Spoiler-Free Review

If you’re looking for a 100-page novella that will stick with you longer than some novels 5x the size, try A Short Stay in Hell.

What’s A Short Stay in Hell about?

Soren Johansson, a lifelong Mormon, has died. Except he finds himself cast into Hell by a God he’s never heard of and assigned a practically impossible task, with literal eternity to accomplish it.

My thoughts keep circling back to this novella.

This story took me on a ride in a way that I wasn’t expecting, and I read it in a single day. The beginning was actually kind of funny, and the entire situation was so intriguing that the actual horror really crept up on me slowly. It wasn’t until I started nearing the end that the realization of it hit me, which was followed by the true existential dread.

The horror this story presents is eternity. It really puts front and center how little we, as humans, can truly grasp the dimensions of such an endless stretch of time.

As a novella with the full punching power of a novel, the writing style is simpler by necessity. But this didn’t take away from the impact of the story – if anything, I think this enhanced it. It doesn’t wax poetic about anything that happens. In my opinion, this left me freer to interpret the events of the plot in my own way.

I feel the less you know about this story going in, the better. I knew almost nothing, and the lack of expectation made the reading experience more encompassing.

Should you read A Short Stay in Hell?

I recommend this novella to anyone interested in a deep dive into a concept of hell based on The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges. If religious philosophy, math, eternity, willpower, hope and despair, and casual mentions of brain-stretching amounts of time are things you’d be into, read A Short Stay in Hell.

If you’re looking for a feel-good fuzzy story, skip this one.