Sign Here

Product Information

Looking for a fun Halloween-y book that feels like a mash-up between The Good Place, Succession, and The Office?” If you’re looking for an intriguing mystery with its own take on Hell’s customer service, I recommend The 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! 🥳🍺 In essence, I enjoyed Peyote and all the descriptions of Hell and his job, but everything else fell flat. It was somewhat fun and funny, a little bit thrilling, but never enough of either to make an impact. Final Thoughts So now I had a world to explore, and a character to explore it. For the Harrisons, it started in a similar — albeit ultimately quite different — way: with a location. When I was a kid, I went to my mom’s friend’s home on a lake in New Hampshire every summer, and it was the most magical place, full of opportunities for imagination. So when I needed a home base for a family, I pulled directly from that house, and the characters (nothing like the family I knew growing up, by the way!) formed around it.

This was an intriguing debut novel. I liked the description of how Hell works in this world, just like any 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. although they are always budding heads, Pey’s life in Hell is going just as planned until the new addition 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. 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.

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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.” time, Pey has to keep an eye on his human souls, one being the Harrison family, which he has had the Hell. Pey’s side of the story and learning about Hell is very interesting, just like the information about 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. 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.

Conceptually, Sign Here has potential. But the execution makes it feel like several disjointed stories instead of one cohesive whole. This book has a clever premise and a solid mystery with some twists that will keep readers guessing and others that were somewhat predictable. The suspense built slowly, but steadily. Friendship, family, lies, death, grief, loopholes, deception, morality, and much more are at the heart of this story. The world-building is done well, but this is a slow-paced novel that took a while to draw me into the story line. The chapters are short and the dialog felt natural and consistent for each character. The ending left me with a few questions that weren’t resolved, but I admired how the author brought the two storylines together. There are threads woven into the plot that added depth and complexity. The familiar, hokey elements present in this iteration of Hell could cause readers to expect characters like TGP’s Michael and Janet, or even someone like Crowley from Good Omens. But the story’s sincerity, mystery and emotional depth would be a departure from that format. It manages to be serious without becoming self-serious, accepting Hell as an inevitability instead of something to be vanquished. Any preliminary similarities noted between Sign Here and those works are eroded after its first sharp tonal switch; the flip between the lighter moments and its capacity for ruthless inhumanity. Basically it’s a lot, but in a good way. I’m not sure which of its moods you’ll finish with by the end, but there’s a good chance you’ll like it.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. 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. Lux’s take is fresh and complex, with deep character development and a plot that will keep readers guessing.”

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.” One of my favorite memories from writing this book was one night, when I was wrapping up, I decided to write the first sentence of the next chapter, just so I could have something to start off with when I returned. So there I was, a little loopy from sitting alone in my study for hours on end late into the night, and I got this kind of cheeky, mischievous feeling, like right before you challenge someone to eat a pepper you know is super-hot, and I typed: ‘Calamity Gannon, human 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.

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. This is absurd, smart, morbid, entertaining, dark comedy meets murder mystery and dysfunctional family drama! Do you enjoy Christopher Moore and Grady Hendrix novels? If your answer is yes, you don’t wanna miss this one! 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.