“Welcome to Hell. That is the Hellp Desk.”
A younger girl with lengthy, crimson hair and a glower that will make Miranda Priestly tremble stands in entrance of the gates of Hell. She holds your Soul File in her hand—an inventory of all the things the Universe weighed when it determined in the event you have been going to Paradise or headed to the gate you’re taking a look at now.
Most of Hell is run by demons, however Lily, the lady holding your file, is a human: one who had a brief lifetime filled with customer support expertise. And the road you’re in isn’t for everybody. It’s for the Karens, the crypto-bros, individuals who insist it was “only a joke.” Everybody who, on Earth, discovered that in the event you’re loud, obnoxious, or merciless sufficient, you’ll ultimately get what you need.
Not right here. That is the one customer support desk the place the shopper is all the time unsuitable. And it doesn’t matter what, you’re going to Hell.
All of it’s courtesy of Hell’s Belles, the TikTok collection created by Seattle’s Jaysea Lynn. Born of two traumas—non secular indoctrination and customer support work—Hell’s Belles has constructed the afterlife all of us want existed: truthful, nuanced, respectful of faith however devoid of dogma. The collection has spent 4 years exploring morality, justice, and a few of our greatest and worst human instincts, with a sprinkling of demon smut on high. The collection has 1.8 million followers who scroll in 5 days every week to look at updates from the Hellp Desk.
Hell’s Belles was solely imagined to final a couple of episodes—an concept that Lynn had throughout a very dangerous day in, you guessed it, customer support. “This girl simply instructed me to go to Hell,” Lynn instructed The Stranger. “The primary skit got here to me, and I used to be like ‘Cool, I’ll do, like, three or 4 of those. It’ll be cathartic, and I’ll fade into obscurity.’ And that was nearly 600 episodes in the past.”
Lynn began out by pulling materials from her personal life, rising up in Astoria (sure, of The Goonies fame) in a conservative, non secular dwelling. “In school, I lived in an all-women’s Christian co-op that was basically a cult,” she says. “Once I related with those self same folks after school, we had all left faith—and a few of us had left religion fully. And it was like, ‘Okay, what have been the issues that occurred? They mattered and so they harm us, and so they’re price speaking about.’ Hell’s Belles was a spot the place I might begin expressing that malcontent and that harm and never have somebody instantly go, ‘Properly, that’s not God,’ to make it extra comfy for them to listen to. It’s actually validating to listen to somebody say, ‘That’s not what ought to have occurred.’ Or ‘You have been assaulted, and it wasn’t God attempting to get your consideration.’”
Within the Hell’s Belles afterlife, we’re all judged by the Universe on the identical primary scale: Did you do your sincere finest to keep away from doing hurt? If you happen to did, head to the paradise of your selecting. If you happen to didn’t, you’ll end up strolling previous the Hellp Desk towards the gates of Hell. The primary two ranges aren’t punishment—consider them extra like remedy. A spot to work by the explanations you weren’t in a position to be as respectable as you must have been on Earth. As you get deeper, the punishments get extra extreme, however Lynn’s model of Hell assumes that everybody is redeemable. Nobody is doomed to rot there so long as they’re keen to place within the work.
A few of the desk’s patrons are archetypes: Christian moms who rejected their queer youngsters, abusers, and yard pet mill breeders. Others are pulled straight from headlines: the day Anita Bryant died, Miss Oklahoma got here as much as the desk (“The homosexual isn’t a figuring out consider what number of stairs you need to do.”) When Luigi Mangione shot and killed Brian Thompson, an unnamed healthcare CEO handed by (“Whenever you have been mendacity in that mattress, dying, did you continue to assume it was finest for healthcare selections to be made by an insurance coverage panel with no medical coaching?” Lily requested. “Your declare for hellp has been denied.”)
However between the Hellp Desk patrons is the entire “life” a part of the afterlife. Lily falls in love with a hunky demon named Bel, they’ve a bit of discovered household that passes between the various ranges of the afterlife and performs attractive trivia and sings “Margaritaville” karaoke, and naturally, that’s the place the sprinkling of demon smut is available in.
The present ran for 4 years, and along with the whirlwind that comes with TikTok notoriety, Hell’s Belles additionally helped reconcile a few of that non secular trauma in her private life. “I began residing extra authentically,” Lynn says. “And it was like inventive remedy for me. I’m extra keen to speak to my mother about this. And we have been in a position to have these generally unhappy or harsh conversations that constructed over time.”
However in January, because the TikTok ban loomed, it appeared like a chapter is likely to be coming to an finish. However the identical week that TikTok went darkish (if just for a day), Lynn signed a seven-figure, three-book deal, together with her already self-published prequel to the collection, For Whom the Belle Tolls. Regardless of which oligarch owns our varied social media platforms, the Hell’s Belles universe will dwell on.
The collection prequel begins when Lily continues to be alive, sitting in her automotive that refused to begin, simply after getting a bleak most cancers prognosis: “The physician had given her choices, in fact. Choices to lengthen. To ease. However choices have been for folks with cash. Individuals whose automobiles would begin.” By Chapter 3, although, we’re within the afterlife: Lily will get judged by the Universe, sorted into her personal paradise, and the Hellp Desk involves be.
The primary e book was the biggest writing venture Lynn has ever taken on—she doesn’t even script the Hell’s Belles episodes. However she’s excited to ultimately transfer away from the day by day grind of filming, enhancing, and posting an episode each day. “It’s not my favourite storytelling medium,” she says. And with a three-book deal, she could have the prospect to (very, very slowly) transfer away from it. “At first I used to be like ‘Do you’ve two extra books in you?’” she says. “As quickly as I had the deal, I used to be like ‘Perhaps I’m a fraud, and I solely ever had one e book in me, and this was all a fluke, and it is a lie, and so they’re gonna put me in writer jail.’ After which it was I took a nap and ate one thing, and I went, ‘No, I believe I’ll be okay.’”
There are two probably excellent descriptions I’ve learn of For Whom the Belle Tolls. The primary comes from a doc titled “Studying waiver for dad.” When Lynn’s non secular father expressed curiosity in studying the manuscript earlier than it was revealed, she agreed, however first, he needed to preliminary and signal on a couple of dotted strains. “I do know, from prior conversations, that you’ve got learn Dostoevsky and imagine this e book to be comparable. Whereas I’m flattered, I’m additionally involved,” the letter begins. “For Whom the Belle Tolls does—like Dostoevsky—take care of faith, morality, the human expertise, and satire. Nonetheless, it’s not, in any means, like something Dostoevsky wrote. Dostoevsky didn’t write attractive demons. Dostoevsky didn’t have customer support trauma that affected his work. Dostoevsky didn’t write intercourse scenes.”
The second comes from the e book’s dedication: “For anybody who has ever felt momentary. And for the nerds.”
