From the dark side of Hollywood -- to the cruel secrets of one of America's most secretive industries... To the twisted, explosive little Hells of suburban America...

To a hidden experimental world within a world -- a terrarium for human beings where sex and drugs and violence are just factors in the experiment... Where experiencing new deaths becomes the ultimate drug, the ultimate ride -- the final addiction.

The question is -- would you know if you were in Hell, necessarily? Maybe it depends on your definition of Hell. What's yours? Haven't you ever said, "I'm just in Hell" and sincerely meant it -- if only for a few minutes? Some parts of the world are truly Hell. Some parts are easier. But that's Hell's little game, isn't it?

Sometimes you think, why did I do what I did, just now?

Could something have been influencing me... from outside?

Not all astral puppeteers are demons -- not exactly. Not at first. But if they're not -- what are they? And what are we, the puppets, really?

Are we really human?

Are you sure?

The View From Hell: Reviews

Publishers Weekly:
Less than six months after the publication by Cemetery Dance of his mini-masterpiece Demons, Shirley returns with another small-press offering that pushes the envelope of fantasy and horror and strengthens his reputation as one of today's most daring authors of metaphysical fiction...Shirley is an unpredictable writer, and this is one of his most bizarre bits of writing to date. It's an expertly crafted, ferocious tale that offers a stinging commentary on the worst (and the best) in humans. Graphic to the max, it's bound to be misinterpreted by some and is simply too strong for many, but it's yet another serious work from an important writer and deserves careful consideration by anyone interested in the radical edge of horror. (full review)

LOCUS (June 2001) Ed Bryant:
There are a lot of unpredictable writers in dark fantasy and horror. But of them all, John Shirley is one of the hardest to predict. He ducks and weaves through an enormous variety of approaches to the fantastic. He sometimes is so nihilistic and apparently cynical, his work bums like acid. Then he'll turn around and shock the cringing reader with a work of consummate humanity. Nothing sappy, mind you. But he seems to delight in confounding expectations...The View From Hell...tackles it all...The all-over narrative is stuffed with nasty sweetmeats of ugly behavior that eventually turn on a dime and are leavened with a redeeming sprinkle of grace notes. It's not an easy task to accomplish. But Shirley's good... (full review)

Cemetery Dance #35, Garrett Peck:
...The individual stories toward the beginning of the book could very easily be stand alone stories, all with their own beginnings, middles and ends. Chapter Three, subtitled "Pills" would be a superb crime story in its own right. By bringing the characters from the individual stories together in the end, Shirley manages to create a whole even more horrific than its parts. (full review)

Do you suck on John Shirley's lollipops of pain? Here's the infamous "review" of THE VIEW FROM HELL appeared in Kirkus Reviews. The writer of this piece of putrid prose is factually wrong on several counts and comes close to libel on others. (full review)