-
A Short Stay in Hell
- Narrated by: Sergei Burbank
- Length: 2 hrs and 42 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $6.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Library at Mount Char
- By: Scott Hawkins
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 16 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Carolyn's not so different from the other human beings around her. After all, she was a normal American herself once. That was a long time ago, of course - before the time she calls "adoption day", when she and a dozen other children found themselves being raised by a man they learned to call Father.
-
-
Not Your Local Library
- By Lorfet on 04-05-16
By: Scott Hawkins
-
Dark Matter (Movie Tie-In)
- A Novel
- By: Blake Crouch
- Narrated by: Jon Lindstrom
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“Are you happy with your life?” Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the kidnapper knocks him unconscious. Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits. Before a man he’s never met smiles down at him and says, “Welcome back, my friend.” In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife.
-
-
Another Book Where the Ratings Lie
- By Matthew on 08-05-16
By: Blake Crouch
-
The Fisherman
- By: John Langan
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In upstate New York, in the woods around Woodstock, Dutchman's Creek flows out of the Ashokan Reservoir. Steep-banked, fast-moving, it offers the promise of fine fishing, and of something more, a possibility too fantastic to be true. When Abe and Dan, two widowers who have found solace in each other's company and a shared passion for fishing, hear rumors of the Creek, and what might be found there, the remedy to both their losses, they dismiss it as just another fish story.
-
-
The Horror of Loss
- By Jim N on 04-20-17
By: John Langan
-
Ender's Game
- Special 20th Anniversary Edition
- By: Orson Scott Card
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, Harlan Ellison, Gabrielle de Cuir
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why we think it’s a great listen: It’s easy to say that when it comes to sci-fi you either love it or you hate it. But with Ender’s Game, it seems to be you either love it or you love it.... The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Enter Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, the result of decades of genetic experimentation.
-
-
6 titles in the series so far
- By Kapila Wimalaratne on 01-29-03
By: Orson Scott Card
-
Where the Hell Is Tesla?
- A Novel
- By: Rob Dircks
- Narrated by: Rob Dircks
- Length: 5 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
I found the journal at work. Well, I don't know if you'd call it work, but that's where I found it. It's the lost journal of Nikola Tesla, one of the greatest inventors and visionaries ever. Before he died in 1943, he kept a notebook filled with spectacular claims and outrageous plans.
-
-
Had A Blast Listening To This One!
- By Cheri on 08-11-16
By: Rob Dircks
-
Corpsemouth and Other Autobiographies
- By: John Langan
- Narrated by: Matt Godfrey
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John Langan, author of the Bram Stoker Award-winning novel The Fisherman, returns with ten new tales of cosmic horror in Corpsemouth and Other Autobiographies. In these stories, he continues to chart the course of twenty-first century weird fiction, from the unfamiliar to the familial, the unfathomably distant to the intimate.
-
-
Finally more John Langan in audiobook form
- By Anonymous User on 09-10-23
By: John Langan
-
Library at Mount Char
- By: Scott Hawkins
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 16 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Carolyn's not so different from the other human beings around her. After all, she was a normal American herself once. That was a long time ago, of course - before the time she calls "adoption day", when she and a dozen other children found themselves being raised by a man they learned to call Father.
-
-
Not Your Local Library
- By Lorfet on 04-05-16
By: Scott Hawkins
-
Dark Matter (Movie Tie-In)
- A Novel
- By: Blake Crouch
- Narrated by: Jon Lindstrom
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“Are you happy with your life?” Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the kidnapper knocks him unconscious. Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits. Before a man he’s never met smiles down at him and says, “Welcome back, my friend.” In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife.
-
-
Another Book Where the Ratings Lie
- By Matthew on 08-05-16
By: Blake Crouch
-
The Fisherman
- By: John Langan
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In upstate New York, in the woods around Woodstock, Dutchman's Creek flows out of the Ashokan Reservoir. Steep-banked, fast-moving, it offers the promise of fine fishing, and of something more, a possibility too fantastic to be true. When Abe and Dan, two widowers who have found solace in each other's company and a shared passion for fishing, hear rumors of the Creek, and what might be found there, the remedy to both their losses, they dismiss it as just another fish story.
-
-
The Horror of Loss
- By Jim N on 04-20-17
By: John Langan
-
Ender's Game
- Special 20th Anniversary Edition
- By: Orson Scott Card
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, Harlan Ellison, Gabrielle de Cuir
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why we think it’s a great listen: It’s easy to say that when it comes to sci-fi you either love it or you hate it. But with Ender’s Game, it seems to be you either love it or you love it.... The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Enter Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, the result of decades of genetic experimentation.
-
-
6 titles in the series so far
- By Kapila Wimalaratne on 01-29-03
By: Orson Scott Card
-
Where the Hell Is Tesla?
- A Novel
- By: Rob Dircks
- Narrated by: Rob Dircks
- Length: 5 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
I found the journal at work. Well, I don't know if you'd call it work, but that's where I found it. It's the lost journal of Nikola Tesla, one of the greatest inventors and visionaries ever. Before he died in 1943, he kept a notebook filled with spectacular claims and outrageous plans.
-
-
Had A Blast Listening To This One!
- By Cheri on 08-11-16
By: Rob Dircks
-
Corpsemouth and Other Autobiographies
- By: John Langan
- Narrated by: Matt Godfrey
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John Langan, author of the Bram Stoker Award-winning novel The Fisherman, returns with ten new tales of cosmic horror in Corpsemouth and Other Autobiographies. In these stories, he continues to chart the course of twenty-first century weird fiction, from the unfamiliar to the familial, the unfathomably distant to the intimate.
-
-
Finally more John Langan in audiobook form
- By Anonymous User on 09-10-23
By: John Langan
-
City Infernal
- By: Edward Lee
- Narrated by: Michael T. Bradley
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Cassie's twin sister, Lissa, commits suicide, Cassie discovers she can travel to Hell to retrieve her sister's soul. Cassie thought she knew all about the Hell of legend, but finds Hell has evolved over the millennia into a bustling city full of the damned with looming skyscrapers, crowded streets, systemized evil, and atrocity as the status quo.
-
-
The Awesome Edward Lee
- By Butler on 12-20-17
By: Edward Lee
-
Gone with the Wind
- By: Margaret Mitchell
- Narrated by: Linda Stephens
- Length: 49 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Literature, Margaret Mitchell's great novel of the South is one of the most popular books ever written. Within six months of its publication in 1936, Gone With the Wind had sold a million copies. To date, it has been translated into 25 languages, and more than 28 million copies have been sold. Here are the characters that have become symbols of passion and desire....
-
-
not to miss audible experience
- By dallas on 12-08-09
-
Return to the Black Farm
- By: Elias Witherow
- Narrated by: Tom Jordan
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Return to the Black Farm is a direct sequel that follows Nick as he is forced to confront the aftermath of his actions.
-
-
A sequel you must hear!
- By kimberly on 02-18-24
By: Elias Witherow
-
The Black Farm
- By: Elias Witherow
- Narrated by: Tom Jordan
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After the loss of a child along with a slew of agonizing misfortunes, Nick and Jess decide to end their lives. Unable to cope with the misery that fills their days, they commit one last act together and die in loving relief. But when Nick wakes up, he soon realizes that death isn't the gentle darkness he expected. Panicked and horrified, he struggles to understand the twisted abominations and hellish world he's now trapped in.
-
-
Disturbing but I couldn’t stop listening.
- By Amazon Customer on 03-17-24
By: Elias Witherow
-
This Thing Between Us
- A Novel
- By: Gus Moreno
- Narrated by: Robb Moreira
- Length: 5 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was Vera’s idea to buy the Itza. The “world’s most advanced smart speaker!” didn’t interest Thiago, but Vera thought it would be a bit of fun for them amidst all the strange occurrences happening in the condo. It made things worse. The cold spots and scratching in the walls were weird enough, but peculiar packages started showing up at the house - who ordered industrial lye? Then, there was the eerie music at odd hours, Thiago waking up to Itza projecting light shows in an empty room.
-
-
Unsure what I feel but it’s a lot
- By Liv Templeton on 12-01-21
By: Gus Moreno
-
North American Lake Monsters
- Stories
- By: Nathan Ballingrud
- Narrated by: Travis Young
- Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this striking and bleak, yet luminous debut collection, Nathan Ballingrud, winner of the inaugural Shirley Jackson Award, uses the trappings of the Gothic and the uncanny to investigate a distinctly American landscape: The loneliest and darkest corners of contemporary life. Ballingrud’s stories are love stories. They’re also monster stories. Sometimes the monsters collected here are vampires or werewolves.
-
-
Superb collection of truly original stories
- By C. Bland on 01-11-16
-
Interview with the Vampire
- By: Anne Rice
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 14 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We are in a small room with the vampire, face to face, as he speaks--as he pours out the hypnotic, shocking, moving, and erotically charged confessions of his first two hundred years as one of the living dead. . . He speaks quietly, plainly, even gently . . . carrying us back to the night when he departed human existence as heir--young, romantic, cultivated--to a great Louisiana plantation, and was inducted by the radiant and sinister Lestat into the other, the "endless," life....
-
-
New Editions!
- By A. Sentoni on 06-04-11
By: Anne Rice
-
Scythe
- By: Neal Shusterman
- Narrated by: Greg Tremblay
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery: Humanity has conquered all those things and has even conquered death. Now Scythes are the only ones who can end life - and they are commanded to do so in order to keep the size of the population under control. Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe - a role that neither wants. These teens must master the "art" of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own.
-
-
Teenage Thumbs up
- By Lila Reading on 04-01-17
By: Neal Shusterman
-
Suffer the Children
- By: Craig Dilouie
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Suffer the Children presents a terrifying tale of apocalyptic fiction, as listeners are introduced to Herod's Syndrome, a devastating illness that suddenly and swiftly kills all young children across the globe. Soon, they return from the grave, and ask for blood. And with blood, they stop being dead. They continue to remain the children they once were, but only for a short time, as they need more blood to live. The average human body holds 10 pints of blood, so the inevitable question for parents everywhere becomes: How far would you go to bring your child back?
-
-
Brilliant, Well Done!!!!!
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 12-08-16
By: Craig Dilouie
-
Slaughterhouse-Five
- By: Kurt Vonnegut
- Narrated by: James Franco
- Length: 5 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Traumatized by the bombing of Dresden at the time he had been imprisoned, Pilgrim drifts through all events and history, sometimes deeply implicated, sometimes a witness. He is surrounded by Vonnegut's usual large cast of continuing characters (notably here the hack science fiction writer Kilgore Trout and the alien Tralfamadorians, who oversee his life and remind him constantly that there is no causation, no order, no motive to existence).
-
-
Don't Quit Your Daytime Job, James
- By Keith on 11-20-15
By: Kurt Vonnegut
-
The Bazaar of Bad Dreams
- Stories
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Stephen King, Dylan Baker, Brooke Bloom, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A master storyteller at his best - the O. Henry Prize winner Stephen King delivers a generous collection of stories, several of them brand-new, featuring revelatory autobiographical comments on when, why, and how he came to write (or rewrite) each story. Magnificent, eerie, utterly compelling, these stories comprise one of King's finest gifts to his constant fan. "I made them especially for you," says King. "Feel free to examine them, but please be careful. The best of them have teeth."
-
-
HE'S A CUP OF COFFEE
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 12-10-15
By: Stephen King
-
Lincoln in the Bardo
- A Novel
- By: George Saunders
- Narrated by: Nick Offerman, David Sedaris, George Saunders, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
February 1862. The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln’s beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, lies upstairs in the White House, gravely ill. In a matter of days, despite predictions of a recovery, Willie dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. “My poor boy, he was too good for this earth,” the president says at the time. “God has called him home.”
-
-
"Where might God stand?"
- By Mel on 02-17-17
By: George Saunders
Publisher's summary
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.
In this haunting existential novella, author, philosopher, and ecologist Steven L. Peck 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.
Related to this topic
-
Galilee
- By: Clive Barker
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 23 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Barbarossa family’s roots are far more ancient and ethereal, but they are bound to the Gearys by a shared history of murder, insanity, and adultery. When Rachel Geary and Galilee, the seductive prince of the Barbarossa clan, fall in love, they unleash powerful enmities that could destroy both dynasties. Shorter and more conventional than some of Barker’s other work, this novel is especially rich with complex, passionate, three-dimensional characters, lush settings, and elegant language.
-
-
An Audiophile's Dream
- By Joseph on 09-01-11
By: Clive Barker
-
Blood of Heaven
- By: Bill Myers
- Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A small section of vine with bloodstained thorns has been encased in candle wax for centuries - and some believe the blood came from Christ. Convicted killer and death-row inmate Michael Coleman agrees to have the genes from the mysterious blood planted into his body. The results are so astonishing that the research must continue outside prison walls. But nobody can predict what will happen when Coleman assumes a new identity and reenters society. Blood of Heaven delves deep into the human heart and examines the very nature of good versus evil.
-
-
Thought provoking!
- By Renate on 04-22-14
By: Bill Myers
-
Way of the Peaceful Warrior
- A Book That Changes Lives
- By: Dan Millman
- Narrated by: Dan Millman
- Length: 6 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This audio edition of the international best seller Way of the Peaceful Warrior is based on the story of Dan Millman, a world-class gymnast who has it all, but is troubled by a vague sense of dissatisfaction with his everyday life. He meets an eccentric old mentor named Socrates, who sets him on a spiritual odyssey that will ultimately deliver or destroy him. Along the way Dan encounters realms of light and darkness, of romance and magic, as he learns what it means to live as a peaceful warrior.
-
-
My Favorite Audiobook
- By Knucks on 01-06-10
By: Dan Millman
-
Origin
- A Thriller
- By: J. A. Konrath
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When linguist Andrew Dennison is yanked from his bed by the Secret Service and taken to a top secret facility in the desert, he has no idea he's been brought there to translate the words of an ancient demon. He joins pretty but cold veterinarian Sun Jones, eccentric molecular biologist Dr. Frank Belgium, and a hodge-podge of religious, military, and science personnel to try and figure out if the creature is, indeed, Satan. But things quickly go bad, and very soon Andy isn't just fighting for his life, but the lives of everyone on earth…
-
-
Making My Beelzebubble Burst
- By Carol on 01-01-14
By: J. A. Konrath
-
My Soul to Keep
- By: Tananarive Due
- Narrated by: Peter Francis James
- Length: 18 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Jessica marries David, he is everything she wants in a family man: brilliant, attentive, ever youthful. Yet she still feels something about him is just out of reach. Soon, as people close to Jessica begin to meet violent, mysterious deaths, David makes an unimaginable confession: More than 400 years ago, he and other members of an Ethiopian sect traded their humanity so they would never die, a secret he must protect at any cost.
-
-
A Book I Can't Keep
- By Mistsofjade on 07-19-20
By: Tananarive Due
-
A Head Full of Knives: An Urban Fantasy Novel
- By: Luke Smitherd
- Narrated by: Luke Smitherd
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of Audible #1 bestsellers In The Darkness, That's Where I'll Know You, The Physics of the Dead, and The Stone Man (shortlisted for the Audible Audiobook of the Year award 2015). Ever wished the world would revolve around you? Be careful what you wish for... Martin Hogan feels like he's being watched by everyone and everything, and doesn't know why. Even his pets are acting strangely. Each night he sees animals gathering outside his house in the darkness, staring up at his windows with glittering eyes.
-
-
Wonderful
- By Julie the Gator Mom on 12-09-15
By: Luke Smitherd
-
Galilee
- By: Clive Barker
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 23 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Barbarossa family’s roots are far more ancient and ethereal, but they are bound to the Gearys by a shared history of murder, insanity, and adultery. When Rachel Geary and Galilee, the seductive prince of the Barbarossa clan, fall in love, they unleash powerful enmities that could destroy both dynasties. Shorter and more conventional than some of Barker’s other work, this novel is especially rich with complex, passionate, three-dimensional characters, lush settings, and elegant language.
-
-
An Audiophile's Dream
- By Joseph on 09-01-11
By: Clive Barker
-
Blood of Heaven
- By: Bill Myers
- Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A small section of vine with bloodstained thorns has been encased in candle wax for centuries - and some believe the blood came from Christ. Convicted killer and death-row inmate Michael Coleman agrees to have the genes from the mysterious blood planted into his body. The results are so astonishing that the research must continue outside prison walls. But nobody can predict what will happen when Coleman assumes a new identity and reenters society. Blood of Heaven delves deep into the human heart and examines the very nature of good versus evil.
-
-
Thought provoking!
- By Renate on 04-22-14
By: Bill Myers
-
Way of the Peaceful Warrior
- A Book That Changes Lives
- By: Dan Millman
- Narrated by: Dan Millman
- Length: 6 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This audio edition of the international best seller Way of the Peaceful Warrior is based on the story of Dan Millman, a world-class gymnast who has it all, but is troubled by a vague sense of dissatisfaction with his everyday life. He meets an eccentric old mentor named Socrates, who sets him on a spiritual odyssey that will ultimately deliver or destroy him. Along the way Dan encounters realms of light and darkness, of romance and magic, as he learns what it means to live as a peaceful warrior.
-
-
My Favorite Audiobook
- By Knucks on 01-06-10
By: Dan Millman
-
Origin
- A Thriller
- By: J. A. Konrath
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When linguist Andrew Dennison is yanked from his bed by the Secret Service and taken to a top secret facility in the desert, he has no idea he's been brought there to translate the words of an ancient demon. He joins pretty but cold veterinarian Sun Jones, eccentric molecular biologist Dr. Frank Belgium, and a hodge-podge of religious, military, and science personnel to try and figure out if the creature is, indeed, Satan. But things quickly go bad, and very soon Andy isn't just fighting for his life, but the lives of everyone on earth…
-
-
Making My Beelzebubble Burst
- By Carol on 01-01-14
By: J. A. Konrath
-
My Soul to Keep
- By: Tananarive Due
- Narrated by: Peter Francis James
- Length: 18 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Jessica marries David, he is everything she wants in a family man: brilliant, attentive, ever youthful. Yet she still feels something about him is just out of reach. Soon, as people close to Jessica begin to meet violent, mysterious deaths, David makes an unimaginable confession: More than 400 years ago, he and other members of an Ethiopian sect traded their humanity so they would never die, a secret he must protect at any cost.
-
-
A Book I Can't Keep
- By Mistsofjade on 07-19-20
By: Tananarive Due
-
A Head Full of Knives: An Urban Fantasy Novel
- By: Luke Smitherd
- Narrated by: Luke Smitherd
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of Audible #1 bestsellers In The Darkness, That's Where I'll Know You, The Physics of the Dead, and The Stone Man (shortlisted for the Audible Audiobook of the Year award 2015). Ever wished the world would revolve around you? Be careful what you wish for... Martin Hogan feels like he's being watched by everyone and everything, and doesn't know why. Even his pets are acting strangely. Each night he sees animals gathering outside his house in the darkness, staring up at his windows with glittering eyes.
-
-
Wonderful
- By Julie the Gator Mom on 12-09-15
By: Luke Smitherd
-
When She Woke
- By: Hillary Jordan
- Narrated by: Heather Corrigan
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hannah Payne awakens to a nightmare. She is lying on a table in a bare room, covered only by a paper gown, with cameras broadcasting her every move to millions at home. She is now a convicted criminal, and her skin color has been genetically altered. Her crime, according to the State of Texas: the murder of her unborn child, whose father she refuses to name. Her color: red. The color of newly shed blood.
-
-
A Thoughtful Dystopia
- By Amy on 01-28-13
By: Hillary Jordan
-
Great & Secret Show
- By: Clive Barker
- Narrated by: Chet Williamson
- Length: 22 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the little town of Palomo Grove, two great armies are amassing; forces shaped from the hearts and souls of America. In this New York Times best-seller, Barker unveils one of the most ambitious imaginative landscapes in modern fiction, creating a new vocabulary for the age-old battle between good and evil. Carrying its readers from the first stirring of consciousness to a vision of the end of the world, The Great and Secret Show is a breathtaking journey in the company of a master storyteller.
-
-
Horrific Dark Fantasy
- By Michael on 09-05-16
By: Clive Barker
-
Stories
- All-New Tales
- By: Neil Gaiman - author/editor, Al Sarrantonio - editor, Joe Hill, and others
- Narrated by: Anne Bobby, Jonathan Davis, Katherine Kellgren, and others
- Length: 18 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The best stories pull readers in and keep them turning the pages, eager to discover more—to find the answer to the question: "And then what happened?" The true hallmark of great literature is great imagination, and as Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio prove with this outstanding collection, when it comes to great fiction, all genres are equal.
-
-
Something for Everyone
- By Nicole on 05-24-17
By: Neil Gaiman - author/editor, and others
-
Priestdaddy
- A Memoir
- By: Patricia Lockwood
- Narrated by: Patricia Lockwood
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Father Greg Lockwood is unlike any Catholic priest you have ever met - a man who lounges in boxer shorts, who loves action movies, and whose constant jamming on the guitar reverberates "like a whole band dying in a plane crash in 1972". His daughter is an irreverent poet who long ago left the church's country. When an unexpected crisis leads her and her husband to move back into her parents' rectory, their two worlds collide.
-
-
Terrible narration--read, don't listen
- By Penelope on 08-06-17
-
Expecting Adam
- A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic
- By: Martha Beck
- Narrated by: Joyce Bean
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the moment Martha and her husband, John, conceived their second child, all hell broke loose. They were a couple obsessed with success. After years of matching IQs and test scores with less driven peers, they had two Harvard degrees apiece and were gunning for more. But the dream had begun to disintegrate. Then, when their unborn son, Adam, was diagnosed with Down syndrome, doctors, advisers, and friends in the Harvard community warned them not to keep the baby.
-
-
True Life Fairy Tale
- By Desarae on 11-27-13
By: Martha Beck
-
A Fraction of the Whole
- By: Steve Toltz
- Narrated by: Colin McPhillamy, Craig Baldwin
- Length: 25 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stewing in an Australian prison, Jasper Dean reflects on his relationship with his dead father and recounts the many zany adventures they shared together.
-
-
A Funny and Thought-provoking Tale of Human Nature
- By Asha Ember on 01-27-10
By: Steve Toltz
-
Sophie's Choice
- By: William Styron
- Narrated by: Norman Snow
- Length: 2 hrs and 53 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this brilliant, multi-layered novel, a young Southerner, Stingo, wants to become a writer. In Brooklyn, he meets Nathan, a brilliant Jewish intellectual involved in a turbulent love-hate affair with Sophie, a beautiful Polish woman. She has a terrible wound in her past, one that impels both Sophie and Nathan toward destruction.
-
-
THIS IS ABRIDGED
- By J. Flynn on 07-25-16
By: William Styron
-
Surprised by Oxford
- A Memoir
- By: Carolyn Weber
- Narrated by: Nancy Peterson
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Surprised by Oxford is the memoir of a skeptical agnostic who comes to a dynamic personal faith in God during graduate studies in literature at Oxford University.
-
-
Beautifully Written book
- By Adam Shields on 10-11-22
By: Carolyn Weber
-
The Stranger House
- By: Reginald Hill
- Narrated by: Gordon Griffin
- Length: 16 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For years, the Stranger House has stood in the village of Illthwaite, offering refuge to travellers. People like Sam, a brilliant young mathematician, who believes that anything that can't be explained by maths isn't worth explaining. And Miguel, a historian running from a priests' seminary, who sees ghosts. Sam is an experienced young woman, Miguel a 26-year-old virgin.
-
-
an OK read
- By Jen Terry on 01-18-08
By: Reginald Hill
-
Three Daughters of Eve
- By: Elif Shafak
- Narrated by: Alix Dunmore
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set across Istanbul and Oxford, from the 1980s to the present day, Three Daughters of Eve is a sweeping tale of faith and friendship, tradition and modernity, love and an unexpected betrayal. Peri, a wealthy Turkish housewife and mother, is on her way to a dinner party at a seaside mansion in Istanbul when a beggar snatches her handbag. As she wrestles to get it back, a photograph falls to the ground - an old polaroid of three young women and their university professor.
-
-
Review 3 daughters of Eve
- By CA on 04-28-18
By: Elif Shafak
-
The Collectors' Society
- The Collectors' Society, Book 1
- By: Heather Lyons
- Narrated by: Gemma Dawson
- Length: 12 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After years in Wonderland, Alice has returned to England as an adult, desperate to reclaim sanity and control over her life. An enigmatic gentleman with an intriguing job offer too tempting to resist changes her plans for a calm existence. Soon, she's whisked to New York and initiated into the Collectors' Society, a secret organization whose members confirm that famous stories are anything but straightforward and that what she knows about the world is only a fraction of the truth.
-
-
A true adventure full of the classics!
- By evelyn torres on 06-17-17
By: Heather Lyons
-
Archangel
- Samaria, Book 1
- By: Sharon Shinn
- Narrated by: Tamara Marston
- Length: 17 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A tale of the distant future by the author of The Shape-Changer's Wife brings listeners to a world in which the fate of all life rests on the voice of an angel.
-
-
An All-TIme Favorite
- By Carol on 02-27-11
By: Sharon Shinn
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Confessions
- By: Kanae Minato, Stephen Snyder - translator
- Narrated by: Elaina Erika Davis, Noah Galvin
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Her pupils murdered her daughter. Now she will have her revenge. After calling off her engagement in the wake of a tragic revelation, Yuko Moriguchi had nothing to live for except her only child, four-year-old child, Manami. Now, following an accident on the grounds of the middle school where she teaches, Yuko has given up and tendered her resignation. But first she has one last lecture to deliver.
-
-
Great book and performance. Watch the movie too.
- By Joshuatly Tee on 03-12-16
By: Kanae Minato, and others
-
Earthlings
- A Novel
- By: Sayaka Murata
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a child, Natsuki doesn’t fit into her family. Her parents favor her sister, and her best friend is a plush toy hedgehog named Piyyut who has explained to her that he has come from the planet Popinpobopia on a special quest to help her save the Earth.
-
-
Intriguing but disturbing
- By C. Parham on 01-01-21
By: Sayaka Murata
-
You Should Have Left
- A Novel
- By: Daniel Kehlmann, Ross Benjamin - translator
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 1 hr and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"It is fitting that I'm beginning a new notebook up here. New surroundings and new ideas, a new beginning. Fresh air." This passage is from the first entry of a journal kept by the narrator of Daniel Kehlmann's spellbinding new novel. It is the record of the seven days that he, his wife, and his four-year-old daughter spend in a house they have rented in the mountains of Germany - a house that thwarts the expectations of the narrator's recollection and seems to defy the very laws of physics.
-
-
Great idea, but poorly executed or incomplete.
- By dreyesopen on 08-01-17
By: Daniel Kehlmann, and others
-
This Thing Between Us
- A Novel
- By: Gus Moreno
- Narrated by: Robb Moreira
- Length: 5 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was Vera’s idea to buy the Itza. The “world’s most advanced smart speaker!” didn’t interest Thiago, but Vera thought it would be a bit of fun for them amidst all the strange occurrences happening in the condo. It made things worse. The cold spots and scratching in the walls were weird enough, but peculiar packages started showing up at the house - who ordered industrial lye? Then, there was the eerie music at odd hours, Thiago waking up to Itza projecting light shows in an empty room.
-
-
Unsure what I feel but it’s a lot
- By Liv Templeton on 12-01-21
By: Gus Moreno
-
The Employees
- A Workplace Novel of the 22nd Century
- By: Olga Ravn
- Narrated by: Hannah Curtis
- Length: 2 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Funny and doom-drenched, The Employees chronicles the fate of the Six-Thousand Ship. The human and humanoid crew members complain about their daily tasks in a series of staff reports and memos. When the ship takes on a number of strange objects from the planet New Discovery, the crew becomes strangely and deeply attached to them, even as tensions boil toward mutiny, especially among the humanoids.
-
-
I think this was a story?
- By Jordan on 07-02-23
By: Olga Ravn
-
The Hike
- A Novel
- By: Drew Magary
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Ben, a suburban family man, takes a business trip to rural Pennsylvania, he decides to spend the afternoon before his dinner meeting on a short hike. Once he sets out into the woods behind his hotel, he quickly comes to realize that the path he has chosen cannot be given up easily. With no choice but to move forward, Ben finds himself falling deeper and deeper into a world of man-eating giants, bizarre demons, and colossal insects.
-
-
Kafkaesque novel that went on way too long
- By Ketil on 01-06-17
By: Drew Magary
-
Confessions
- By: Kanae Minato, Stephen Snyder - translator
- Narrated by: Elaina Erika Davis, Noah Galvin
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Her pupils murdered her daughter. Now she will have her revenge. After calling off her engagement in the wake of a tragic revelation, Yuko Moriguchi had nothing to live for except her only child, four-year-old child, Manami. Now, following an accident on the grounds of the middle school where she teaches, Yuko has given up and tendered her resignation. But first she has one last lecture to deliver.
-
-
Great book and performance. Watch the movie too.
- By Joshuatly Tee on 03-12-16
By: Kanae Minato, and others
-
Earthlings
- A Novel
- By: Sayaka Murata
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a child, Natsuki doesn’t fit into her family. Her parents favor her sister, and her best friend is a plush toy hedgehog named Piyyut who has explained to her that he has come from the planet Popinpobopia on a special quest to help her save the Earth.
-
-
Intriguing but disturbing
- By C. Parham on 01-01-21
By: Sayaka Murata
-
You Should Have Left
- A Novel
- By: Daniel Kehlmann, Ross Benjamin - translator
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 1 hr and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"It is fitting that I'm beginning a new notebook up here. New surroundings and new ideas, a new beginning. Fresh air." This passage is from the first entry of a journal kept by the narrator of Daniel Kehlmann's spellbinding new novel. It is the record of the seven days that he, his wife, and his four-year-old daughter spend in a house they have rented in the mountains of Germany - a house that thwarts the expectations of the narrator's recollection and seems to defy the very laws of physics.
-
-
Great idea, but poorly executed or incomplete.
- By dreyesopen on 08-01-17
By: Daniel Kehlmann, and others
-
This Thing Between Us
- A Novel
- By: Gus Moreno
- Narrated by: Robb Moreira
- Length: 5 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was Vera’s idea to buy the Itza. The “world’s most advanced smart speaker!” didn’t interest Thiago, but Vera thought it would be a bit of fun for them amidst all the strange occurrences happening in the condo. It made things worse. The cold spots and scratching in the walls were weird enough, but peculiar packages started showing up at the house - who ordered industrial lye? Then, there was the eerie music at odd hours, Thiago waking up to Itza projecting light shows in an empty room.
-
-
Unsure what I feel but it’s a lot
- By Liv Templeton on 12-01-21
By: Gus Moreno
-
The Employees
- A Workplace Novel of the 22nd Century
- By: Olga Ravn
- Narrated by: Hannah Curtis
- Length: 2 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Funny and doom-drenched, The Employees chronicles the fate of the Six-Thousand Ship. The human and humanoid crew members complain about their daily tasks in a series of staff reports and memos. When the ship takes on a number of strange objects from the planet New Discovery, the crew becomes strangely and deeply attached to them, even as tensions boil toward mutiny, especially among the humanoids.
-
-
I think this was a story?
- By Jordan on 07-02-23
By: Olga Ravn
-
The Hike
- A Novel
- By: Drew Magary
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Ben, a suburban family man, takes a business trip to rural Pennsylvania, he decides to spend the afternoon before his dinner meeting on a short hike. Once he sets out into the woods behind his hotel, he quickly comes to realize that the path he has chosen cannot be given up easily. With no choice but to move forward, Ben finds himself falling deeper and deeper into a world of man-eating giants, bizarre demons, and colossal insects.
-
-
Kafkaesque novel that went on way too long
- By Ketil on 01-06-17
By: Drew Magary
-
Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982
- A Novel
- By: Cho Nam-Joo, Jamie Chang - translator
- Narrated by: Kathleen Choe
- Length: 3 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a small, tidy apartment on the outskirts of the frenzied metropolis of Seoul lives Kim Jiyoung. A 30-something-year-old “millennial everywoman”, she has recently left her white-collar desk job - in order to care for her newborn daughter full-time - as so many Korean women are expected to do. But she quickly begins to exhibit strange symptoms that alarm her husband, parents, and in-laws: Jiyoung impersonates the voices of other women - alive and even dead, both known and unknown to her.
-
-
This is not a novel.
- By Anonymous User on 02-17-21
By: Cho Nam-Joo, and others
-
Last Days
- By: Brian Evenson
- Narrated by: Chris Patton
- Length: 6 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Still reeling from a brutal dismemberment, detective Kline is forcibly recruited to solve a murder inside a religious cult that takes literally the New Testament idea that you should cut off your hand if it offends you. Armed only with his gun, his wits, and a gift for self-preservation, Kline must navigate a gauntlet of lies, threats, and misinformation. All too soon he discovers that the stakes are higher than he thought and that his survival depends on an act of sheer will.
-
-
Red Harvest for the 21st Century
- By Joe Kraus on 10-04-17
By: Brian Evenson
-
The Haar
- By: David Sodergren
- Narrated by: Mhairi Morrison
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Muriel McAuley has lived in the Scottish fishing village of Witchaven all her life. She was born there, and she intends to die there. But when an overseas property developer threatens to evict the residents from their homes and raze Witchaven to the ground in the name of progress, all seems lost . . . until the day a mysterious fog bank creeps inland.
-
-
The protagonist
- By Alyssa Scholler on 08-25-24
By: David Sodergren
-
Come Closer
- By: Sara Gran
- Narrated by: Julie McKay
- Length: 3 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A recurrent, unidentifiable noise in her apartment. A memo to her boss that's replaced by obscene insults. Amanda - a successful architect in a happy marriage - finds her life going off kilter by degrees. She starts smoking again, and one night for no reason, without even the knowledge that she's doing it, she burns her husband with a cigarette. At night she dreams of a beautiful woman with pointed teeth on the shore of a blood-red sea.
-
-
Don’t listen or read this book, use caution.
- By amyk0506 on 03-02-21
By: Sara Gran
-
Everything You Ever Wanted
- By: Luiza Sauma
- Narrated by: Stephanie Racine
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
You stay in bed until the afternoon, scrolling through your social media feeds and wondering why everyone else seems to be achieving so much. Sometimes you don't get out of bed at all. Then you hear about Life on Nyx, a programme that allows 100 lucky winners the chance to escape it all, move to another planet and establish a new way of life. One with meaning and purpose. One without Instagram and online dating. There's one caveat: if you go, you can never come back. But you aren't worried about that. After all, what on Earth could there possibly be to miss?
-
-
Nothing Happens
- By Brandon on 05-21-24
By: Luiza Sauma
-
The Salt Grows Heavy
- By: Cassandra Khaw
- Narrated by: Susan Dalian
- Length: 2 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
You may think you know how the fairytale goes: a mermaid comes to shore and weds the prince. But what the fables forget is that mermaids have teeth. And now, her daughters have devoured the kingdom and burned it to ashes. On the run, the mermaid is joined by a mysterious plague doctor with a darkness of their own. Deep in the eerie, snow-crusted forest, the pair stumble upon a village of ageless children who thirst for blood, and the three “saints” who control them. The mermaid and her doctor must embrace the cruelest parts of their true nature if they hope to survive.
-
-
Verbose with no real story
- By Tya on 06-13-24
By: Cassandra Khaw
-
Library at Mount Char
- By: Scott Hawkins
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 16 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Carolyn's not so different from the other human beings around her. After all, she was a normal American herself once. That was a long time ago, of course - before the time she calls "adoption day", when she and a dozen other children found themselves being raised by a man they learned to call Father.
-
-
Not Your Local Library
- By Lorfet on 04-05-16
By: Scott Hawkins
-
We Spread
- By: Iain Reid
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 5 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Penny, an artist, has lived in the same apartment for decades, surrounded by the artifacts and keepsakes of her long life. She is resigned to the mundane rituals of old age, until things start to slip. Before her longtime partner passed away years earlier, provisions were made, unbeknownst to her, for a room in a unique long-term care residence, where Penny finds herself after one too many “incidents”.
-
-
when your mind becomes faulty....
- By Barbara S on 10-31-22
By: Iain Reid
-
The Laws of the Skies
- By: Gregoire Courtois, Rhonda Mullins - translator
- Narrated by: Daniel Matmor
- Length: 4 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twelve six-year-olds and their three adult chaperones head into the woods on a camping trip. None of them make it out alive. The Laws of the Skies tells the harrowing story of those days in the woods, of illness and accidents, and of a murderous child.
-
-
Couldn’t finish
- By Amazon Customer on 12-27-22
By: Gregoire Courtois, and others
-
The Green-Eyed Monster
- A Chilling Tale of Terror (Enigma of Twilight Falls, Book 1)
- By: Mike Robinson
- Narrated by: Robert Rossmann
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Martin Smith and John Becker are two best-selling authors with ordinary names and extraordinary minds. Rivals since childhood, they are natives of the northern California town of Twilight Falls and famous for their uncanny similarity in both physical manner and literary voice. When one of them ends up dead at the other’s home, an investigation is launched into their dark past, revealing a series of troubling stories from their childhood, adolescence, and careers.
By: Mike Robinson
-
The Gone World
- By: Tom Sweterlitsch
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
- Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Shannon Moss is part of a clandestine division within the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. In western Pennsylvania, 1997, she is assigned to solve the murder of a Navy SEAL's family - and to locate his vanished teenage daughter. Though she can't share the information with conventional law enforcement, Moss discovers that the missing SEAL was an astronaut aboard the spaceship USS Libra - a ship assumed lost to the currents of Deep Time. Moss knows firsthand the mental trauma of time travel and believes the SEAL's experience with the future has triggered this violence.
-
-
What an amazing find!
- By Veronica on 03-07-18
By: Tom Sweterlitsch
-
Wounds
- Stories
- By: Nathan Ballingrud
- Narrated by: Corey Brill, Danny Campbell, Matthew Lloyd Davies, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wounds is a confounding, strange, and utterly entrancing collection of six stories, including one new novella from Shirley Jackson Award-winning author Nathan Ballingrud. From the eerie dread descending upon a New Orleans dive bartender after a cell phone is left behind in a rollicking bar fight in The Visible Filth to the search for the map of hell in “The Butcher’s Table”, Ballingrud’s beautifully crafted stories are riveting in their quietly terrifying depictions of the murky line between the known and the unknown.
-
-
Amazing collection
- By V on 04-18-19
What listeners say about A Short Stay in Hell
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Saguaro59
- 11-17-16
Existential hell - Wonderful book
Unbelievably good listen. I wish this author had more offerings. Highly recommend. Quirky, odd and compelling story.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 01-11-23
Too short a stay…
A beautifully written meditation on eternity, Peck’s novella is as hopeful as it is horrifying, and as compelling as it is concise, ironically leaving me wishing I could spend more time in hell.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 05-26-23
Love
Kinda ending that explains more but I really loved this and great characters v v
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 07-03-24
Thought provoking
A thought provoking narrative with great imagery. The possibility is unfathomable but leaves an impression
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Michael S. Henderson
- 08-12-24
A thoughtful experiment.
There’s a point in the narrative that seems like it very much wants to abandon an interesting thought experiment in favor of embracing a more comfortable previously held belief but manages not to. I respect it. A provocative read not meant for the entrenched religious masses. Wonderful stuff.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ryan
- 08-23-14
Beautifully unsettling
This short, smart existential novella is a gem. After the protagonist, Soren Johansson, a devout Mormon, dies of cancer, he finds himself in a room with four other people. There, an officious demon cheerfully informs everyone that they’ve all failed to follow the one true religion (which I won’t spoil, but suffice to say, it’s not one of the obvious candidates) and consigns them all to a variety of hells.
For the protagonist, hell is a bigger-than-the-known-universe library containing every possible book (including those whose contents are just random characters, i.e. the vast majority). And the only way out, according to a posted notice, is to find the book containing one’s own life story. Hell does operate according to a few rules, which can’t be broken. There are food dispensers, which give out any meal requested. Non-carried objects return to their place at the end of each day. People who die are returned to life.
At first, Soren does what most people would do: he explores, forms relationships, tests the rules, and discusses solutions to the shared predicament. But days, then months, then years pass. The denizens of the library form societies. Soren experiences wandering and loneliness. He falls in love. Then violent religious mania hits people, and hell really does become hell. So, he escapes to deeper levels, in search of both his lost lover and answers.
I won’t give away what happens from there, but Peck does eventually make it clear that there’s no easy way out. The author’s wry sense of humor makes the haunting philosophical questions go down easy, but that won’t stop them from swirling uncomfortably in your mind later. As I see it, this is a book about what faith really means. What happens if God utterly defies all our expectations? Would we still believe? Could we let go of our belief? And I don’t think Peck is letting non-believers off the hook, either -- if we contemplate the hell of a purposeless reality, might it be better to have some ray of hope in a greater meaning, however slender?
Beautifully unsettling questions. I’m glad I spotted this one in an audible sale.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
40 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Audio Gra Gra
- 05-15-15
An extreeeeeeeeeeeeeeemely ironic title
Short listen and thought provoking. Could be depressing to some listeners.
Narrated well and a clever alternative take on the concept of hell.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Scott Bartuska
- 06-11-16
One of my favorites
One of my favorite books for the simplicity in making a complicated subject so easy and showing the reader a different way to look at religion.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Andre Wallace Simonsen
- 08-09-17
Good short story
Sometimes the audio changes voices (less than five throughout the book), but overall it's a good experience and the idea is interesting.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Nearlydawn
- 05-25-17
A Most Significant Book
What would happen if you found yourself in a Hell that had a beginning, and an end, but has rules you can not fathom. Hope will... persevere.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!