Sign Here

Product Information

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.

Hell. Pey’s side of the story and learning about Hell is very interesting, just like the information about For months, I was looking forward to Sign Here, the debut novel by Claudia Lux. Apart from its eye-catching cover, the synopsis sounded wholly original: A guy working in Hell? That could be both fun and horrifying! I was thrilled to get an advance copy of this novel, even if it turned out to be a very different book than I’d expected. Meanwhile, in the land of the living, the Harrison family consists of Silas Harrison, his wife Lily, eldest

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. I thought it was an entertaining story and a promising debut. I’ll definitely be watching for Claudia Lux’s next book! My first issue with this book was with the plots. No, you didn't read that wrong; this book had TWO plots that had almost nothing to do with one another. Overall: the ending was spectacular. The sarcastic, entertaining, intelligent writing enchanted me!

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.” There might not be a consensus on what constitutes hell, but the time I spent reading Sign Here was certainly a glimpse of heaven.” It seems like you read two other stories: one of them is family’s drama and mystery’s unfolding. The other one is a trip to the hell, a place where pens, coffee machines are not working,time, Pey has to keep an eye on his human souls, one being the Harrison family, which he has had the Conceptually, Sign Here has potential. But the execution makes it feel like several disjointed stories instead of one cohesive whole. Up here 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. Not a lifetime. That’s a pebble compared to what I’m talking about. Hell is agitation for eternity. You can’t possibly fathom eternity; your little mortal brain would explode. A century feels like an hour, less with each millennium. With endless time and no peace, everyone breaks eventually. 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 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.

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. In this book, the underworld is largely a maddening bureaucracy populated by doomed souls. One of them is Peyote Trip, the heart and soul of Sign Here. Yes, both of those things do exist in this version of Hell. There were some aspects of the ending that I completely missed. I came to GRs for answers but the book is so new, there's not a lot of discussion or questions about it. Or maybe it's just me! I was definitely confused on some parts and not sure I interpreted the ending correctly. 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, humanSo 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. 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. I liked both timelines. I wanted Peyote to get his fifth generation for sure. None of the Harrisons were very likable yet I started to care for them. Well maybe not all of them, since Silas was kind of creepy around Ruth.

This was an intriguing debut novel. I liked the description of how Hell works in this world, just like any 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! 🥳🍺 Finding out about Lily and Silas’ past gives the reader pieces for the big reveal, but Ruth led me on a 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. 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.”Calamity while she was alive. Cal’s story could be a short story of its own. I’m still very interested in 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) slowly noticing a change in her behavior. Sean spends most of his time in his room playing video games 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. 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.