Parallel to Peyote’s story we follow the Harrisons, who have not one but many a big family secret and the agents of Hell working on them ceaselessly. You see, Peyote can get a promotion if only he succeeded in convincing one more member of the Harrisons to sell their soul... As soon I read the first line of Sign Here, I wanted to read more. It turned out I did have a lot of ideas about what Hell might be like. Author Claudia Lux managed to replace many of them with some of her own.

I don’t think I was expecting Sign Here to have as much depth as it did, maybe because of how playful and cheeky the cover art was, though also as a result of the early comparisons. There are so many mentions of the comedic beats of the story, which are definitely present and exceptional, but comparatively little about the its emotional impact, which I found a be substantial by the end.

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There are too many POVs, short, impactful chapters, interesting, flawed, peculiar characters in this novel. And surprise, surprise: the incidents take place in both hell and earth. Amind-bending, riveting debut…Part thriller, part family drama, with a dash of horror thrown in, and it works beautifully. Engaging characters (even in Hell!), impeccable plotting, and plenty of twists will keep you reading all night.” I still can’t believe this was a debut novel! Claudia Lux needs to be writing books for the rest of her life because if she can write such a fun novel that allowed me to escape from the stress in my life with such ease.⁣ I had a lot of trouble getting into this. At first glance, the Peyote and Cal storyline seems the more interesting one. But it wasn't. It felt like it was trying too hard, with a fluffed out story that wasn't really relevant and lots of dark humor that came across as more forced than anything else. The more details we're given about Hell, the less believable it became and the less into the story I got.

Claudia Lux offers some imaginative and laugh-out-loud descriptions of Hell. On the one hand, Hell is basically an eternal sales job (*shudders*). Everyone has to communicate with beepers, and the music is always whatever they most hated on Earth, and just a bit too loud. The details are a lot of fun and paint Hell as awful, but in a more creative and silly way than usually depicted. I loved that aspect of the novel. Well, you’re right. That’s Hell. At least the top floors of it. Your priests and grandmas have good intentions—the ones who don’t wind up here—but their job is to keep you decent above ground, and if they said Hell was a never-ending brunch, you would be out there stealing and raping constantly. With a character, I can explore what it would be like to be x type of person, or y type of person, without any consequences to my real life. I’ve heard a lot of writers talk about how the characters do what they want and the writer is just along for the ride, and that hasn’t exactly been my experience, but it’s something similar. It’s more like letting out every facet of my personality for recess and seeing what games they come up with when left to interact together. In one storyline, we follow Peyote, a dealmaker from Hell whose job is to sign as many souls into Hell as possible. He is forced to work with Cal, another dealmaker, but they are keeping secrets from each other. In another storyline, we follow the Harrison family as they go to their summer house for their annual vacation. But secrets abound there too.Among other issues I had with this book, I wasn't a fan of how the author made Cal have an argument with Peyote on the topic of sexism in Hell despite there being multiple female authority figures in power. I was expecting there to be more Hell-ish lore (the Devil, God, Heaven, more about the layers) as was promised, but only got paragraph after paragraph of various condiments spilling on important work papers, mildew-y towels, and a broken AC/heating unit. YAWN. I’d love to reiterate how amazing it is to receive be able to talk about this book and my process like this: it is an absolute dream come true. I know that not all responses to my work will be positive, and I’ve made peace with that (just ask my therapist!). But knowing that these people I made up are out there in the world, in some way impacting strangers far and wide, is thrilling and humbling and I couldn’t be more grateful. I’ve also been blown away by the encouragement I’ve received from other writers. Despite being an agent of Hell, Peyote tries to treat both his “clients” and his co-workers with dignity and honor, especially when it comes to helping his new co-worker, Calamity, adjust to the myriad annoyances of life on the fifth floor. Peyote and his peers bring five pens everywhere, because the first four will never work. If a soul hates country music, it will be the only station available on their radio and it cannot be turned off. No food is truly hot or cold, and neither is any living space. Lux’s Hell is the epitome of absolute discomfort, like an itchy wool sweater on a humid day. A] darkly funny, deeply considered novel that kept me up well into the night as I sped through to the ending.” In Peyote and Calamity's chaotic, petty Hell, the byzantine power plays can be a little hard to follow, but usually with funny results whenever a scheme comes to a head. Primarily a dark comedy, gore and sexual content are over-the-top when they come up. A light entry in the collection for the reader who misses when Christopher Moore wrote about vampires." - Library Journal

It's a very interesting, unsettling and attention grabbing interpretation of hell and my favorite bits of the book definitely involved Peyote and his interactions with this co-workers, and the brief but horrifying glimpses into the punishments they mete out and experienced first hand in hell's ever revolving hierarchy. It's a harsh juxtaposition between these moments and the relative mundanity of the Harrison family vacation but I feel like they suited each other well and made for an interesting reading experience overall. It's here I must admit that I'm underselling the Harrison's storyline a bit but it's your typical domestic thriller so I don't want to give anything away there really. It got really messy in the end and became almost impossible to keep storylines and characters in line. The Harrisons seem like any other family: husband, wife, two kids. Except they all have secrets. As they head to their lake house for the summer, Peyote and his coworker, Calamity, are in pursuit. But nothing goes as planned for either party. Ultimately, Sign Here compels the reader to think about what a wonder it is to be human, and to realize that the distinction between good and evil is not as clear as we expect it to be.” If Peyton manages to convince that person from Harrison family, he’ll have a complete set! That complete could be also a key to his secret scheme. But his new colleague Calamity, a naive girl keeps giving deer in the headlights looks can ruin his plan. She may also have her own secret agenda.

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Lux’s take is fresh and complex, with deep character development and a plot that will keep readers guessing.” There might not be a consensus on what constitutes hell, but the time I spent reading Sign Here was certainly a glimpse of heaven.” Lux brilliantly combines satire, suspense, and pathos in her remarkably assured debut…Lux balances the whodunit plot and her antihero’s quest perfectly as the action builds to a surprisingly moving place. Readers of paranormal crime series such as Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files will be eager to see what Lux has up her sleeve next.” Peyote not only has a job to do, he wants a promotion. But first he needs to get one more member of the Harrison family to sell their soul. Like everything in Hell (and on Earth) this is easier said than done, especially with a family that has so many secrets. In one, we meet Peyote Trip. He works on the fifth floor of Hell. Meaning he has survived the worst. Now, he is one of those guys that offered you an out when things are bad as long as you sign your soul on the dotted line. He enjoys his trips to earth to get his marks. Pey has in his sights a big target: the Harrison family. Peyote needs a fifth-generation member to sign the contract and he knows he is close to achieving it when a new employee lands on fifth with him. Her name is Calamity and despite him knowing better, he can't seem to stop from wanting to help her.

The mention of her father brings up a great deal more about the influence of her parents. “As the child of a nonfiction writer and a poet — Jean Kilbourne and Thomas Lux — I was taught from a very early age that words contain so much more than their meanings. From childhood, my mother’s pioneering work in media criticism and feminist activism taught me how to observe and interpret the world, to recognize not only what is being said between the lines, but also the power of the things left unsaid. My father’s prolific career gave me an early and deep love of poetry, and appreciation for all the things language itself has to offer. Lux brilliantly combines satire, suspense, and pathos in her remarkably assured debut...balances the whodunit plot and her antihero's quest perfectly as the action builds to a surprisingly moving place. Readers of paranormal crime series such as Jim Butcher's Dresden Files will be eager to see what Lux has up her sleeve next." - Publishers Weekly (starred review) Peyote was Evan Harrison, his “fourth Harrison.” He describes meeting himself from both perspectives in the opening and the epilogue (the dining table, the two cups of tea, knowing exactly what he wanted). BUT he sells his soul for something different each time. In the intro: that his family will never want for anything. The epilogue: that his daughter will not die of cancer. And who was his daughter? Philip and Silas don’t appear to have a sister. For someone so important to him that he accepted eternal damnation for her, she disappears completely. The intro makes a passing reference to Evan’s “debt-heavy sister,” whom I don’t think appears again, which adds another layer of confusion. Special thanks to the publicists at Penguin Random House and to NetGalleyfor providing me with an ARC of this book! Summary All of these characters, and more, are about to collide in a genre-busting powerhouse of a novel – part thriller, part wrenching family drama, a book that starts out as satire and then veers into something much deeper: an exploration of the nature of love, time, loss, and family ties, of both morality and mortality. Darkly funny, unexpectedly poignant, it might just have you examining your own assumptions about what makes us human – and what might make you “sign here.” THE INSPIRATION BEHIND SIGN HEREThe bars serve only Jäegermeister instead of cold beer is definition my own kind of hell! Happy belated birthday to this dark comedy meets twisty thriller! 🥳🍺 A clever, fun, and uniquely original story about a guy, Peyote, who works in hell. His job is to collect souls from desperate people on earth. He's been working on the troubled, wealthy Harrison family for decades. He only needs one more Harrison soul to complete the coveted set of 5.