Sign Here

Product Information

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. Peyote Trip has been working in Hell ever since he arrived eons ago. His job is to answer people’s calls for help and get them to sign a contract, guaranteeing their afterlives will be spent in Hell, no matter how good they were when alive. However, Peyote has big plans for himself, and all he needs is one more contract within this one family before he can fulfill it. While Pey is forced to work with a new wildcard coworker, Calamity, we also follow his Earth family as they get closer to calling for his help. Review

I enjoyed the chapters, characters, and storylines focused on Hell more than the one on Earth (what does that say about me?). Lux did a great job weaving suspense, mystery, and red herrings throughout. Although most of the final reveals were predictable, they were still satisfying. There was a lot of "will he, won't he, oh he better not" going on with a certain character. I thought it was an entertaining story and a promising debut. I’ll definitely be watching for Claudia Lux’s next book! 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... 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.” Great book, but I'm still foggy on the ending, even after rereading the epilogue and the beginning several times.As for complaints? Well they say the devil is in the details, and there are some details that needed to be fleshed out and others that didn’t always bear up under closer scrutiny: **SPOILER** if drinking the water in hell makes people lose their memories, it shouldn’t have made a difference that Peyote drank coffee or beer instead, since both are made with water. The memory-wiping effect should have still occurred. Also, several times screaming matches were happening where others clearly would’ve heard - sound travels - yet somehow no one did. They’d have had to be deaf! , but these were minor issues for me. For example, the very first note I have in my phone for Sign Here is Ruth’s line, ‘Do you ever just want to rip your nails through someone’s face?’ I had that thought (to be clear, it was a random thought, not a desire or intention!) liked the way it sounded and then started speculating: what kind of person would ask that question? What does it say about them and their internal world, especially if they are young and female? How would another person respond, and what kind of relationships would influence that response differently? Then I design characters in answer. 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. 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.”

What about the mighty, dysfunctional, estranged Harrisons? The family is all set to take a family vacation at their New Hampshire house! 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 I love writing for so much more than telling a story — and I really love telling stories! I love the way certain words feel in my mouth, I love how they can string together to imitate the increased pounding of a heartbeat or the deep breaths of a languid summer afternoon. I love onomatopoeia (a word my dad used to make me spell before he’d buy me whatever sugary thing I was begging for — very effective) and double entendres and saying just enough to make the reader experience my point, instead of reading it. So a lot of my writing starts there: with the words themselves. A] darkly funny, deeply considered novel that kept me up well into the night as I sped through to the ending.”In her debut novel, Sign Here, author Claudia Lux presents a modern vision of hell as a capitalist bureaucracy of the most inane, obnoxious variety. Speaking of her version of Hell... am I the only one who enjoys Jager? It's not that bad. Give me Jager over room temperature, cheap Vodka any day! Cheers to that 🍻 This is one of the rare moments where a book is completely original. I can't relate it to anything and that deserves high praise.

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)

Overall: the ending was spectacular. The sarcastic, entertaining, intelligent writing enchanted me! This is not an easy book to categorize, which is part of what makes it such a compulsive read. Claudia Lux has written an incredible novel that has a little bit of everything: thrilling twists, a fast-paced plot, lots of hidden agendas, dysfunctional family drama, and sharp, witty writing. Despite literally being set in Hell, this is not a bleak, heavy novel. It’s funny. And on top of everything else, it’s a moving story with a surprising amount of heart. You already have a lot of ideas about Hell. It’s amazing what Dante and thousands of years of folklore can do to a place’s reputation… On the top floors… it’s not the fire and brimstone thing you think it might be. It’s music that’s too loud, food that’s too rubbery, and kissing with too much tongue. Doesn’t sound that bad, right? But don’t forget, it’s forever. I mean, for-all-time forever… You can’t possibly fathom eternity; your little mortal brain will explode.” I think we started out on an interesting path. But kept getting side roads that you thought would all lead to the same location but didn't. A lot of those roads were completely unnecessary and avoidable. 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.