I received a free copy of Awake in Hell by Beau Coup Publishing in exchange for an honest review. I have never read anything by this author, but I do generally like reading what publishers provide to me. Most of the publishers who I work with know what interests me and enjoy working with me due to my professionalism and passion for reading. With that said, I thoroughly enjoyed this book! It begins like the title allows you to assume—that someone is waking up in Hell. Now, I am not very religious but I did find this story to be immensely interesting anyway.
As Louise Patterson wakes up under a bridge and walks the short distance in the scorching heat to an unrecognizable town, she realizes two things. The first thing, everything looks out of place. The second thing, oh yeah—she’s dead! Louise stumbles around, trying to find all of the memories that she lost from the world of the living. With her confusion settling in, she walks straight into the first building that she sees and is offered a job on the spot! She is tasked with despicable things that are not only appalling, but downright disastrous.
Then it hits her, she is in Hell. Hell is excruciatingly hot, she receives nightly terrors, her closet hates her—giving her the most disgusting and uncomfortable clothing possible, touch is virtually impossible and no one can ever be happy or helpful since it is a one-way ticket for termination of employment. What has she done in her life to warrant this torture, she asks herself? After helping a customer and then receiving her termination slip, she finds something that can possible elevate the torture. On the notice board before her very eyes, there is an advertisement for Second Chances Temp Agency. As if anything can be worse than her current state of mind, she has yet to realize that her adventure—her journey for purpose has just begun!
My favorite characters are Louise, Mr. Deedy and Linda (the little girl). After waking up in Hell, Louise starts getting faint memories of the life that she one lived. At first, all of the things that she is guilty for come to haunt her through nightmares. Then, resentment and the feelings of uselessness start to become unbearable. It actually makes you feel sorry for her as her memories remind her of a life devoid of love, happiness and hope. Louise’s vocabulary is humorous, especially after meeting Mr. Deedy with Second Chances Temp Agency. I think that this is what I found most interesting about Louise. Now, Mr. Deedy is humorous in his own way like having his curse jar. Every curse word mentioned is 25¢, in Hell! His mood is always alarmingly chipper and everything seems comfortable when he’s around. His interest in Louise’s life makes her feel like she matters to someone, especially since she has eternity to think about her pain and loss. The third character, Linda is a very curious character. Her dialogue is very short and the reason for her presence is a mystery to Louise at first. She is also always chipper, except when she screams out “Stop helping me!” which I also found to be humorous. I really enjoyed many of the other minor characters that appeared in this novel, but those three were my all-time favorites.
Overall, the story is well-written and very humorous! I really enjoyed reading it and again, I found more interest in this book without looking at it from a religious perspective. The author does a superb job with character development and the pace of this story is fast and enjoyable. In my opinion, the target audience for this story would be adults who enjoy fantasy and otherworld fiction. I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone under the age of eighteen due to the language and content within this story; however, I would recommend it to everyone else! This book is a standalone novel with highly original content and fascinating concepts. The author went above and beyond with creativity that even threw my mind for a tale-spin a couple of times. In my opinion, this book deserves five stars because the story shows prominent evidence of a lot of soul searching as well as time and effort. Not only does this star rating express my interest, but the book passes all of the criteria that I base my reviews off of. I look forward to reading more by this author in the future!
Note: review originally published on July 25, 2016.
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