7 Books About Being Stuck in Purgatory – Electric Literature Guest Post

In my debut novel, Sign Here, Hell is all logistics. Upon arrival, everyone gets a terrible celebrity baby name, a floor assignment, and an orientation packet. Peyote Trip has been on the Fifth Floor for centuries, trading in souls for Deals Department, and has accepted the permanency of his locale. Until the family he’s been tracking takes their teenage daughter’s friend on summer vacation, and Peyote finds that even in the forever of after, nothing is guaranteed.

I am far from the first person to utilize Hell in fiction. When I started looking for answers to my questions, I didn’t just find the stories that take place in Hell, like Milton’s Paradise Lost or Dante’s Inferno. I also found books that address Hell as any lack of escape, which, when combined with the tedium and terror of being left outside of time, sharpens into a pain even the most skilled torturer could never inflict. Whether underground or above, whether in our minds, the minds of those we love or crowded with other people, Hell takes many forms. This is my list of those which I have never been able to stop thinking about.