Name: A Short Stay in Hell
Rating: 4.114583333333333 (48 reviews)
ISBN: 9780983748441

Steven L. Peck

A damned man struggles to find meaning in a library, the dimensions of which are measured in light years.

A Short Stay in Hell

kamille

I think our love could have lasted forever. I'm sure it would have. She was so ... no, I won't cheapen it by trying to express it in words and short sentences. I loved her. That is enough.

But what worse fate could there be? To remember love and know it is unattainable? To know love wanders somewhere light-years and light-years distant, ever knowing it is forever out of reach? Forever hidden?

“Did I know her only for so short a time? Strange, how a moment of existence can cut so deeply into our being that while ages pass unnoticed, a brief love can structure and define the very topology of our consciousness ever after.” 

plantdad

Ages of universes pass while I look at books of nonsense, yet I think on and on of a love so far in the past it is incomprehensible to believe it was even real. What is love that it has such power? Whatever it is, it seems unlikely this God who placed me here knows anything about it. If it loved me in the least, could it inflict what it has upon me? Who can understand? Once I feared to say such things, dreading a worse punishment. But what worse fate could there be? To remember love and know it is unattainable? To know love wanders somewhere light-years and light-years distant, ever knowing it is forever out of reach? Forever hidden? So I pick up another book. Open it. See a page of random characters. Toss it over the edge. Pick up another. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat . . .

Anticipation is a gift. Perhaps there is none greater. Anticipation is born of hope. Indeed it is hope's finest expression. In hope's loss, however, is the greatest despair.

Ruben Ruiz

How do you stay with someone when there are no dreams to build? No purpose to accomplish? No meaning? No meaning – that was the monster that drove us away from one another in the end. Always.

Harshavarthini

I'm giving one less star because I wish the book were longer 

this might be the most fascinating concept i’ve read in a while, a hell full of books but nothing written inside makes sense just like the existence of that place and everyone in it.. 

ayoni

Nadine MacDonald

how the author can capture single days in one sentence and eons in the next is beyond me, all in so few pages. Unique, captivating, profound and heartbreaking. Would recommend, can read it in a couple of hours easy<br /><br />“Once […] we discussed dogs and decided to spend a few years pretending we were dogs, running on all fours and eating only dog food out of a dish”

Nikol

as someone who will spend their whole life stressing about the afterlife it kept me anxious but it was such a good short read!!

This was very much hell for me. A monotony and uniformity with lack of variation, monotonous, tedious task of searching with infinite time. The extend of hell wasn't endless but the fact that it's unfathomably large event beyond numbers you can think of and the fact that you are unable to escape and end it all. 

Look. The concept was great and at certain degree is able to make you goes reflective about our existence, but just not enough for me.

The execution is fall flat, it was shallow at best and didn't reach me until I feel something beyond oh that's horrifying. It's not quite deconstructing believe? Trying to show the existential horror of meaning? I mean this book doesn't really explain anything, sure it might rely on us to put it in thought I guess but the ridiculous pacing and shift and jumped between conflict makes me can't invest much of forming thought.

This was very much hell for me. A monotony and uniformity with lack of variation, monotonous, tedious task of searching with infinite time. The extend of hell wasn't endless but the fact that it's unfathomably large event beyond numbers you can think of and the fact that you are unable to escape and end it all. 

Look. The concept was great and at certain degree is able to make you goes reflective about our existence, but just not enough for me.

The execution is fall flat, it was shallow at best and didn't reach me until I feel something beyond oh that's horrifying. It's not quite deconstructing believe? Trying to show the existential horror of meaning? I mean this book doesn't really explain anything, sure it might rely on us to put it in thought I guess but the ridiculous pacing and shift and jumped between conflict makes me can't invest much of forming thought.

So so good!! Highly recommend the audiobook. Great narrator! 

Aims

looked out for this book in every bookstore i ventured into for almost a year

such an interesting read — prompted reflections about how humans derive meaning in a life that we know is finite

looked out for this book in every bookstore i ventured into for almost a year

such an interesting read — prompted reflections about how humans derive meaning in a life that we know is finite

อ่านจบแบบไม่รู้ตัว แต่ก็จบตามที่ควรจะเป็น สงสารตัวเอกที่ต้องอยู่อย่างโดดเดี่ยว หวังว่าจะมีความหวังใหม่มาเรื่อยๆ เห้อ รู้สึกไม่ดีเลย

Kimbap

I wanted to DNF this halfway through so I guess this book was my short stay in hell

Jasper

A really fun concept. I think the book had a few great moments that one could easily imagine within the setting that it builds in your own personal Hell. Some of the religious commentary -- if you want to call it that -- was also on point. I enjoyed it, but the final result was a little unsatisfying, but still worth a read despite a bit of a let down. I don't know if the story could've avoided that though as a consequence of the setting in the book. Really fun concept to put into the imagination though. 

BC Hark

A really fun concept. I think the book had a few great moments that one could easily imagine within the setting that it builds in your own personal Hell. Some of the religious commentary -- if you want to call it that -- was also on point. I enjoyed it, but the final result was a little unsatisfying, but still worth a read despite a bit of a let down. I don't know if the story could've avoided that though as a consequence of the setting in the book. Really fun concept to put into the imagination though. 

This book makes me feel so utterly small and unsubstantial 

Alex

Julie G

danakim

my only gripe is that is isn't eons longer

At my core, I can never be a true existentialist. There’s so much suffering to be had when there is no sense to be held. 

Molly M

starry.

Nice ang concepttt and it reminds me of The Good Place with how it describes hell and the absurdity of it

A slow existential burn. Something to really wrap your head around. For my taste, lacked a significant twist?

Sarah Panek

Welcome to hell! You might be out of luck…unless you’re into Astrozorianism.

Although hell’s not exactly the place you’d expect it to be, this book closely bridges our darkest thoughts of eternal damnation and the potential reality we face in our day to day lives. 

Who’s to say we’re not already there? Touching on love and connections with other—fulfillment, the mundane.  The similar polarities we experience in isolation and companionship. Experiencing what the infinite might look like, but leaving glimpses of the human experience to be reflected in the after life.

andy f

Welcome to hell! You might be out of luck…unless you’re into Astrozorianism.

Although hell’s not exactly the place you’d expect it to be, this book closely bridges our darkest thoughts of eternal damnation and the potential reality we face in our day to day lives. 

Who’s to say we’re not already there? Touching on love and connections with other—fulfillment, the mundane.  The similar polarities we experience in isolation and companionship. Experiencing what the infinite might look like, but leaving glimpses of the human experience to be reflected in the after life.

A Short Stay in Hell

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