is also a testament to the indomitable human spirit and the hope that someday it will all get better...even in hell.
because, frankly, hell doesn't sound that bad, to me. at first. you get to eat any kind of food you want, you get to meet new people, you can form romantic attachments that last billions of years, sleep and wake refreshed and renewed the next day, even if you "die" in hell. but there is also danger, violence, drunkenness, people who believe they have all the answers, mini-cults, and kidnappings.and you probably ain't never going to find your book.
and then losing someone in hell is way worse than losing someone in the real world. losing someone on earth, you know it is finished. they are dead, and that is that and there is nothing you can do about it. losing someone in hell? well, they are somewhere and somehow you could still find them. and it is that hope that is the true hell, the crushing blow. because it is so vast, you could spend billions of years, knowing that they could be there, one story above you.... one more story... one more.....
heartbreaking.
there is a nice readers' advisory angle to this, too. because how hard is it, when faced with all the books that are published today, to find one that you really want to read?? it is easier than hell, sure, because most of the books are not written in gibberish, but i have read some recently that may as well have been. and it is frustrating, and difficult to read book after book that just doesn't do it for you. imagine that, multiplied by a zillion zillion.
good thing i have such highly developed RA skills.
i should be okay in hell.
provided i can find at least one book to read.
come to my blog!
and in this book, this is one of many possible hells.
it seems zoroastrianism was the one true religion. oops. sorry all you suckers and mormons and buddhists - you are all going to hell. but hell is not forever, all you need to do is locate the story of your own life in this library, and you are allowed to leave. that's all.
but in the library of babel, that could be more difficult than you might think. and what is your "true" biography?
There's a second by second account of our lives, probably in multiple volumes, a minute by minute account, an hour by hour, a day by day. There's one that covers the events of our lives as viewed by our mothers, one by our fathers, one by our neighbors, one by our dogs. There must be thousands of our biographies here. Which one do they want, I wonder?
good luck finding even one of those. good luck finding a book in which you recognize a paragraph, a phrase, a word.... most of the books will just look like this: sdkfhsdihfdofgnlkdfgnodhgfgn
and so on and so on.
borges kind of leaves me cold. i find his stories to be interesting cerebral exercises, but their execution leaves me as a reader unmoved. but i liked this spin on borges very much. it was wonderfully sad and helpless, but it is also a testament to the indomitable human spirit and the hope that someday it will all get better...even in hell.
because, frankly, hell doesn't sound that bad, to me. at first. you get to eat any kind of food you want, you get to meet new people, you can form romantic attachments that last billions of years, sleep and wake refreshed and renewed the next day, even if you "die" in hell. but there is also danger, violence, drunkenness, people who believe they have all the answers, mini-cults, and kidnappings.and you probably ain't never going to find your book.
and then losing someone in hell is way worse than losing someone in the real world. losing someone on earth, you know it is finished. they are dead, and that is that and there is nothing you can do about it. losing someone in hell? well, they are somewhere and somehow you could still find them. and it is that hope that is the true hell, the crushing blow. because it is so vast, you could spend billions of years, knowing that they could be there, one story above you.... one more story... one more.....
heartbreaking.
there is a nice readers' advisory angle to this, too. because how hard is it, when faced with all the books that are published today, to find one that you really want to read?? it is easier than hell, sure, because most of the books are not written in gibberish, but i have read some recently that may as well have been. and it is frustrating, and difficult to read book after book that just doesn't do it for you. imagine that, multiplied by a zillion zillion.
good thing i have such highly developed RA skills.
i should be okay in hell.
provided i can find at least one book to read.
come to my blog!
December 26, 2024
HOLY SHIT
WHAT THE HELL
MY HEAD IS SPINNING
I just realized I never wrote a full review!! 😅 I still stand by my 4 star rating, as there were some things that didn’t quite stick for me and I feel like could have been improved upon with a longer story (some of the dialogue was a bit clunky and the way things were explained a bit too convenient), but yeah overall this definitely triggered a mini existential crisis! 😂
WHAT THE HELL
MY HEAD IS SPINNING
I just realized I never wrote a full review!! 😅 I still stand by my 4 star rating, as there were some things that didn’t quite stick for me and I feel like could have been improved upon with a longer story (some of the dialogue was a bit clunky and the way things were explained a bit too convenient), but yeah overall this definitely triggered a mini existential crisis! 😂
July 17, 2025
This was as enjoyable as an ingrown toenail.
August 22, 2015
Angst is not a mere intellectual exercise. Existentialism is not just a philosophical movement. Steven L. Peck's A Short Stay in Hell drives this into the heart of the reader like no other existentialist work.
I've been eyeball-deep in readings on existentialism lately (research for a novel and for my owndespair edification), including William Barrett's outstanding Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy and Sartre's play No Exit, among others. But while I've enjoyed Barrett's study, it is just that, a study in existential philosophy. And Sartre's play seems just a touch contrived (I mean just a touch, too - it did not spoil the play).
But this . . . this little novella kicked my emotional depths right in the crotch. What could have been a work buried in academic gymnastics turns the rational boundaries by which one anesthetizes ones real self completely inside out. And it hurts. Oh, Ahura Mazda, it hurts! This is a novella which, if you have ever been in love and have then been involuntarily separated from the one you love, will tear your heart apart! If you are sensitive to the injustice of the world, your short stay in hell with Soren Johannson is going to be rather unpleasant.
This isn't your typical conception of Hell. Hell here is modeled after, or at least pays homage to, Borges' "Library of Babel". And unlike the Christian hell, from which there is no escape (without a guide's help, at least), there is a way out. You merely need to peruse the 7.16^1,297,369 light year wide and deep library and find the one book that contains the complete story of your life, from beginning to end. How long can it take, really? Really . . . wrap your brain around that number. This is the size of the library that contains the books through which you must look to find your escape from Hell. This might take a while.
The upside is that you live forever! And you can never die! Or, rather, you can die, but you always come back the next day. This is not without pain, however, and Johannson experiences pain in spades, especially when he finds himself .
But physical death, painful as it is, is nothing compared to the emotional pain of falling deeply in love and losing your lover (not that hard in a place as vast as this). You know that the one you love is there, somewhere, because they can't die, either. But, once lost, what hope do you have of finding that one person again, really?
"Anticipation is a gift. Perhaps there is none greater. Anticipation is born of hope. Indeed it is hopes finest expression. In hope's loss, however, is the greatest despair."
Taken out of context, this quote seems hyperbolic or even pithy. But in the context of the story, I can think of no more gut-wrenching, heart-twisting distillation of existentialism than this. It physically took my breath away when I read it. I gasped aloud and had to remind myself, for a split second, to breathe. It is that emotionally-charged, and a reminder of angst really feels like. A Short Stay in Hell won't give you the intellectual finesse of an examination such as Barrett's or the breadth of understanding that comes with a critical analysis of the philosophy and its history, but it will plunge you face-first down the heartbreaking abyss of what it means, what it feels like, to lose all hope.
Dante's Inferno (which I love, by the way, so don't take this as too derogatory) is a childrens' amusement park, in comparison. No need to abandon hope while entering Peck's Hell: It will be stripped from you whether you want it to be or not; just give it time. You've got all of eternity. Or, rather, all of eternity has you!
I've been eyeball-deep in readings on existentialism lately (research for a novel and for my own
But this . . . this little novella kicked my emotional depths right in the crotch. What could have been a work buried in academic gymnastics turns the rational boundaries by which one anesthetizes ones real self completely inside out. And it hurts. Oh, Ahura Mazda, it hurts! This is a novella which, if you have ever been in love and have then been involuntarily separated from the one you love, will tear your heart apart! If you are sensitive to the injustice of the world, your short stay in hell with Soren Johannson is going to be rather unpleasant.
This isn't your typical conception of Hell. Hell here is modeled after, or at least pays homage to, Borges' "Library of Babel". And unlike the Christian hell, from which there is no escape (without a guide's help, at least), there is a way out. You merely need to peruse the 7.16^1,297,369 light year wide and deep library and find the one book that contains the complete story of your life, from beginning to end. How long can it take, really? Really . . . wrap your brain around that number. This is the size of the library that contains the books through which you must look to find your escape from Hell. This might take a while.
The upside is that you live forever! And you can never die! Or, rather, you can die, but you always come back the next day. This is not without pain, however, and Johannson experiences pain in spades, especially when he finds himself .
But physical death, painful as it is, is nothing compared to the emotional pain of falling deeply in love and losing your lover (not that hard in a place as vast as this). You know that the one you love is there, somewhere, because they can't die, either. But, once lost, what hope do you have of finding that one person again, really?
"Anticipation is a gift. Perhaps there is none greater. Anticipation is born of hope. Indeed it is hopes finest expression. In hope's loss, however, is the greatest despair."
Taken out of context, this quote seems hyperbolic or even pithy. But in the context of the story, I can think of no more gut-wrenching, heart-twisting distillation of existentialism than this. It physically took my breath away when I read it. I gasped aloud and had to remind myself, for a split second, to breathe. It is that emotionally-charged, and a reminder of angst really feels like. A Short Stay in Hell won't give you the intellectual finesse of an examination such as Barrett's or the breadth of understanding that comes with a critical analysis of the philosophy and its history, but it will plunge you face-first down the heartbreaking abyss of what it means, what it feels like, to lose all hope.
Dante's Inferno (which I love, by the way, so don't take this as too derogatory) is a childrens' amusement park, in comparison. No need to abandon hope while entering Peck's Hell: It will be stripped from you whether you want it to be or not; just give it time. You've got all of eternity. Or, rather, all of eternity has you!
March 29, 2022
A 108 page long existential crisis.
November 21, 2025
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
I have often pictured Hell as being nothing more than infinite darkness with a heightened awareness of its asphyxiating nothingness. This book paints an equally suffocating portrait of Hell, but does so with an inexplicable elegance.
This book is short, but it packs a punch. I was immersed in its peculiarity and captivated by its ambition. It somehow encapsulates the unfathomable magnitude of unbounded dimensions in a way that allows me to picture it with ultimate clarity.
It’s ethereal, it’s otherworldly, it’s grandiose, but more than anything, it’s just plain good…
I have often pictured Hell as being nothing more than infinite darkness with a heightened awareness of its asphyxiating nothingness. This book paints an equally suffocating portrait of Hell, but does so with an inexplicable elegance.
This book is short, but it packs a punch. I was immersed in its peculiarity and captivated by its ambition. It somehow encapsulates the unfathomable magnitude of unbounded dimensions in a way that allows me to picture it with ultimate clarity.
It’s ethereal, it’s otherworldly, it’s grandiose, but more than anything, it’s just plain good…
July 11, 2025
“The mind can only take so much before it begins to forget what it means to be human.”
A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck is one of the most haunting, thought-provoking books I’ve ever read and it’s barely over 100 pages. This isn’t Hell with flames and demons, it’s something much more terrifying: endless monotony, infinite time, and the slow erosion of everything that makes you you.
Soren’s journey through a boundless library, tasked with finding the single book that tells his life story, is both absurd and deeply profound. The existential horror creeps in quietly, and by the end, you’re left with this crushing sense of how fragile meaning really is. Peck manages to blend Camus and a touch of Kafka into something uniquely horrifying and oddly beautiful.
It’s a quick read, but it will echo in your mind for days. Honestly, it made me question everything, from my beliefs to my relationship with time, purpose, and memory. Absolutely brilliant.
My Highest Recommendation.
A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck is one of the most haunting, thought-provoking books I’ve ever read and it’s barely over 100 pages. This isn’t Hell with flames and demons, it’s something much more terrifying: endless monotony, infinite time, and the slow erosion of everything that makes you you.
Soren’s journey through a boundless library, tasked with finding the single book that tells his life story, is both absurd and deeply profound. The existential horror creeps in quietly, and by the end, you’re left with this crushing sense of how fragile meaning really is. Peck manages to blend Camus and a touch of Kafka into something uniquely horrifying and oddly beautiful.
It’s a quick read, but it will echo in your mind for days. Honestly, it made me question everything, from my beliefs to my relationship with time, purpose, and memory. Absolutely brilliant.
My Highest Recommendation.
December 19, 2023
A short stay in hell is of 104 pages, but it ended up being a long drawn out hell for me. I had zero takeaways or enjoyment reading this. How can such a short book make me feel like I've been slogging it for months. 🙌🏽 to everyone that loved it though. Moving on swiftly.
June 21, 2016
"Finite does not mean much if you can't tell any practical difference between it and infinite."
- Steven L. Peck, A Short Stay in Hell
I have bemoaned for years the sad state of Mormon letters. Do I need to comment here that I don't really consider Ender's Game or Twilight to be literature? There have been a couple close calls. I personally really liked Brady Udall's books (The Lonely Polygamist, The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint, and Letting Loose the Hounds: Stories) and I've heard good things about Levi Peterson, but have yet to read him. There is also Walter Kirn, but I'm certain he wouldn't want his stint as a Mormon to throw him into consideration for Monarch of Mormon Lit (and to be fair, I doubt Steven Peck or Brady Udall would either). There is Brian Evenson who left BYU after the administration basically choked on his first book of stories (Altmann's Tongue: Stories and a Novella).
After this small group the ground seems to really dry up. I wasn't exactly desperate to find a Mormon author who wrote well. I kinda just stopped caring. It wasn't like it was some endless quest that had meaning for me. It had none. It seemed absurd to try. My people seemed largely unable to deal with the complexity, absurdity, despair, nuance, and self-reflection necessary (I thought) to write really, REALLY good fiction. So, it was in this frame of mind that I made a dark comment about the state of Mormon letters to a friend named Kevin. The next time we met, he tossed this book at me.
I was skeptical. I shelved it among the 2,000+ other books I owned, but had yet to read. I read probably 300 books between the time Kevin gave this book to me and the time I decided I was ready to read it. I'm not sure why I waited so long. The book isn't long. Hell. It is barely a novella. I think it weighs in at 104 pages. If it was a fish, you might be tempted to throw it back. It was ironic that I had more reluctance to read this novel than I had to read Proust's entire In Search of Lost Time. But today, I found it, opened it, and started reading. In about two hours I was done and I was changed. I was wrong. It was like discovering a whole room full of LDS monkeys had written me 1,000 notes and I just read one that said: "Oh, ye of little wraith."
Anyway, enough preamble. Why did I enjoy this short book about a short stay in Hell?
1. Peck is an evolutionary ecologist with a background in biomathematics and entomology. So, it seems two (Peck, Evenson) of my three (Peck, Evenson, Udall) contenders for best living writers of Mormon Literature* are either scientists (Peck) or sons of scientists (Evenson's father William E Evenson is an emeritus professor of physics at BYU and is responsible, along with Duane E. Jeffery, of producing Mormonism and Evolution: The Authoritative LDS Statements). Achtung Mormon mothers. If you really want your little kid to grow up to write the Great American Mormon Novel, either marry a Physics professor, send your kid to school to study statistics and evolution, or surround her with a billion theoretical monkeys.
2. I love Peck's fluency with both the history of Borges, "The Total Library", "The Library of Babel", and the whole idea of large numbers, infinite monkey theorem, etc. He appears to by a polymath with an emphasis on math.
3. For me, what sets Peck apart with this novel, is his ability to turn the complexity and absurdity of large numbers into a believable Hell and nuance the Hell out of it. In many ways 'A Short Stay in Hell' is one of the most economical horror stories since H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness. From time to time, this book seemed to also echo Edgar Allen Poe and Dan Simmons.
And, least you think I've gone completely out of my mind, 'A Short Stay in Hell' isn't perfect. It could have been longer. Peck also isn't a perfect prose stylist. He isn't writing at the level of Herman Melville, Vladimir Nabokov, or Virginia Woolf. But that is OK. I'm willing to grade the prose of his novella on a bit of a curve since I NEVER thought I would personally live to find and enjoy a book written by a Mormon. My search is over and I so I now quietly apologize to the wise Lord Ahura Mazda for any offense and await my death and judgement.
* I am purposefully not including Terry Tempest Williams in my list of Mormon writers of literature NOT because I'm a misogynist and don't think she writes valuable stuff, but because I think she is more of a memoirist and poet.
- Steven L. Peck, A Short Stay in Hell
I have bemoaned for years the sad state of Mormon letters. Do I need to comment here that I don't really consider Ender's Game or Twilight to be literature? There have been a couple close calls. I personally really liked Brady Udall's books (The Lonely Polygamist, The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint, and Letting Loose the Hounds: Stories) and I've heard good things about Levi Peterson, but have yet to read him. There is also Walter Kirn, but I'm certain he wouldn't want his stint as a Mormon to throw him into consideration for Monarch of Mormon Lit (and to be fair, I doubt Steven Peck or Brady Udall would either). There is Brian Evenson who left BYU after the administration basically choked on his first book of stories (Altmann's Tongue: Stories and a Novella).
After this small group the ground seems to really dry up. I wasn't exactly desperate to find a Mormon author who wrote well. I kinda just stopped caring. It wasn't like it was some endless quest that had meaning for me. It had none. It seemed absurd to try. My people seemed largely unable to deal with the complexity, absurdity, despair, nuance, and self-reflection necessary (I thought) to write really, REALLY good fiction. So, it was in this frame of mind that I made a dark comment about the state of Mormon letters to a friend named Kevin. The next time we met, he tossed this book at me.
I was skeptical. I shelved it among the 2,000+ other books I owned, but had yet to read. I read probably 300 books between the time Kevin gave this book to me and the time I decided I was ready to read it. I'm not sure why I waited so long. The book isn't long. Hell. It is barely a novella. I think it weighs in at 104 pages. If it was a fish, you might be tempted to throw it back. It was ironic that I had more reluctance to read this novel than I had to read Proust's entire In Search of Lost Time. But today, I found it, opened it, and started reading. In about two hours I was done and I was changed. I was wrong. It was like discovering a whole room full of LDS monkeys had written me 1,000 notes and I just read one that said: "Oh, ye of little wraith."
Anyway, enough preamble. Why did I enjoy this short book about a short stay in Hell?
1. Peck is an evolutionary ecologist with a background in biomathematics and entomology. So, it seems two (Peck, Evenson) of my three (Peck, Evenson, Udall) contenders for best living writers of Mormon Literature* are either scientists (Peck) or sons of scientists (Evenson's father William E Evenson is an emeritus professor of physics at BYU and is responsible, along with Duane E. Jeffery, of producing Mormonism and Evolution: The Authoritative LDS Statements). Achtung Mormon mothers. If you really want your little kid to grow up to write the Great American Mormon Novel, either marry a Physics professor, send your kid to school to study statistics and evolution, or surround her with a billion theoretical monkeys.
2. I love Peck's fluency with both the history of Borges, "The Total Library", "The Library of Babel", and the whole idea of large numbers, infinite monkey theorem, etc. He appears to by a polymath with an emphasis on math.
3. For me, what sets Peck apart with this novel, is his ability to turn the complexity and absurdity of large numbers into a believable Hell and nuance the Hell out of it. In many ways 'A Short Stay in Hell' is one of the most economical horror stories since H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness. From time to time, this book seemed to also echo Edgar Allen Poe and Dan Simmons.
And, least you think I've gone completely out of my mind, 'A Short Stay in Hell' isn't perfect. It could have been longer. Peck also isn't a perfect prose stylist. He isn't writing at the level of Herman Melville, Vladimir Nabokov, or Virginia Woolf. But that is OK. I'm willing to grade the prose of his novella on a bit of a curve since I NEVER thought I would personally live to find and enjoy a book written by a Mormon. My search is over and I so I now quietly apologize to the wise Lord Ahura Mazda for any offense and await my death and judgement.
* I am purposefully not including Terry Tempest Williams in my list of Mormon writers of literature NOT because I'm a misogynist and don't think she writes valuable stuff, but because I think she is more of a memoirist and poet.
April 27, 2024
Reading this book was like a short stay in hell
March 27, 2012
Mormon Soren Johansson dies and wakes up in the afterlife, only to find that Zoroastrianism was the one true faith. He's then banished to a hell suitable for his rehabilitation needs: a library of near infinite size, containing every possible book ever written, one of which is his life story. Can Soren find that elusive book?
I got this book for free from the publisher, and normally that would make it feel like a homework assignment from a crabby teacher once the "free book" excitement wore off. Not so with this one. It's a damn good book.
A Short Stay in Hell reminds me of something Philip Jose Farmer would concoct after digging through some of Hermann Hesse's notes, or if Hermann Hesse tried writing Riverworld. Soren wakes up in hell with a perfect 25 year old body, gets free food from kiosks, and is resurrected when killed. Sounds Farmer-ish, right?
The library Soren wakes up in is based in part on Jorge Luis Borges Library of Babel. It's light-years tall, containing every 410 page book that could possibly ever be written. Needless to say, Soren's road to redemption isn't going to be a stroll down to the corner pub for a beer.
Lots of things happen in this slim volume. It explores what immortality would be like while performing a seemingly impossible task. I don't want to give too much away but there's a near-bottomless chasm between the two walls of the library and it gets heavy use.
Even though the first word I used in the summary is Mormon and Zoroastrianism also made an appearance, I wouldn't say it's religious fiction. It's more about one man dealing with an impossible task over an untold number of years. Still, he gets to read so it can't be all that bad...
Like I said, this book was pretty slim. About the only complaint I have would be that the writing was a bit rocky in the early going but it smoothed out after the prologue and really moved the story along. Other than that, I would have liked it to be three or four times this long. It's either a high 3 or a low 4. I'm going to go with the 4.
I got this book for free from the publisher, and normally that would make it feel like a homework assignment from a crabby teacher once the "free book" excitement wore off. Not so with this one. It's a damn good book.
A Short Stay in Hell reminds me of something Philip Jose Farmer would concoct after digging through some of Hermann Hesse's notes, or if Hermann Hesse tried writing Riverworld. Soren wakes up in hell with a perfect 25 year old body, gets free food from kiosks, and is resurrected when killed. Sounds Farmer-ish, right?
The library Soren wakes up in is based in part on Jorge Luis Borges Library of Babel. It's light-years tall, containing every 410 page book that could possibly ever be written. Needless to say, Soren's road to redemption isn't going to be a stroll down to the corner pub for a beer.
Lots of things happen in this slim volume. It explores what immortality would be like while performing a seemingly impossible task. I don't want to give too much away but there's a near-bottomless chasm between the two walls of the library and it gets heavy use.
Even though the first word I used in the summary is Mormon and Zoroastrianism also made an appearance, I wouldn't say it's religious fiction. It's more about one man dealing with an impossible task over an untold number of years. Still, he gets to read so it can't be all that bad...
Like I said, this book was pretty slim. About the only complaint I have would be that the writing was a bit rocky in the early going but it smoothed out after the prologue and really moved the story along. Other than that, I would have liked it to be three or four times this long. It's either a high 3 or a low 4. I'm going to go with the 4.
October 15, 2012
Peck uses the Borges story "The Library of Babel" as inspiration for his own take on a version of Hell in this thought-provoking novella.
As the story opens, Soren Johansson finds himself dressed in a robe, sitting on a metal folding chair with a view of men and women who are screaming while swimming in a lake of fire. He soon learns from Xandern, the 8-foot tall demon who welcomes him, that he has died, that Zoroastrianism is the one true religion, and that he is being sent to a specific version of hell, selected especially for him, until he has been "corrected" enough to go to heaven.
Soren finds himself whisked away into an unimaginably vast library, based on Borges' Library of Babel, where he has to locate his life story among the endless shelves of volumes. He is not alone -- other people have been assigned the same task. Soon, they all realize how much more difficult their quest is than they ever imagined it to be. In the process, Peck creates a microcosm of human history, as he describes how Soren and his companions deal with these challenges -- through intimate relationships, organized study, cults, violence, compassion, loneliness, pain, sorrow, hopelessness, and love.
Peck's novella first captured my imagination for the quirky details he uses to flesh out this vision of Hell. (He sold me from the start with the triumph of Zoroastrianism.) However, he kept my attention through his deft handling of key aspects of the human condition. The novella has stayed with me, as I continue to explore and consider the implications of the questions he raises.
As the story opens, Soren Johansson finds himself dressed in a robe, sitting on a metal folding chair with a view of men and women who are screaming while swimming in a lake of fire. He soon learns from Xandern, the 8-foot tall demon who welcomes him, that he has died, that Zoroastrianism is the one true religion, and that he is being sent to a specific version of hell, selected especially for him, until he has been "corrected" enough to go to heaven.
Soren finds himself whisked away into an unimaginably vast library, based on Borges' Library of Babel, where he has to locate his life story among the endless shelves of volumes. He is not alone -- other people have been assigned the same task. Soon, they all realize how much more difficult their quest is than they ever imagined it to be. In the process, Peck creates a microcosm of human history, as he describes how Soren and his companions deal with these challenges -- through intimate relationships, organized study, cults, violence, compassion, loneliness, pain, sorrow, hopelessness, and love.
Peck's novella first captured my imagination for the quirky details he uses to flesh out this vision of Hell. (He sold me from the start with the triumph of Zoroastrianism.) However, he kept my attention through his deft handling of key aspects of the human condition. The novella has stayed with me, as I continue to explore and consider the implications of the questions he raises.
November 13, 2023
i really hate when authors lampshade about having too many or only white characters in their books, and this was the most egregious example of that that i have read. especially since there is no reason for race to be mentioned at all in a story like this. the author is very blunt about Every Character A White American being a metaphor for the mundanity of hell, i really think its just a shortcut for his lack of imagination. being white isn't a "default race" and positing so is lazy writing; if someone wants to really erase all difference between a given fictional population why not make them actually raceless and also genderless too?
the story itself is unartfully written and nothing new on this subject is really proposed. the protagonist is Just Some Guy who meets some people sometimes, searches for things sometimes, and gives up after a while. the original short story this is inspired by is better worth the reading time.
the story itself is unartfully written and nothing new on this subject is really proposed. the protagonist is Just Some Guy who meets some people sometimes, searches for things sometimes, and gives up after a while. the original short story this is inspired by is better worth the reading time.
September 21, 2025
We meet Soren, who in life was a faithful Mormon. When he dies, he goes to hell, where the welcoming demon (who's actually quite witty) informs him it's because he didn't follow the one true faith, Zoroastrianism (this is a real religion, by the way; who knew... not me).
There seem to be different versions of hell depending on who you were and what you liked when you were alive. Because Soren had a love of books, he gets sent to a huge library, where he will only be released when he finds a book about the story of his life.
The library, however, appears infinite, and most of the books are full of nonsense – obviously, there are huge references here to The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges.
I mean, can you imagine? The hell Soren was in was never-ending. That book would have been in there somewhere, but finding it would be an impossible task. The scenes where he's falling trying to find the bottom, and then when he tries to stop, were terrifying and gruesome. Through his descent, you can feel his hopelessness and despair.
There were obviously allegories and parallels to life thrown in here too: how we make friends and enemies, fall in love, segregation, religious beliefs and the killing/torturing of people in the name of, the infinity of our universe, etc. These allegorical-type references have all been done before in other books, of course, and probably better, but nevertheless this is certainly a thought-provoking little book. This is a relatively short story at just over 100 pages long.
There seem to be different versions of hell depending on who you were and what you liked when you were alive. Because Soren had a love of books, he gets sent to a huge library, where he will only be released when he finds a book about the story of his life.
The library, however, appears infinite, and most of the books are full of nonsense – obviously, there are huge references here to The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges.
I mean, can you imagine? The hell Soren was in was never-ending. That book would have been in there somewhere, but finding it would be an impossible task. The scenes where he's falling trying to find the bottom, and then when he tries to stop, were terrifying and gruesome. Through his descent, you can feel his hopelessness and despair.
There were obviously allegories and parallels to life thrown in here too: how we make friends and enemies, fall in love, segregation, religious beliefs and the killing/torturing of people in the name of, the infinity of our universe, etc. These allegorical-type references have all been done before in other books, of course, and probably better, but nevertheless this is certainly a thought-provoking little book. This is a relatively short story at just over 100 pages long.
January 26, 2022
I could name a few things that build this novella up into something glorious, like the appropriation of Borges' Library of Babel, a smattering of Zoroastrianism, an existential horror written like an adaptation of that old movie, Defending Your Life, or the old adage about getting enough monkeys together to write one of Shakespeare's plays, but all of these are just elements.
The novella itself is a sucker punch to the gut.
I'm gobsmacked.
I might go on a little rage, telling everyone I know to stop what they're doing and pick this tale up and weep. Think about an afterlife that is closer to The Platform or an existential horror on par with The Squid Game. Make sure you're prepared to pick up a book or two.
And weep. :)
Muahahahahahaha SUCH A GOOD TALE.
The novella itself is a sucker punch to the gut.
I'm gobsmacked.
I might go on a little rage, telling everyone I know to stop what they're doing and pick this tale up and weep. Think about an afterlife that is closer to The Platform or an existential horror on par with The Squid Game. Make sure you're prepared to pick up a book or two.
And weep. :)
Muahahahahahaha SUCH A GOOD TALE.
November 12, 2025
RATING BREAKDOWN
Characters: 3⭐️
Setting: 4⭐️
Plot: 3⭐️
Themes: 3⭐️
Emotional Impact: 1⭐️
Personal Enjoyment: 2⭐️
Total Rounded Average: 2.75⭐️
Such an interesting hypothetical to imagine Hell as a finite, but unfathomably large place, lacking in uniqueness, change, or variance, and going on past a time one can register. It certainly sounds awful. This story explores limitations in a really unique way. Hell is not infinite. But it is so vast that no amount of conceivable time could make it knowable. It's never explicitly stated, and its subtlety is part of its artistry.
I was left pondering the boundaries of time and space and how they give my life meaning, because they provide the context. How can a story be derived without a beginning and an end, and without change? Hell in this story is a place without change—a place beyond the limits that define everything that matters. For this reason, the setting is incredibly effective and garners the highest rating. I found the characters to be mere devices for the setting and plot, and the plot itself works for the message, but is incredibly unsatisfying and non-progressing (which may be the intention). While the ideas are worthwhile, the overall theme and tone feel existential at best and nihilistic at worst. For that reason, I didn't have a very good time with the book, but again, maybe that is the point. On the lightest possible note, I am left with an appreciation for the time and space limitations of my life.
This one challenges what a book or story is—what they're supposed to be. As a thought experiment, or piece of art, it's well executed and evocative, therefore successful. As a story, it feels incomplete.
Characters: 3⭐️
Setting: 4⭐️
Plot: 3⭐️
Themes: 3⭐️
Emotional Impact: 1⭐️
Personal Enjoyment: 2⭐️
Total Rounded Average: 2.75⭐️
Such an interesting hypothetical to imagine Hell as a finite, but unfathomably large place, lacking in uniqueness, change, or variance, and going on past a time one can register. It certainly sounds awful. This story explores limitations in a really unique way. Hell is not infinite. But it is so vast that no amount of conceivable time could make it knowable. It's never explicitly stated, and its subtlety is part of its artistry.
I was left pondering the boundaries of time and space and how they give my life meaning, because they provide the context. How can a story be derived without a beginning and an end, and without change? Hell in this story is a place without change—a place beyond the limits that define everything that matters. For this reason, the setting is incredibly effective and garners the highest rating. I found the characters to be mere devices for the setting and plot, and the plot itself works for the message, but is incredibly unsatisfying and non-progressing (which may be the intention). While the ideas are worthwhile, the overall theme and tone feel existential at best and nihilistic at worst. For that reason, I didn't have a very good time with the book, but again, maybe that is the point. On the lightest possible note, I am left with an appreciation for the time and space limitations of my life.
This one challenges what a book or story is—what they're supposed to be. As a thought experiment, or piece of art, it's well executed and evocative, therefore successful. As a story, it feels incomplete.
Read
September 2, 2025Wow, still thinking of this. What a quick but impactful book. The story follows our main character who was a devout Mormon but we find him in hell. Mormonism wasn’t the truth religion, Zoroastrianism is. And this is a hell of that religion. But it’s different than what a Christian would think Hell would be. And at first it seems maybe not so bad. But the people sent there are tasked with finding a physical book containing their story. The problem? There’s BILLIONS (if not more) of books in Hell and basically every iteration of any kind of novel that could exist, is there. So this really looks at “living” with no real goals to work towards (outside of searching for the book), losing people you’ve grown close to and having to “live” on without them. Like imagine being with someone for 1,000 years and they leave and you’re still there!!!!? This made me think. There were some brutal moments. Some moments of genuine human connection. But this was also really sad and brief. A quick summation of billions of year in Hell. Woof 😮💨
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 28, 2022
I'm clearly in the minority here with my low rating but I got nothing from this story. Not a curiosity for the subject matter. Not a wondering about human existence. Nothing. This novella plays out human behavior in hell exactly like humans live when in their "earthly bodies". People find ways to make friends, make institutions, make people into Prophets, creating chaos and violence. And I'm not even going into the fact that this description of hell only contained white American people. I have thoughts but this is not the place for that conversation. I found this book on a list of "most disturbing books" and honestly it read like normal mundane life. I have seen similar depair, madness, and violence depicted in this hell, reported in the 5 O'Clock News. The writing as fine, the use over complicated words to describe small moments and details was annoying.
December 6, 2024
What to say about this?!!! My mind is absolutely blown… and I’m absolutely horrified. This was, in an existential way… terrifying. One of the scariest things I’ve ever read.
This tells the story of what happens when we die… as told by one man, who passes at the age of 45 from brain cancer… but he reappears as a twenty five year old healthy man… sitting with others who have also passed… before a demon who chooses each individuals hell, where they just live before moving in to what could be called heaven…. But is referred to as a beautiful wonderful place.
This particular Hell chosen for our narrator is a never ending library where he must find the story of his life. To us book nerds this may sound great… he has food, a warm place to sleep, and an endless amount of books. I promise you… I now can’t think of anything more horrifying.
This tells the story of what happens when we die… as told by one man, who passes at the age of 45 from brain cancer… but he reappears as a twenty five year old healthy man… sitting with others who have also passed… before a demon who chooses each individuals hell, where they just live before moving in to what could be called heaven…. But is referred to as a beautiful wonderful place.
This particular Hell chosen for our narrator is a never ending library where he must find the story of his life. To us book nerds this may sound great… he has food, a warm place to sleep, and an endless amount of books. I promise you… I now can’t think of anything more horrifying.
May 29, 2016
I really liked the ideas that this book had, but I wasn't satisfied with where it took any of them. I would have liked it better if it took one or two of the ideas and ran with it. Instead, many things felt shallow and unresolved.
Despite its flaws, it was an interesting and short read.
Despite its flaws, it was an interesting and short read.
October 15, 2023
A tour of a literary hell worthy of Mephistopheles.
Sometimes fun and clever, at other times a devastating dissection of the human psyche, and when it gets going it goes hard.
The ending was like being hit with a baseball bat to the feelings.
A triple shot of nausea, cosmic horror and bleak despair.
I loved it.
9/10
Sometimes fun and clever, at other times a devastating dissection of the human psyche, and when it gets going it goes hard.
The ending was like being hit with a baseball bat to the feelings.
A triple shot of nausea, cosmic horror and bleak despair.
I loved it.
9/10
July 3, 2024
maybe the real 'short stay in hell' was reading the book itself all along ♡
this was basically just a fanfic version of "the library" of babel" by borges ngl
what pissed me off the most was people recommending the book with phrases like "one of the most disturbing books", "horror must-read", "devastating dissection of the human psyche" - do you all even know what words mean????
this was basically just a fanfic version of "the library" of babel" by borges ngl
what pissed me off the most was people recommending the book with phrases like "one of the most disturbing books", "horror must-read", "devastating dissection of the human psyche" - do you all even know what words mean????
July 14, 2024
This place has gotta be rough for dyslexic people
August 8, 2025
I did expect horror (in whatever form it may come) but got something so close to normal human life that I'm genuinely surprised.
March 19, 2024
A brief, gleefully bleak horror comedy that begins with three pretty funny jokes. Our Mormon protagonist finds himself in a room being administered by an 8 foot demon complete with horns. Demon is trying to figure out which hell he should go to. What? But I shouldn’t be here at all! I’m a good Mormon! I believe in God and Jesus and everything! Demon explains well, kiddo, you picked the wrong religion. The real true religion is Zoroastrianism. Our Mormon is indignant – why was this not made clear? “Bit of bad luck there,” says the demon, in a don’t blame me, I don’t make the rules kind of way.
So anyway, he gets zapped off to one particular Hell and he’s reading the rules on a big helpful board :
Welcome to Hell. This Hell is based upon a short story by Jorge Luis Borges from your world called “The Library of Babel”. Here you will find all the books that can possibly be written.
And after listing nine rules, it concludes
We hope you enjoy your stay here. We have done all we can to make your stay a pleasant and instructive one.
Kind of counterfactual, you may think. But really this Hell is pretty pleasant, you get to eat delicious food all the time, you get to have your 25 year old body which never gets sick, and wonder of wonders you get to meet people and have sex, should you so desire. What could be so bad about Hell, then?
For the answer, you should read this funny and excruciating little book.
Note : In case you were wondering how many books are in this library of hell, there is an answer. The combination of letters and words are confined to those found on a Roman alphabet keyboard, and include all the punctuation too, alas, so the number is quite high, it’s 95 to the power of 1,312,000 which is way way more than the number of electrons in our present universe.
So anyway, he gets zapped off to one particular Hell and he’s reading the rules on a big helpful board :
Welcome to Hell. This Hell is based upon a short story by Jorge Luis Borges from your world called “The Library of Babel”. Here you will find all the books that can possibly be written.
And after listing nine rules, it concludes
We hope you enjoy your stay here. We have done all we can to make your stay a pleasant and instructive one.
Kind of counterfactual, you may think. But really this Hell is pretty pleasant, you get to eat delicious food all the time, you get to have your 25 year old body which never gets sick, and wonder of wonders you get to meet people and have sex, should you so desire. What could be so bad about Hell, then?
For the answer, you should read this funny and excruciating little book.
Note : In case you were wondering how many books are in this library of hell, there is an answer. The combination of letters and words are confined to those found on a Roman alphabet keyboard, and include all the punctuation too, alas, so the number is quite high, it’s 95 to the power of 1,312,000 which is way way more than the number of electrons in our present universe.
December 27, 2016
I absolutely loved this book! It's a short read, but a unique one. It raises so many questions, and it haunts you long after you have finished reading it. It also calls into question the concepts of finite and infinite, and introduces numbers the size of which make my head hurt (not actually that hard to do--I'm an English teacher, so I'm befuddled by fairly small numbers, which these aren't).
It starts with a Mormon guy finding out, as everyone else is, that no matter what your religion was, it was the wrong one. Only Zoroastrianism will get you into Heaven, and how many people practice that? Everyone else is condemned to Hell. The good news is that Hell is not how it has been portrayed to many. There are no flames and imps with pitchforks, and it's not permanent. After a period of time, you can win your way out. Our protagonist, Soran Johanssen, will spend his period of penance in a library full of an infinite number of books. Wait! You say. Isn't this supposed to be Hell? Isn't Hell supposed to be bad? Are you sure this isn't Heaven? It's a library! But wait, children--you didn't let me finish. Out of this infinity of books, the percentage of ones that have the alphabet arranged in ways that make sense is extremely small. So, yeah, it's Hell! Imagine being in a library and seeing shelves that stretch as far as the eye can see: rows and rows of books, AND NOT ONE THAT YOU CAN ACTUALLY READ! That, my friends, is HELL!
*** SPOILERS AHEAD ***
Soren's job, like everyone else there, is to find the one book that is about him. It doesn't take long for the newly condemned to realize the futility of this enterprise. They have been tasked with the library version of finding the needle in the haystack. They start off bemoaning the fact that this might take up to ten years to accomplish, but later in the book, they have been searching for billions of years. Like I said, the numbers make my head hurt!
There are some good things about Hell: you can get anything you want to eat--anything! You just order it at a feeding station and it instantly appears. There are other people to hang out with, to be friends with, and even to have romantic encounters with. People hook up and break up, just like on Earth. No matter what injury you sustain, even death, is magically healed the next day. If you die in Hell, no matter how horrifically, you wake up the next day, fresh as a daisy. The problem with Hell, other than the lack of good reading material, is that it is peopled by humans. Humans find a way to ruin everything, including Hell. They form gangs, they attack each other, there's rape, assault, and murder. It is during one of these attacks that Soren experiences the event that makes this place even more hellish for him--he loses the woman he loves. Losing someone in the library doesn't mean in death; it means you actually lose them, as in you can no longer find them. They're still there, but you don't know where. Since it is infinite in size, and you don't have cell phones, it's extremely unlikely you will find each other again. So he knows she's still there, probably looking for him, but there's nothing to be done about it.
There are just so many issues to ponder with this book: religion, God, eternity, existentialism. Soren clings to his hope, both of finding his book, but especially of finding his lost love. Many others he runs across have lost all hope. What a truly terrible existence--to have lost all hope, all reason for living, but to be cursed with eternal life. That truly is Hell.
I urge you to read this book, despite how bleak it sounds. It's really quite engrossing. Highly recommended!!
It starts with a Mormon guy finding out, as everyone else is, that no matter what your religion was, it was the wrong one. Only Zoroastrianism will get you into Heaven, and how many people practice that? Everyone else is condemned to Hell. The good news is that Hell is not how it has been portrayed to many. There are no flames and imps with pitchforks, and it's not permanent. After a period of time, you can win your way out. Our protagonist, Soran Johanssen, will spend his period of penance in a library full of an infinite number of books. Wait! You say. Isn't this supposed to be Hell? Isn't Hell supposed to be bad? Are you sure this isn't Heaven? It's a library! But wait, children--you didn't let me finish. Out of this infinity of books, the percentage of ones that have the alphabet arranged in ways that make sense is extremely small. So, yeah, it's Hell! Imagine being in a library and seeing shelves that stretch as far as the eye can see: rows and rows of books, AND NOT ONE THAT YOU CAN ACTUALLY READ! That, my friends, is HELL!
*** SPOILERS AHEAD ***
Soren's job, like everyone else there, is to find the one book that is about him. It doesn't take long for the newly condemned to realize the futility of this enterprise. They have been tasked with the library version of finding the needle in the haystack. They start off bemoaning the fact that this might take up to ten years to accomplish, but later in the book, they have been searching for billions of years. Like I said, the numbers make my head hurt!
There are some good things about Hell: you can get anything you want to eat--anything! You just order it at a feeding station and it instantly appears. There are other people to hang out with, to be friends with, and even to have romantic encounters with. People hook up and break up, just like on Earth. No matter what injury you sustain, even death, is magically healed the next day. If you die in Hell, no matter how horrifically, you wake up the next day, fresh as a daisy. The problem with Hell, other than the lack of good reading material, is that it is peopled by humans. Humans find a way to ruin everything, including Hell. They form gangs, they attack each other, there's rape, assault, and murder. It is during one of these attacks that Soren experiences the event that makes this place even more hellish for him--he loses the woman he loves. Losing someone in the library doesn't mean in death; it means you actually lose them, as in you can no longer find them. They're still there, but you don't know where. Since it is infinite in size, and you don't have cell phones, it's extremely unlikely you will find each other again. So he knows she's still there, probably looking for him, but there's nothing to be done about it.
There are just so many issues to ponder with this book: religion, God, eternity, existentialism. Soren clings to his hope, both of finding his book, but especially of finding his lost love. Many others he runs across have lost all hope. What a truly terrible existence--to have lost all hope, all reason for living, but to be cursed with eternal life. That truly is Hell.
I urge you to read this book, despite how bleak it sounds. It's really quite engrossing. Highly recommended!!
October 11, 2016
It was fascinating at first, and as a reader, a version of hell would definitely be all the books possible, yet none that make any sense. However, all the countless numbers overwhelmed me and became tedious to the point that a short stay in hell was trying to finish this book.
July 4, 2016
Question: If you knew for a fact that not only was there a Hell but that there was a vast array of different types of Hell, how would you feel if you knew the Hell selected for you was a library?
If you are reading this review then it's obvious you are also a book lover so you are probably thinking the answer is a no-brainer.
All righty then! You need to read this novella and then tell me what you think after that.
Of course I didn't get into detail as to how a library could possibly be bad, let a lone any kind of Hell, but I will let the reader discover that for themselves. Let's just say, this story almost hurt my brain just trying to fathom the magnitude of suffering from something as incomprehensible as an existence that continues on for innumerable light years.
I really enjoyed this story. It peeled back my perspective like an onion and left me actually appreciating my mortality. If the man on the corner preaching Hell fire and brimstone ever reads this story I'm sure he will be altering his sermon.
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