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Around 2004-2007 I read a book with a really nice red and black cover.

It is about a boy who got into an accident and died. He then got sent to hell. In hell it was very different than what people talked about, fire and all that. He had to go through a tour of some sorts and see people being forced to listen to classical music as a form of torture.

Of all the things I mentioned, I am not very clear on all of the details. They may or may not be true. It was a really good book that I borrowed from the library and a few years ago.

3 Answers 3

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Sounds like Anthony McGowan's Hellbent:

Sixteen-year-old Connor is on his way home from school when he is run down by an ice-cream truck. He is sent to hell with his dog, Scrote, who choked on an ice cream cone which rolled off the truck. There he is sentenced to spending all eternity reading intellectual books and listening to classical music with his personal devil tormentor, Clarence, and a transvestite Viking, Olaf.

At least two editions of it have red and black covers:

hellbent1 hellbent2

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    An eternity reading intellectual books and listening to classical music? That sounds like my version of heaven, and I'm somewhat miffed that there's children's literature promoting the idea that those are literally hellishly unpleasant. Commented Oct 22, 2015 at 20:48
  • @KyleStrand The description on Wikipedia is longer and suggests that this is not so simple.
    – coredump
    Commented Oct 22, 2015 at 22:15
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    @KyleStrand who said it was a children's book? If you read the rest of the Wikipedia blurb quoted in this answer, you'll find that it continues with "Eventually he meets a beautiful naked angel called Francessa who tells him that one person's hell could be his heaven. He sets out to swap hells with an elderly, classical music loving, homosexual gentlemen [sic] whose hell is to constantly play the PlayStation and have his penis fondled by nude women." I really doubt that's a children's book.
    – terdon
    Commented Oct 22, 2015 at 23:44
  • I think this is the closest to the right answer, but i'll need to read it to find out. And thanks and sorry for checking only after a couple of months!
    – stephw
    Commented Jan 20, 2016 at 8:54
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I Googled fiction boy hell classical music and found "Hellbent" by Anthony McGowan.

"Hellbent" is summarized as

Cover of Hellbent

Sixteen-year-old Connor is on his way home from school when he is run down by an ice-cream truck. He is sent to hell with his dog, Scrote, who choked on an ice cream cone which rolled off the truck. There he is sentenced to spending all eternity reading intellectual books and listening to classical music with his personal devil tormentor, Clarence, and a transvestite Viking, Olaf. Eventually he meets a beautiful naked angel called Francessa who tells him that one person's hell could be his heaven. He sets out to swap hells with an elderly, classical music loving, homosexual gentlemen whose hell is to constantly play the PlayStation and have his penis fondled by nude women. He, Clarence, Scrote and Olaf set out on a long journey, of which if they are caught means they will be annihilated and be gone forever. On their travels, Olaf is captured and annihilated. Eventually they reach Connor's heaven, but he finds that Clarence has betrayed him. Olaf also betrayed him and is not dead, but then tries to help Connor and is this time killed for good. Connor and Scrote are sentenced to their ideal heaven, which has now become their worst nightmare as their tastes have changed. Connor notices a lever on the annihilator which has a plus and a minus. Figuring that it will reincarnate him if he changes it to plus and jumps in, he does so. It is left to the reader to decide whether Connor and Scrote were reincarnated or were fully annihilated.

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    Can you include some evidence besides your search terms that this is the correct book? For instance, I Googled fiction boy hell black and red and got Orange Is the New Black Fanfiction, but that's obviously not the correct answer.
    – user31178
    Commented Oct 22, 2015 at 19:39
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    @CreationEdge "black and red" probably wasn't specific enough. The key is to try to use key words and phrases that are unique to what you're searching for. That's why I used "classical music". Commented Oct 22, 2015 at 22:50
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There is also the Heck series by Dale E Basye, though they started in 2008.

One day, the nerdy Milton Fauster and his kleptomaniac sister Marlo are in the Grizzly Mall of Generica, Kansas. They go into a store and Milton unwittingly steals some lip gloss.

As Marlo and Milton are running through the mall with the security guard chasing them, Milton realizes Marlo tricked him into stealing lip gloss. They take a break for a moment and they stop in front of a giant marshmallow model of a Grizzly Bear, and Milton sees Damian Ruffino, his extremely unhygienic tormentor and bully at school. He is sticking some dynamite in the marshmallow Grizzly Bear Statue's behind.

Before the mall security guards can catch up with them, the marshmallow Grizzly Bear explodes and Milton and Marlo both die. Damian also dies. The last thing they see is flaming marshmallow all over the mall. Now, Milton and Marlo are holding hands and plummeting downward and Milton feels a slight sting. He and Marlo land, and they found themselves in a terrible school in Limbo where the principal Bea "Elsa" Bubb torments them with things they wish they could have. But, Damian is getting the special treatment.

Classes include home-ec class with Lizzie Borden, ethics with Richard Nixon, and gym with Blackbeard the Pirate. The children are terrified. They now find themselves in Limbo, the waiting area for the Nine Circles of Heck, which include Rapacia, Blimpo, Precocia, Sadia, Snivel, Fibble, Lipptor (Wise Acres), and Dupli-City. When Milton meets Virgil, his new best friend, they and Marlo plan an escape to return to Earth, instead of spending the rest of their lives tormented in Heck.

Each book in the series deals with a realm of the afterlife of Heck.

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