Billiam (not William) finds that, after dying in an unfortunate washing machine accident, that the afterlife offers more challenges than he ever thought. Tasked with bringing back just one televangelist minister from a Hell slightly different from traditional views, he has to contend with horrible clothing from the eighties, curdled wolverine milk, smoking dogs, and a cockroach as a roommate. But … But Billiam has only a limited amount of time to learn about others, and himself before time runs out. You see, Hell is apparently sitting on some valuable real estate.
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It was a great political satire that pokes fun at organized religion sucking money out of people to “get them into heaven.” The punishments for those in hell are comedic justice. Preachers who hate immigrants and trans people become trans immigrants in the afterlife. People obsessed with their looks become painful to look at. I liked the idea of hell just being mildly uncomfortable and easy to escape physically, but not mentally. I think the author did a great job with the world and character building. There were some minor spelling, formatting, and word choice errors, but nothing so major as to impede readability. I look forward to reading book 2 in the series.
As an independently-published author, I often have the opportunity to exchange work with other writers. The suggestions are often hit or miss and are nearly always forgettable experiences. Evangelicals in Hell is not a miss and is definitely unforgettable in lots of amazing ways.
The story, the characters, the shenanigans – all of it had me at some times talking aloud to the book (as most do with movies) and sometimes even cussing due to the antics. If not for a busy schedule in my own life, I’m certain I would have finished the novel in just a day or two because it is that good and I hated having to put it down to do silly things like work.
The dialogue is snarky and clever, the story is engrossing, the characters are unusual and, though I knew I shouldn’t be rooting for some of them, I did anyway. The progression and buildup of the novel sneaked up on me to a point where I saw what percentage I had left to read and my thought was, “No! It can’t be near the end already!” I wanted more of the characters, more of their backgrounds, more of the nods to nostalgia – and all I could think of was that I didn’t want it to be over.
I had mixed feelings once I finished reading it. My first thought was, “I’m going to read this again” and my second was, “I’m so glad that’s not all.” After all, this is part of the series Myriads of Hell. I’m hoping that this means I’ll get to revisit some of the characters I became fond of in the first book as the series moves along and I can’t wait for the next installment.
Kudos to JC Paulk for making me laugh during what was otherwise a somewhat hectic week on my own personal plane of Hell. I have already recommended the novel to others with the hope that they will enjoy it as much as I did.
Amazing fun from start to finish. Evangelicals now has a place on my periodic re-read list.
I was laughing when I finished the the first paragraph. I enjoy a good satire and this one delivers. Paulk takes the concept of the Christian afterlife and twists it into a study of how silly our religious beliefs can be and how hard it is to accept the shift in what we thought was true and what is actually true.
A promising voice in the vein of Pratchett
First of all, I rather like my Discover card. But apparently, it’s the credit card of choice if you’re in hell.
This was a fine and funny read for the KU audience, or for the ebook reader looking for an inexpensive diversion. The author certainly left me with some moments of chuckles.
But… there are enough “autocorrect” type editing errors to notice. I’m still not sure if one character is supposed to be named Clack or Clank. The author focuses on four evangelical characters in particular, but I was disappointed by the minimal effort the main character needed to use to go after his goal. I wish the story would have been grander.
Still, this is a new indie author to keep on your radar even if the writing is a little rough around the edges.