📖 Book: A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck

Mini Muddled Rating

☕☕☕☕☕

📝 The Muddled Summary

Soren, a 40 something practicing Mormon, has followed his faith religiously. Therefore, he always believed he would be rewarded an afterlife with lost loved ones. Sadly, cancer takes his life far sooner than expected and he finds himself in front of a Satan-like form that sends him to a version of hell Soren would never have dreamed of.

At first, this hell doesn’t seem so bad. A comfortable bed to sleep in, friends to be made, and any meal that your heart desires will appear before you if you simply ask. This hell is not eternal either. All you have to do is find the one book that tells your complete life story word for word, and you get to leave.

What Soren soon begins to realise though, is that the library is endless. Floor upon floor, row upon row. Every book for every possible scenario is written, most in gibberish. Just finding a book where a string of words makes any sense can take literally years. Is Soren ever going to find his book?

🎭 The Vibe

Purgatory, Groundhog Day, existential dread, eternity, anxiety, forever.

💥 What Stuck with Me

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.

🌱 Real Life Lesson

I’m not sure I learnt any lessons reading this as the horror outlined is beyond control! Maybe, enjoy our lives here on earth as much as we can?

🧩 Mental Health Threads

• Existential anxiety • Religious doubt OCD / intrusive thoughts • Fear of infinity • Death anxiety • Identity

👀 I’d Recommend This If…

You’re an anxious person! 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

⚠️ Worth Knowing

See above, existential, religious or just OCD in general sufferers might find the subject matter too much.

📝 Final Thoughts

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 (out of 5)

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!)