🏷️ Spoiler Policy
Reviews on The Muddled Reader are spoiler safe by default and focus on mental health themes rather than plot. Any post containing plot spoilers is clearly marked.
Review through a mental health lens
Book details
Title: A Short Stay In Hell
Author: Steve L. Peck
Date Published: March 21st 2011
Pages: 108
🍀 Why I Picked This Book
Inspired by the short story by Borges, “The Library of Babel”, I had seen a lot of people say that this book terrified them like no other. An afterlife in an endless library. Floor upon floor, row upon row of books. Every book contains every possible scenario that could ever be written. All you have to do to escape is find the one book that tells your complete life story word for word, how hard can that be? Finding a book that even strings a coherent sentence together could take light years. Why do I do this to myself? My heart is racing just typing this!
🌈 Overall Feeling & Vibes
This book deserves the hype. It succeeded in giving me existential dread like no other book I’ve read. Finding your one book to escape your purgatory could take billion upon billions of years. The human mind can’t possibly process this amount of time. In our minds, everything comes to an end and it’s what can ease our anxiety. Nothing is forever right?
🧠 Mental Health Themes Present
🧵 Existential dread
🧵 Religion
🧵 Death
🧵 Purgatory
🧵 Loneliness
🧵 Identity
💥 Moments That Hit Hard
There is a moment with a stairwell that puts into perspective this idea of time. Time is a big topic in this book. As someone who is atheist, it also made me think about how some humans are so sure of their faith, when there are so many faiths and religions that exist.
👥 Who Would I Recommend This Book To
It sounds crazy but I would recommend this book to anxious people. Something I’ve found is that reading horror helps my anxiety and catastrophising as it works as a diversion. It’s not comparable to my real life so it really takes my mind away from reality whilst I’m reading. I wouldn’t recommend it to someone that questions their religious choices or suffers from religious or death OCD. This book could exacerbate existential rumination, scrupulosity, or infinity related intrusive thoughts
📝 Final Reflections
This short book packs a punch! For me it was pure escapism, for some it may be too much as talked about above. I love a book to fill me with fear but not to carry this fear over into my real life, and this did the trick.
🌿 Comfort / Distress Balance
Emotionally heavy: 💔💔💔💔(Not a 5 as it’s more terrifying than emotional)
Hopeful elements: 🌤️(There are moments of human connection and needs being met)
Comfort read potential: ☕(You can eat and drink anything your heart desires, surely that’s a comfort!)
Overall Book Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐