Author: Ellen Strömberg
Swedish original: Hösten från helvetet (Ebba Blaus dagbok #1)
Publisher: Schildts & Söderströms | Rabén & Sjögren 2026
Genre: middle grade fiction
Number of pages: 304 pp.
Reading material: Swedish original, English sample, English synopsis
When Ebba decides to get her life in order and become cool, chaos ensues.
The clock is ticking for Ebba Blau: she’s 12, almost 13, and has 300 days to change her life and become cool before it’s too late… that is, before she and Mom move away to live with her boyfriend, in the middle of nowhere!
Ebba has decided she will have a movie-worthy makeover: she’ll become cooler, more popular, more stylish, master a morning routine, and get a boyfriend while she still can. Ebba sets out to become friends with the popular girls and get together with Romeo, the best-looking boy at art school, but how will bubbly, chatty, and awkward Ebba manage, given her tendency to embarrass herself and get drawn into white lies that grow bigger and bigger?
This Is Literally Hell is Ebba’s diary, and it brims with drama, embarrassing stuff, and big feelings – but also a longing for friendship, love, and new beginnings. August Prize winner Ellen Strömberg is back at doing what she does best: giving young characters a genuine, funny voice and taking their lives seriously, but with a generous dose of humor. This is Literally Hell is the first book in the Shitty Sixth Grade series that follows Ebba over the course of a crazy and very eventful year as she tries to navigate teenage life.
About the author
Ellen Strömberg