Review - Written in Hell by Jason Helford

Written in Hell by Jason Helford
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Kindle Edition, 250 pages

Published January 5th 2014

Source: Author for Review

Synopsis:
'Written in Hell follows writer Nathanial Blovey on his strange and perilous adventures through Hell. Nathaniel’s book, a collection of lewd tales set in the old west, failed miserably, prematurely ending his career; however, unbeknownst to him, his stories had become a huge success in Hell. The Devil decides to send him a one-way invitation to her realm, to write for her, and to keep his damned fans happy. There is only one problem: he has writer’s block. With a firm deadline imposed by the Devil herself, Nate has to find a way to keep the most terrible of bosses happy, and survive his trip through Hell. While there is no fire and brimstone, and a burgeoning civilization is growing, Hell is still a very dangerous place for a soft man like Nathaniel.

Written in Hell is a creepy, fun and thought-provoking journey through Hell, with a guide who can’t help but anger people everywhere he goes. It takes you through a new and creative re-imagining of Hell.'

My Thoughts:
When I first received this book from the author to review I was kind of excited to read it because the description sounded very intriguing and exactly like my type of book.

Unfortunately, once I started reading it I realised that I wasn't going to be a fan of this book. I really did try to like it and keep an open mind throughout but there were just so many issues I had while reading that I couldn't seem to get past.

My biggest issue was with the main character Nate. He was made out to be such a disgusting and pathetic individual and I think the way he was portrayed really gave me a bad taste from the start. I know that in a way it's probably a smart move by the author to have done this because if he was a nice character it would be a bit hard to justify why he was sent to hell, but I like to relate to or at least have some sort of positive or inquisitive feeling about a character I am reading about in a book and I just couldn't get to this point with Nate.

Also, there were many little regular occurences in the book that literally made me feel disgusted in one way or another. I won't mention them because I don't want to spoil it for someone else but every time it was noted I got more and more sick of reading about it until it really did become too much. If you have already read this book you may be able to guess what bits I am referring to, otherwise I'll just have to leave you guessing.

I do have to admit that the storyline was an interesting concept and definitely different to any I have read before so I do have to give the author credit for his originality.

I really did have to force myself to finish reading this book and found myself not in any way interested in what was actually going to happen in the end. When I did finally finish it I felt a huge sense of relief.

I really do wish I could have liked this book more but I guess not every book is for every person. If they were it would probably be a boring world.