I grabbed Tim Hawken‘s novel, Hellbound, off of the KDP list.

Description from Amazon
“You look very confused when I say I’m just trying to help these lost souls make their way to Heaven,” he said. “The reason you’re confused is that you think I’m speaking metaphorically. Well, my dear friend, take it very literally. You see, I may have introduced myself as Asmodeus, but let me run off a few of my more well known aliases. Now, let’s see, we have Mephistopheles, Beelzebub, Bafomet, Iblis, The Fallen One, Lucifer, The Morning Star, Lord of the Dark, The Devil, oh and my favorite; Satan.”

Face to face with Satan, Michael has awoken in the bowels of Hell with no memory of who he is, or why he has been damned.

Hell, however, isn’t what he expected. Rather than the fires of torment, he finds a hedonistic city of gambling, sex, murder and revenge.

With the Devil as his guide, Michael embarks on a quest of self-discovery and self redemption. But will he get a second chance at salvation? And why is Satan helping him?

Review:
Well that was interesting. I didn’t really know what to expect when I got into Hellbound. I’m happy to say it isn’t a proselytical text. In fact I imagine hard-core Christians would set up picket lines outside of Hawken’s home if the book ever gained any traction. But then that’s probably why I like it. It presents an interesting take on the relationship of God and the Devil, the purpose of Hell, and the existence of the afterlife. I won’t call it groundbreaking, but it made me think.

I did find both God and Satan’s characters to be a bit trite at times, Satan the Joker and God the bumbling omnipotent. Michael came up with some convenient help on more than one occasion, like a parade passing and practically giving him the answer to a riddle he needed to solve. Though I suppose I could read divine intervention into this. And I kind of wonder where all of the women in Hell were. Surely they couldn’t all be prostates, right?

All in all it was an entertaining, thought provoking read. It is published by a small press called Dangerous Little Books who claim to publish 6 “dangerous, contentious, thought-provoking and controversial non-fiction books each year on topics we think are important and interesting to our readers.” I might question whether this one was non-fiction, but it’s an interesting premise and I’ll be keeping my eyes open. I also look forward to seeing what Hawken’s comes up with next. There is a sequel, I am Satan. Maybe I’ll pick it up.