A Short Stay in Hell
- 80
- Pages
- about 1.5 h
- Reading time
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About the book
A man is cast by an unfamiliar God into a vast, incomprehensible Hell - a labrynth library of books containing the stories of every life ever lived. His only way out is to find the single book that tells his own story. But along the seemingly infinite shelves lies every possible combination of letters. Trapped within this maze of meaninglessness, the absurdity of existence becomes impossible to ignore. A life-changing, existential novella, Steven L. Peck's modern classic 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. Readers are obsessed with A Short Stay in Hell 'WHAT THE HELL' 'My mind is absolutely blown... and I'm absolutely horrified' 'One of the most haunting, thought-provoking books I've ever read'
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.2 across 641 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 81% of the weight and the score stays at 8.2 — the Fantasy average of 8.0 barely moves it.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.4 | 15 | 2% |
| Hardcover | 8.2 | 626 | 98% |
Reader voices
The most-liked reviews on Hardcover (credited to their authors).
“This is an extension to the Library of Babel short story by Borges. Where Borges sketches out the concept, this is a story told from the perspective of someone living in his imagined hell. It's a mundane, ruthlessly boring hell, one where you could spend…”
“I think I just really like books about a bunch of people making a lil society and how they survive together. So much so that I kinda wished that this book was longer, that it'd give more details about the world they created. But I…”
Frequently asked
How long is A Short Stay in Hell?
It has 80 pages — shorter than 99% of the ranked books in Fantasy.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Fantasy — with scores between 8.1 and 8.2, closest to this book.
