A walk through hell…

This book was an excellent audiobook. We follow the journey of nick, a young man who finds himself executed for a mass shooting. He’s in an elevator that has 3 levels and he has no option to choose where to go. Or does he?

On stepping out of the elevator he’s greeted by Jeffrey, if you’re into true crime in any way there are plenty of hints as to who this character is. His role is to guide Nick to his eventual room for the rest of eternity whilst also teaching him the do’s and don’ts of the ground floor.

This book gripped me which is interesting to me given the book outcome is obvious from the beginning. There’s suspense and yet no surprises. There’s gore and horror but not in absurd detail. Given the book is essentially a walk and talk between 2 people I was honestly surprised how much I enjoyed it.

Some of the real characters in the book were fairly obviously going to end up in hell but there was also an undercurrent of right and wrong, getting what you deserve and ultimately having the right to choose the path you take. At times it was difficult for me to digest some of the opinions such as mental illness or addiction not being an “excuse”. That I found challenging as it contradicts my own beliefs. Nonetheless, you are left questioning whether people can redeem themselves having committed heinous crimes.

Some of the “jokes” were a little overdone, the time narrative I felt was overdone. However with nicks character there was frustration, disdain, humour and also feelings of sadness for him.

The end of the book was also an intriguing end. Whilst ordinarily having something open ended would frustrate me, there was enough suggestion that you could ultimately make up your own ending based on the question above of what do people truly deserve.

Overall this was an excellent listen, the story was fabulous and the narrator switched between the 2 characters as well as the general dialogue well. I would highly recommend this as a quick listen.

For transparency, I received a copy of the audio from the author. I am however leaving this honest review of my own will.

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