Styx & Stonez: A Satirical Descent Through the Nine Circles
About
When your mom is the Queen of Underworld, “grounded” hits different.
After one infernal screw-up too many, the Devil’s teenage twins are sentenced to the ultimate punishment: a mandatory educational field trip through the Nine Circles. No phones. No shortcuts. No incinerating the tour guide.
What follows is a hilariously bleak descent through bureaucratic damnation, where Wrath has a complaint window, Sloth runs the transit system, and every sinner insists their torture is “unreasonable.”
Forced to confront the wreckage of human folly (and their own), the twins discover that Hell isn’t just eternal fire… it’s eternal irony.
A razor-edged satire about family, failure, and the cosmic joke of growing up—told with pitch-black humor and a surprising pulse of heart.
Praise for this book
Styx & Stonez: A Satirical Descent Through the Nine Circles is a genuinely funny and sharply observed read, offering a modern, satirical take on the idea of Dante's layers of Hell. Steve Goldsmith blends dark humour with concise, thoughtful writing, delivering a book that is short but surprisingly rich in ideas. This is a fast, entertaining read that rewards readers who enjoy clever language, modern satire, and thoughtful observations wrapped in humour rather than heavy-handed moralising. I particularly enjoyed the two main characters, Styx and Stonez and their reports at the conclusion. "Greed taught me that contracts are just cages with nicer fonts" is a line I'm sure I'll be quoting again later. Stonez report was even more hilarious. I look forward to more from this author.
Styx and Stones are two bickering twins in the underworld. Their mom is the Queen of the underworld and has come up with a way to teach them a lesson. My favorite part of this book was the witty dialogue between the twins. It made me laugh at time, but it also made me think. In that regard, it amazed me. Rare is something that can teach you and at the same time make you laugh. I highly recommend this short book.