There's a new book by Chuck Palahniuk that's set in Hell. Think The Breakfast Club and The Inferno twisted into one narrative. Madison Spencer, a thirteen-year-old daughter of liberal-secular-humanist celebrities who collect her siblings from impoverished regions of the world, finds herself in Hell after a serious weed overdose. Once there she meets a jock, a punk, a nerd and a slut. With them she goes on wacky adventures, one of which involves bringing giant she-demon Psezpolnica to climax with the severed head of her Hell-friend, Archer (the punk). Those little rascals.
The sights Hell has to offer: The Sea of Insects, The Great Plains of Broken Glass and the Giant Ocean of Wasted Sperm. Of the environment of Hell, Madison once said: "Hell is very much like Florida in that the resident bug life never dies." The currency of Hell is candy and all the operations are run by demon-bureaucrats who look lifted from a triptych by Hieronymus Bosch.
People Madison sees in Hell:
Norman Mailer
Kurt Cobain
Susan Sontag
John Lennon
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
Madison learns a lot in Hell, like having a body mass index greater than .0012 and using the word "ain't" are damnation-worthy infractions. She also learns that the dead have many ways of sending messages to the living on Earth. For instance, if a soul is trying to tell you that you'll be dead before sunset, you will hear the song "You're the One That I Want" from Grease three times in the same day, seemingly by coincidence.
At a little over 240 pages, it's a hell of a good read. Ha!
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