One Horror Novel That Haunts Me Still

I read a lot of horror books each year. While I find many of them thrilling, I’ve never ruminated on a book months after finishing it. But all of that changed last year when I read Stephen Peck’s “A Short Stay in Hell.”

Peck’s novel is an exploration of existential despair and apeirophobia, the fear of eternity. His short book follows the death of a Mormon academic, who is condemned to Hell and must wander an endless library, searching for the one single book which depicts his life’s story. The novel’s brilliance lies in its depiction of Hell as a torment of endless consciousness. This is not a book about cruel demons with whips and hooks. It’s a reflection on what it means to exist forever, to lose all connection with one’s prior life.

Peck’s genius in writing this story involves capturing a sense of eternity in mathematical, mind-boggling terms. He describes endless books filled with gibberish mixtures of letters. He details endless years of wandering a library without end. The sheer scope of Hell’s library is breathtaking and terrifying—where one’s body can free-fall for years over the railing without reaching the bottom floor. There is no death here, no respite from existence. There is only time and more time.

As the book unravels, Peck’s protagonist slowly forgets everything about his prior life. His family, his home, and everything that once mattered to him—that once defined him—becomes an insignificant speck of dust, lost in the long shadow of time. 

I still think about this book at night. I imagine being trapped in a large prison from time immemorial. There is nothing to do: no hope of death, no path forward. I can only cling to my memories as they fade with time, one by one, until there is nothing left of who I was. I think about the meaninglessness of eternal life. I think about the horror of eternal consciousness.

I think, we should be able to quit. We should be able to say enough. Let me rest. Let me go. Let me be done.

But what if we aren't permitted?

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Interestingly, Peck himself is not a “horror” writer in any conventional sense. I’m almost certain he would never have predicted that he would have such avid following in the horror community. From my own brief research, Peck is an active member of the Mormon Community and a leading literary voice and theologian in the Church of Latter Day Saints. He has advanced degrees in biomathematics and entomology. No doubt, some of his teachings and writings may have been influenced by a turbulent period of illness and mental hallucinations, when he was hospitalized with a bacterial brain infection. Check out his own fascinating diary entry on this experience here: https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V41N02_73.pdf