It’s taken me a while to circle back to this, as whilst there’s a lot I like, there’s a lot to criticise as well… Either way food for thought indeed which is why it’s taken me a while to circle back to review this!

The white centred Mormonism of it all… The fact that the hell in this book was only white English speaking Americans made me feel strange. Whilst the point of the book is undoubtedly trying to convey that actually the diversity of life, the choice of differentiation and the individualism of every living thing (whether person, animal or other). It felt lazy?

The fact we don’t really get exposed to anything more of Zoroastrianism, even though it is the “confirmed” religion. The story stays on its white American focus, with no curiosity seeming to be really explored. I remain unsure if it was try to portray the assumption that actually everyone knows all the details of Zoroastrianism - when I highly doubt this particular group of people would have heard of it prior to arriving in this hell.

Or do we go off the assumption that they suddenly “know” upon their arrival but again this isn’t really explored. It is just the pure acceptance and the lack of questioning of the comeplete culture shift - too unbelievable imo considering (I’m assuming) this would be quite massive for a group of white Americans to have to do?

However, the concept of being trapped with people of a similar echo chamber of you, without the diversity in people or routine, is truly a hellish thing. There’s not really a payoff, and arguably the ending speech about whether a deity is noticing the effort felt very Christian/catholic/mormon-centric?

Whether because this was a booktok rec (and now thinking it must have been an American) or

since I’ve noticed that Mormons seem to be front of centre for a lot of mainstream popular books (across genres) and I can’t help but notice everywhere. It starting to feel a little bit like the new Scientology to me (from northern UK where religion isn’t necessarily as big as in America at all).

I’m wondering if maybe my lack of spirituality has maybe biased me against religions that don’t have centuries worth of history to at least back up their following. Idk, but noticing that added a layer to the disapointment in this book that on the face it, I’d hoped for more of a nuanced and diverse exploration of spirituality.

Maybe I’m feeling more misled than anything. Despite being an atheist, I have a lot of respect for a religions and people with faith and so was excited to maybe have read something that explores the nuances. I have had some exposure to Zoroastrianism but I so very rarely see it out “in the wild” that I was excited to read more on it but it just felt short because it still felt very white American centred.

But the authors does constantly refer back to the “sameness” is what makes it such a misleading hell. In the first instance it’s a kin to some normal society, then we see the typical descent into a more stereotypical notion of hell only to circle back to the initial monotony which in turn is highlighted as the true burden. Then as we reach that conclusion, the narrator is felt to have only really just started their genuinely pious journey under this new religion but we as the reader still know no more than what I’d argue is taught about under Catholicism/Christianity etc…

not to be insensitive of anyone’s religion but I am an atheist with spiritual curiosity and so this is just my internal debate during this book

These books are really messing my average rating because they’re all landing solidly 4 star at the least

Death is by far the best character and once again I’m so against calling this fantasy! It is satire at its finest and death is peak British humour embodiment. Little grumpy, emotional without wanting to talk about it, blunt but landing it humorously.

Annoyed I somehow hated these when my uncle tried to get me into them (I think too young) but Thankyou to the person ok here that said “the Discworld finds you when you’re ready” because I 1000% feel that and have chuckled pretty much every day since starting and that is so needed

I’ve put off this review because whatever I put is just a not going to encapsulate what I want to portray!

So we all know Tolkien was a master of language, story telling and within that a lyricist. Somehow it just didn’t occur to me to liken what I’d already read to poetry

Whilst the main story is love story worthy of being revered as we see in the Lord of the rings. The poetry at the end…

And poetry is not my forte at all…

It was beautiful, it lends itself to the romance and tragedy and loyalty intended to be expressed by Tolkien.

Honestly, I’d love if more romantasy books instead of over doing sexuality, dedicated a foreword or chapter to just poetry on the love being explored…

I had to stop and save for a Sunday because once again, I don’t want to casually read these stories, I want to be able to sit and savour it.

This book is a great example of weaving timelines together seamlessly over time. The suspense is kept at a constant as the each plot line has its own turbulence. The heartbreak for one is distracted by the chaos of another. It’s so aptly named - the tormented each character goes through whether self inflicted through indulgence or emotional out burst to unwittingly having cross wires with the wrong person at the wrong time