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A Short Stay in Hell Paperback – March 20, 2012

by Steven L. Peck (Author)
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An ordinary family man, geologist, and Mormon, Soren Johansson has always believed he’ll be reunited with his loved ones after death in an eternal hereafter. Then, he dies. Soren wakes to find himself cast by a God he has never heard of into a Hell whose dimensions he can barely grasp: a vast library he can only escape from by finding the book that contains the story of his life.
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Editorial Reviews

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Profound and disturbing, A Short Stay In Hell is a perfect blend of science fiction, theology, and horror. A terrifying meditation on faith, human nature, and the relentless scope of eternity. It will haunt you, fittingly, for a very, very long time. ---- Dan Wells, author of I Am Not a Serial Killer

An irresistible invention. Peck has somehow squeezed all of human experience, not to mention near-infinite expanses of space and time, into one miraculously slim novella. You won t be able to stop thinking about this book. ---- Ken Jennings, author of Brainiac and Maphead

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Steven L. Peck
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Steven L. Peck

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When I was in seventh grade, I wrote a long epic poem about a weasel. It was full of pathos, adventure, heartbreak, and sorrow. It might have been the greatest poem ever written. But alas it is lost. My teacher liked it well enough she had me read it to the class. After, a kid who had tormented me endlessly, chasing me home from school nearly every day to beat me up (he never caught me, I was like a deer in those days), came up and with tears in his eyes (TEARS!), said, 'Peck. That's the best thing you've ever done.' The power of poetry! I was hooked on being a writer from that moment on.

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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
10,103 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find this book an engaging read with a well-thought-out storyline that provides a new perspective on eternity. The writing flows well, and customers appreciate the creativity of the premise, noting how it buries seeds of various ideas. The book receives mixed reactions regarding its length and pacing - while some find it well-paced, others note it could be 10 pages long, and while some say it sticks with readers for a long time, others find it depressing.
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113 customers mention readability, 106 positive, 7 negative
Customers find the book readable, describing it as an engaging and mesmerizing read that can be finished in one sitting.
Quick read, existential nightmare. Exactly what i was looking for. You'll be thinking of this long after you finish. 10/10 recommendRead more
...Great read, will definitely recommend to anyone who's looking for a thought provoking horror novel without all of the gore and violence you find in...Read more
...It was profound and thought provoking, all while being interesting and accessible....Read more
...It's a good read and not too long, can be read in a couple of days, if you like to sit down and read.Read more
66 customers mention story length, 51 positive, 15 negative
Customers find the book's story compelling and well-thought out, with one customer describing it as a harrowing novella about the afterlife.
Fast read, great story. Makes you think about the possibilities of what Hell really is and how it can be different for everyone. Great story....Read more
Great short storyRead more
...is spoiling an absolutely insane, amazing story that has immediately become one of my favorite stories of all time....Read more
Book was in good condition. I was dissapointed in the ending, therefore only a 4 star rating. Not sure everyone would find this book worth reading....Read more
66 customers mention thought provoking, 63 positive, 3 negative
Customers find the book thought-provoking, particularly appreciating its philosophical approach and new perspective on eternity.
Haunting, thought provoking. A good quick read. I felt engaged and interested yet saddened at the authors idea of a possible forever....Read more
Very thought provoking. Hell is sameness, boredom, lack of diversity and lack of relationships. Would lead to some interesting book club discussions.Read more
A great novel. Thought-provoking. Sad, depressing, mesmerizing - yet humorous and fun on a weird way. A rather unique piece! Great work Mr. Peck! 🙏🏼...Read more
A quick and short read, but it will leave you with profound, deep,a and disturbing thoughts about humanity and religion that will last for “eternity.”Read more
34 customers mention creativeness, 32 positive, 2 negative
Customers appreciate the creative premise of the book, which buries the seeds of many different ideas. One customer describes it as a mind-blowing novella that stretches the imagination.
...Speculative and creative if you believe in such a place..Read more
Interesting premise of what it's like to experience Hell, especially to those of us who read voraciously....Read more
Very imaginative. Made me think quite a bitRead more
Very interesting premise. Glad I bought this book because I thought about many things while reading it and I learned one new word....Read more
33 customers mention writing quality, 30 positive, 3 negative
Customers praise the writing quality of the book, noting that it flows well and is very well written, with one customer highlighting the author's creativity.
A cool concept and a quick read. Well written. Worth checking out, if you want to read something about infinite libraries.Read more
It's a really interesting story and very well written. The story itself is veryambitious and it's only around 100 pages. I really enjoyed it.Read more
This has become one of my most favorite short stories - the writing is flows, the story line is well thought out and it makes you think - which is...Read more
This is beautifully written story with theological and philosophical elements....Read more
45 customers mention heartbreaking, 28 positive, 17 negative
Customers have mixed reactions to the book's emotional content, with some finding it poignant and appreciating its existential dread, while others describe it as a little depressing.
This book was haunting and beautiful at the same time. It was profound and thought provoking, all while being interesting and accessible....Read more
4.5 ⭐️ This book ripped my heart out. How could such a short book inflict such pain and agony?...Read more
A great novel. Thought-provoking. Sad, depressing, mesmerizing - yet humorous and fun on a weird way. A rather unique piece! Great work Mr. Peck! 🙏🏼...Read more
A brilliant fantasy, especially poignant if the reader happens to have been imbued with Mormon culture and belief as Steven Peck and I both are....Read more
45 customers mention pacing, 31 positive, 14 negative
Customers have mixed reactions to the pacing of the book, with some finding it poignant and lovely with existential dread, while others describe it as very depressing.
A quick and short read, but it will leave you with profound, deep,a and disturbing thoughts about humanity and religion that will last for “eternity.”Read more
Gripping and so fascinating - it can open your mind in unexpected ways, especially the concept of eternity....Read more
The book does not end. The guy doesn’t get out or find his book....Read more
...It kept me on the edge of my seat and bent my mind with its staggering ideas....Read more
36 customers mention shortness, 24 positive, 12 negative
Customers have mixed opinions about the book's length, with some appreciating its brevity while others find it too short.
i really enjoyed this story. short and beautiful and terrible. want to understand the concept of eternity and hell? read this.Read more
Thank goodness it's short. The introduction is intriguing. There is a little description of small plot points...and then--thankfully--it ends.Read more
A quick and short read, but it will leave you with profound, deep,a and disturbing thoughts about humanity and religion that will last for “eternity.”Read more
I really enjoyed the book. A very short read but nothing like I’ve read before.Read more
Couldn’t put it down..
5 out of 5 stars
Couldn’t put it down..
The last page really got me. I started crying and am still crying as I write this review. I can’t recommend this book enough.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Ben
    5.0 out of 5 stars An interesting view of the after life
    Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2026
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    Great read makes you think. This stayed in my mind. The concepts it present are rattling and sometimes disturbing.
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  • Jeff Bihlman
    4.0 out of 5 stars Wild man!
    Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2026
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    A very interesting book. Short and sweet. The story is heartbreaking and disturbing. Recommended!
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  • Ash A.
    5.0 out of 5 stars Well worth the read, I love it
    Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2025
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    This is beautifully written story with theological and philosophical elements. It is a fresh new view of what hell could truly be like, and personally, I like this version(s) better than what any christain mythos brings to the table. The story is well structured and the plot has been living rent free in my head with such questions pestering me like, "which hell would I end up in?" or "what would I do in these situations?" I highly recommend for any horror and/or philosophy fan because this one tickled an itch in my brain and refuses to leave.
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Michael Maltarich
    4.0 out of 5 stars Short, weird and interesting
    Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2025
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    In the time spent reading this review you could be 1% through the book. Just pick it up, read it, and then force a friend to read it so you have sometime to talk with about it. Spoiler alert: it’s a strange read!
    One person found this helpful
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  • Adam Machanic
    3.0 out of 5 stars I'm a bit annoyed. Rants and spoilers within.
    Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2025
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    SPOILERS...
    ...
    ...
    ...
    ...
    Having just finished this book, I enjoyed the read but I'm also thoroughly annoyed. So I'm going to rant a bit in this review. You've been warned.

    The beginning of the book drew me in. There was a touch of mystery, a bit of dark humor...I thought this was going places. The main character hasn't done anything wrong per se, aside from believing in the wrong thing, so how bad could this hell be? We get to hell and it's a big library. There's a sign saying to learn from the experience. I thought, okay, this will be a journey of education...

    ...and that's pretty much as far as we go there. The guy meets some people, talks to them, has some sex, eats food. The rest of the unimaginable number of years covered in the book, nothing really happens. (A googol of light years just falling at 120mph. Each light year would take 5.5 million years at that rate, so that would be on the order of 5 with 106 zeroes years! Also: Our universe's width is only an estimated 92 billion light years, so this is like 10^97 more than that! And we're to believe that the narrator would be even remotely sane, or with it enough to narrate after that?)

    It's kind of a lazy story, and the writing is choppy at best. Lots of odd setup with no real payload. For example, we're told early on that bad things will happen to people who don't treat others well. And yet, there are roving gangs of rapists. Another thing that annoyed me was that supposedly even a group of calculus PhDs were unable to figure out how many books were in the library. I'm no mathematician but I was able to estimate the number within a few orders of magnitude in about 3 minutes, mentally. (Not bragging, it's easy math - it was just yet another of the book's stupid setups.) And while we're on the topic...if such a place really did exist, why would it have huge parallel hallways instead of using more of a cube shape? And also, if a place existed that had more books than there are electrons in our universe, would air work the same way? Would gravity work the same way? Time?

    And so the book ends -- and nothing has happened, and nothing will happen for another googol years or something. But what's the point? Why would this massive hell exist, just to store a smallish number of people who are never going to escape? Does the Zoroastrian version of god really care to punish people to that degree? We learn virtually nothing of the religion in the book, which was weird. Shouldn't this have been a journey of spiritual enlightenment? Isn't that the whole point of a hell? (According to Wikipedia, for Zoroastrianism, that's exactly the point.) I kept waiting for the twist: “I realize that my original life had no meaning”, and boom -- there would suddenly appear a totally blank book. Into the slot it would go! Or whatever. Some point to all of this.

    That's enough of that. Why am I giving it three stars? Something was compelling about the first two thirds of the book. And it's a super, super quick read. I did enjoy a lot of it. It's thought-provoking, I'll give it that.

    So there you have it. A thoroughly annoying but blessedly short book, with some bright points and a lot of low points...about a ridiculously long amount of time.
    14 people found this helpful
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  • Katelyn
    5.0 out of 5 stars wow
    Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2026
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    I’ve been in a stump recently with reading but this definitely helped get me out of it. Thought provoking, disappointing but in a productive way.
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  • Kaitlin
    5.0 out of 5 stars a quick read that makes you think
    Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2026
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    i didn’t know what to expect going into this book. definitely a good read. makes you look at things differently. i will spend the rest of my night on reddit reading everyone’s theories :))))
    One person found this helpful
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  • Amazon Customer
    4.0 out of 5 stars A Thoughtful Take on Hell
    Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2026
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    I had heard a lot of hype and good things about this book. The story gave a deep view of hell as a personal torment shaped by your own life and your own mind. I found it interesting that there were no people of color in this version of hell. I would not have called this book horror. It felt more like an intellectual and detailed take on what hell could be. The descriptions of constant falling were heavy and really stuck with me, falling for days and falling for what felt like light years. Those ideas made me stop and think. The book also raised questions about God and about why things happen, which are questions many of us have, even as believers.
    One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Fareeda Rowland
    2.0 out of 5 stars Not what I expected
    Reviewed in the United Arab Emirates on December 4, 2024
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    I was very excited to read this book but found it lacking. Felt very pretentious and frustrating. Pointless with no clarity or closure, probably the point of the book as it's about being in hell.
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  • Laura
    5.0 out of 5 stars 6 star book
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 25, 2025
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    6 star book! I have read 84 books this year so far and never give any book 5 stars but this I have given a book 6 stars.. this is the book every person should read.. 102 pages of absolutely mind bending writing! It will have you questioning your very existence and leave you thinking about it for days/weeks 👍🏼 get it read !
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    Laura
    5.0 out of 5 stars
    6 star book

    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 25, 2025
    6 star book! I have read 84 books this year so far and never give any book 5 stars but this I have given a book 6 stars.. this is the book every person should read.. 102 pages of absolutely mind bending writing! It will have you questioning your very existence and leave you thinking about it for days/weeks 👍🏼 get it read !
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  • Iris
    5.0 out of 5 stars Some triggers maybe on violent topics
    Reviewed in Germany on December 20, 2025
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Amazing book!huge recommend,pulls togehter science/religion and fantasy in one great read!
    Came deliverd in good condition everything awesome^^
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  • Stormy K.
    5.0 out of 5 stars A must read!
    Reviewed in Australia on July 20, 2025
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    An interesting and daunting concept of what hell could be like. A good read.
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  • Andrea
    5.0 out of 5 stars A short and dreadful read
    Reviewed in Italy on August 10, 2025
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    This book is truly short and sweet - if the sweet you are looking for is exhistential dread and a thought provoking read. It really lingers with you even after it’s finished, I truly recommend this - all of us have wondered at some point what happens in the afterlife, so being touched by this story is inevitable.
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