Sign Here (original) (raw)
575 reviews30k followers
Conceptually, Sign Here has potential. But the execution makes it feel like several disjointed stories instead of one cohesive whole.
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.
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.
We also spend a lot of time on Cal's backstory, which left me more confused than anything else. (Is The General her father, or just a father figure? Where did the brothers or "brothers" come from? What were they actually doing?) I pretty much didn't understand anything related to Cal, and every time we switched to her story, I felt the urge to skim.
The Harrison storyline was more interesting. It's a combination of family dysfunction and coming of age, with a dose of mystery thrown in. But it also had some of the same issues as the other storyline, coming across as trying too hard to be deep and poignant, which ultimately made what could've been an intriguing tale into an overwritten one.
The thing is, these two storylines don't really go together. They're pretty much two completely separate stories, with only like one page of overlap between them. So their interweaving, back and forth, with a few pages spent on one and then a few pages spent on the other, doesn't really pull the whole thing together.
I feel like this was a bit of a missed opportunity. There's a lot of potential here, but at 400 pages, it was about 100 pages too long. With some choice editing, this could've easily been a gripping tale. But as it stands, it feels too convoluted, confusing, and indulgent to be anything other than middling.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
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This was a pick for my Book of the Month box. Get your first book for $5 here.
2,291 reviews76.3k followers
"darkly humorous, surprisingly poignant, and utterly gripping"...me when i lie!
in some ways, i feel bad for this book, which has been totally mismarketed...but in more ways, i feel bad for me, because i had to pick this up and hate every second of it.
and also, i had to both discover a dream job (this is about a guy who works in hell trying to get people to sell their souls to the devil!) and have it stolen from me (this is very boring) in one fell swoop.
that is life-changing, tragic-past, mean-guy-in-romance-novel-revealing-his-backstory level trauma.
i thought i was getting a goofy book about hell, à la the good place or layoverland, and instead i got roughly 7 pages of that and then 900 chapters of teenage trauma and pedophilia, respectively.
two plotlines i thought would be be at least related, if not interesting, that managed to be neither.
bottom line: the real hell was the book we read along the way.
(thanks to netgalley for the e-arc)
1-star arc from-publisher-author
2,738 reviews54.5k followers
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! 🥳🍺
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!
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.
Peyton, one of the suffering characters, climbing corporate hell ladders by working at 5th floor ( if you’re capable to survive at downstairs, rest of it is easy peasy), working hard to seal the deal with Harrison family by manipulating one of them to sign up a contract! See, those people never made those deals directly with the deal!!!
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.
What about the mighty, dysfunctional, estranged Harrisons? The family is all set to take a family vacation at their New Hampshire house!
There are so many secrets lurking around Harrison family members. Silas, teaching business at school, still trying to connect with his dead brother who might be a murderer as his wife Lily is having a secret affair with a man connected with their own past. Their son Sean lives in his room, buried his head into video games behind locked doors, living disconnected from the entire family as youngest, 12 years old Mickey suffers from puberty problems, bullying schoolmates till she finds her best friend, the coolest girl of the school: Ruth. Mickey convinces her father to invite Ruth for their family holiday.
But going back that house means confronting the tragic events from the past. What happened the night Sarah, 17 years old girl who has been killed? Is Silas’ brother the real killer?
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,
Jäegermeister is only liquor that served at bars!
I enjoyed the world building: how the officers make deals, manipulating people, how they change events and looking from glass part was another brilliant addition!
Overall: the ending was spectacular. The sarcastic, entertaining, intelligent writing enchanted me!
Special thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.
1,191 reviews57.1k followers
an absolutely delightful debut. one that would definitely be even better upon reread.
748 reviews9,234 followers
Reading Vlog: https://youtu.be/8TIpw8x8V4Q
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.
The only thing I wish was that this had been Claudia Lux's second or third published work instead of a debut. This reads like a debut. It felt like she had so many great ideas and was afraid of not getting another opportunity, so tossed them all into this book. With more experience, I think her work will soar. This needed a bit more editing and polishing. I just hate that it's already out there. She can't rewrite it. I liked this book a lot but it could have been 5 stars. Just some missed potential which is sad to see.
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.
It got really messy in the end and became almost impossible to keep storylines and characters in line.
This isn't bad by any means and there is a lot that I very much enjoyed. But I can't stop thinking about how much better it could have been.
299 reviews1,014 followers
My first clue that this book about Hell would take me to weird places in my imagination? The MC’s name is Peyote Trip. Enough said. Sure there’s the heat, torture and misery, but this version of Hell reminded me more of an inescapable version of Office Space or The Office, just with a perpetually broken coffee machine, ‘every man for himself’ backstabbing, bucketloads of snark, and a boss from … well … Hell.
Peyote “Pey” Trip works in the Deals Department on the 5th floor of Hell. He does the whole “Sell your soul to me and I’ll give you something you want” thing, if you sign your name on his tablet. (Technology has made strides down below.) If he can sign 5 generations of souls in a particular family - a “complete set” - he gets a second shot at his own life. He’s got four in the Harrison family. He just needs one more: quiet, awkward 14-year old, Mickey. It’s a good thing he’s got a sweet new co-worker named Cal - short for Calamity Ganon - to assist his efforts … maybe. There’s more to her than meets the eye.
Silas and Lily Harrison and their kids: Mickey and her older brother, Sean, are heading to their family summer home in New Hampshire. The ghosts of an event sixteen years prior that led to the conviction and suicide of Silas’ brother, Phil, still haunt Silas and Lily’s marriage. Luckily, Mickey’s new friend, Ruth, has brought her infectious energy and charm along for the vacation this year to liven things up. One thing is certain: this is a vacation none of them will forget.
So, how do these two storylines go together? Well, the answer is not much! Though it’s mentioned early on that Pey has zeroed in on Mickey as his best chance for a complete set of Harrison souls, there’s precious little mention of her or her family in Peyote and Cal’s storyline until close to the end. Cal’s sad backstory and a plan pertaining to it dominate Pey and Cal’s thread. There’s also a lot of dark humor and snark involved in it, whereas the Harrison family thread plays more like a low-burn family drama mixed with a mystery/suspense plot.
Here’s the thing: It actually worked for me. It was like getting two stories in one book! I had fun with the humor and snark of the Hell storyline, even if Cal’s backstory was the weakest aspect of the book for me, and I really enjoyed the unfolding drama and mystery of the Harrison’s storyline. I thought all the characters were interesting, so bouncing back and forth between the plots didn’t bother me, and when the two stories finally came together and all was revealed, I thought it was really clever and satisfying.
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**, but these were minor issues for me.
I thought it was an entertaining story and a promising debut. I’ll definitely be watching for Claudia Lux’s next book!
★★★★
Thanks to Elisha Katz at Berkley Publishing Group, NetGalley, and author Claudia Lux for this digital ARC to honestly review. It’s due to be published October 25, 2022.
contemporary-fiction debut humor
Author 56 books20.5k followers
Want to read
A book about a dude who literally works in hell and fucks with rich people?
YES PLEASE
1,102 reviews757 followers
I’ve seen Claudia Lux’s debut novel, Sign Here , described as horror, mystery, supernatural suspense, and family drama. It has aspects of all of those. Pey has worked his way up from being tortured to torturing souls to being responsible for getting humans to make deals for their souls. He has a plan. What he needs is a complete set, one member from five generations of the same family, the Harrisons. Meanwhile the Harrisons plan to spend six weeks at the lake house in New Hampshire. Daughter Mickey brings her new best friend, Ruth, with her. However, things don’t go according to plan for anyone.
Pey, his coworkers Cal and Trey, Ruth, and the Harrisons: Silas, Lily, and Mickey are fully developed characters. However, Sean Harrison was not as robust a character. They’re characters that readers either will like or be disturbed by their actions. They have flaws that make them more realistic, but they’re not always relatable. There is one very inappropriate fantasy by Silas that was disturbing. Unfortunately, I didn’t connect well with most of the characters.
With dual plotlines, the point of view frequently switches back and forth between Pey, Silas, Lily, and Mickey. There is a little dark humor in this novel. Rules, goals, contracts, and time limits exist in the Deals Department where Pey, Trey, and Cal work. It almost had a corporate feel to it. The working relationships in the Deals Department were an interesting exploration of office politics. There’s plenty of family drama for all of the main characters.
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.
Overall, this unique, thought-provoking, and entertaining novel has great characterization, and a tense and suspenseful part three. Those who relish mild horror with family drama and suspense may enjoy this book.
Berkley Publishing Group and Claudia Lux provided a complimentary digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley. This is my honest review. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way. Publication date is currently set for October 25, 2022. This review was originally posted at Mystery and Suspense Magazine.
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My 3.33 rounded to 3 stars review is coming soon.
horror mys-sus-mag-2022 mystery-thriller-suspense
592 reviews8,258 followers
This book was a strange mash up of the classic domestic thriller full of family secrets, and an absurdist fantasy caper, as we follow the Harrison family on their summer vacation while an agent of Hell's deals department, Peyote Trip, monitors them and tries to get as many people as he can to "sign here" and consign themselves to eternal damnation. The most interesting thing about this book is that it interprets hell as a sort of uncanny bureaucracy rather than all fire and brimstone.
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.
My biggest complaint is that the ending fell a bit flat for me, the author tries to tie some of the storylines together in ways that simply weren't satisfying. However, like I said, this was an interesting book that kept me on my toes the whole time and I enjoyed it.
750 reviews1,915 followers
Imagine a Hell where the only shots are Jager, where music you specifically hate plays all day, and where there is no coffee. That’s where Peyote Trip lives after dying and being sent to Hell for eternity. He’s worked himself up from the bottom and currently works on the 5th floor in the deals department. Essentially, he makes brief returns to Earth to convince people to sell their soul once they die. He’s doing pretty well for himself, and could be on the verge of some excellent news if he can get one more member of the Harrison family. He’s gotten quite a few already.
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.
I thought this would be perfect for the spooky season, but it’s not spooky. It’s also not very humorous, although I can tell certain parts were aiming for that. I still enjoyed it for the most part, but some of the backstory on certain characters just left me confused. There were some things I never pieced together. I liked it enough, but didn’t particularly LOVE anything about it.
Thank you to Berkley for a widget of the ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Expected Publication Date: 10/25/22.
337 reviews25 followers
2.5–I think this is a case of false expectations/marketing because I went into this book expecting it to be moving and humorous and witty with a different spin on the thriller archetype, but now I have trust issues with Book of the Month because it did not meet their description and read to me as your standard, dark, run-of-the-mill thriller except for the parts about Hell, which I just never really clicked with. Not necessarily a bad thing or a bad book objectively, but not what I was expecting or looking for.
It also took way too long for the two storylines to intersect and at times I felt like I was reading two separate books while waiting for them to come together. I mostly just read to find out when the connection would happen and in the end, maybe I’m stupid (entirely possible) but I didn’t really “get” it. I will remember this book next time I go to sign a contract though, so I guess that’s something.
1,936 reviews589 followers
A story with a different type of Hell.
There are two main storylines on Sigh Here.
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 second storyline involves the Harrisons. There is Silas who is a teacher and who tries to be a good father. His wife Lily is having an affair. His son Sean seems to be a recluse always watching video games and then there is his young daughter, Mickey who is being bullied at school until popular and beautiful Rose decides to friend her. Next thing you know, Rose is being invited to their summer home in New Hampshire for their yearly vacation. This is the property where almost two decades ago Silas' brother, Phil killed Sarah, a seventeen-year-old girl.
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.
Cliffhanger: No
3/5 Fangs
A complimentary copy was provided by Berkley via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
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332 reviews19 followers
The real Hell was forcing myself to finish this, when I convinced myself BOTM sent me the wrong book based on its rave reviews.
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.
One plot focuses on a demon(?)/ former-human-suffering-eternal-damnation in Hell and his new coworker/buddy, Cal. This was the plot that had drawn me into this book, as the author seemed to have an original take on Hell-- the closer to the "Downstairs" you got, the worse your suffering. Naturally, our MC, Peyote Trip, is on one of the more "comfier" levels of Hell, where the extent of his suffering is immeasurable puddles, bars that only serve jägermeister, and radios that play solely your least favorite music. It was highly remeniscient of The Good Place at first, but got old really fast, especially in how cyclical and repetitive it was.
Peyote's plot was heavily drawn out and bogged down by the General subplot. The General and his actions/connections to the Hell-crew was incredibly confusing, and speckled with plots holes left, right, and center (most irksome to me was the error in how the author described Florida and Georgia being next to the Pacific Ocean).
I kept expecting Peyote's plot to circle around back to the other plot line, which was
confusingly a domestic drama. It never circled back, save for a couple pages max at the tail end, despite marketing that heavily implied a relationship between Peyote's Hell and the Harrison family's Earth.
The Harrison family plot line was told mostly from the perspective of the 14-year-old daughter, Mickey, even though the majority of the focus of the plot was on her parent's past. All of the human characters were flat, boring, and in serious need of some therapy.
There were a couple scenes that there should have been a trigger warning for-- i.e., graphic depictions unrelated to the plot and were not examples of dark humor. I was also highly uncomfortable by how sexualized the children were described in this book. In the first chapter from Mickey's perspective, a boy (who sounds
very young) is pantsed and Mickey describes a part of his junk in painstaking detail. There were also a number of scenes where Mickey's dad, Silas, is acting pedophilic, which was, once again, unnecessary to the plot and felt like it was there for shock value.
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.
Overall, I wasn't a fan of this book and wouldn't recommend it, but this is just my personal opinion. Wish I would have saved my money and skipped this month's Book of the Month.
book-of-the-month october-reads
587 reviews1,741 followers
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.
The book is split into several perspectives but two major storylines, the first in Hell following an agent from its Deals Department named Peyote Trip, who’s tasked with finding humans on earth that are willing to sign deals in exchange for their immortal souls. The second is a family he’s been tracking for generations, the Harrisons, who are spending the summer at their New Hampshire vacation home. While they have their own interpersonal conflicts to sort through, the Hell scenes are very separate from that story until they’re suddenly not. The early depictions of Hell reminded me a lot of another popular piece of media about the afterlife: The Good Place. The initial parallels are pretty evident—both feature a similar mundane misery in the day-to-day, in addition to the tedious corporate structure. The descriptions of ‘Downstairs’ and ‘The Bad Place’ are also comparable, though _Sign Here_’s characters seem to take its horrors more seriously, likely because they experienced that torture at one point in a prior millennia.
Then there’s the Harrisons’ family dynamic and arrival at the property, which is reminiscent of the Harmons in American Horror Story: Murder House. In some ways Lily takes on Ben Harmon’s role, though Silas slowly builds the case for himself as we learn more about his history and haunted family secrets. And Ruth’s influence over Mickey isn’t unlike Tate Langdon’s over Violet, though to be clear the paranormal aspects of the story are strictly limited to Hell and its agents when they visit Earth.
Though Peyote is arguably the main character, both the Hell and the Earth storylines center around the protection of young girls, with every major conflict rooted in the betrayal of a girl by a man in her life. The exploitations and manipulations echo one another across time and space, as Sign Here is nonlinear (if I haven’t mentioned that yet), and later forces those men to face the wreckage left in their wake, one way or another. Even with some bleak outcomes for a few characters, these confrontations strike an emotional and deeply satisfying chord. But despite the majority, if not all, of those betrayals being committed by men, the story’s women levy smaller, yet still vicious blows against one another; but they’re not given a clear narrative redemptive track to follow along. It could almost be harder to forgive those transgressions as a result, and if I had one critique for the author, it would be not giving some of her ‘imperfect girls’ that same chance. I would have loved for them to be granted space to correct their own failures, ideally by directly addressing the ways in which they were failed up until that point.
And I will not spoil either the book or shows in this review, but I have to mention how differently Sign Here and The Good Place differ in tone; instead of reckoning with larger moral questions and the idea of divine justice, the characters must make peace with decisions made within an inherently unjust system. It’s an ending that’s more befitting of a western than a traditional hero’s journey, focusing on the path to an individual’s redemption, often at the cost of their own happiness and/or ‘fixing’ the unfairness of the situation. There’s even an interruption of a scene that feels plucked straight from True Grit, instilled with themes of self-sacrifice for the sake of another but also as a way to balance the scales narratively.
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.
Thanks to Berkley and Netgalley for an advance review copy!
**For more book talk & reviews, follow me on Instagram at @elle_mentbooks!
3,420 reviews345 followers
This is such an interesting debut novel from Claudia Lux.
We follow the Harrison family who have been through a rough series of events and exist in the realm of the living. We also follow Peyote, an employee of the 5th floor in Hell. Peyote makes deals with the land of the living to capture souls. The Harrisons have a long list of deals that were made. We follow these realms simultaneously and trying to piece together a murder mystery, betrayal, and the annoyances of Hell.
This humorous (and frightening) novel is one to check out if you are into suspense and horror! -Alyssa C.
1,162 reviews8,123 followers
when i first started reading this book i was so convinced i was going to give it 3 stars, it was really good but it just felt like something was missing? like i couldn’t connect all the way to the story until i got to the point of the book where everything came together. i swore i just knew exactly where this story was going and while i kinda was correct i also was way off. this book has done something other thrillers have done for me yet which is to be a story while also being thrilling. this thriller isn’t just something for people to read but this story actually has something that it wants to tell.
262 reviews113 followers
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.
The chapters are quick, so this 400+ pager speeds by. I was hooked by the uniqueness of the world Claudia Lux created in Hell. Although these particular characters may not need a sequel, she could definitely continue to expand on the universe.
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 🍻
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.
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.
October 2022 BOTM
916 reviews1,878 followers
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.
The story focuses on Peyote, a person living in Hell, who has worked his way up to the ranks by getting humans to sign their souls to the Devil. He just needs one more soul from the Harrison family to sign their life away for the redemption he’s been waiting for. However, nothing is always what it seems—if this is Peyote’s plan, he needs to act quickly because the Harrison family does not appear to have any reasoning for signing such a dangerous contract—yet.
For those who watch the show Human Resources (the spinoff of Big Mouth) on Netflix, SIGN HERE is a darkly humorous and twisted ride that feels like it’s in the same universe. Like I mentioned earlier, this book was a fun escape—but it won’t be for everybody, so just know it’s more along the lines of satire and drama than thriller. I can’t wait to see what Claudia Lux has up next for readers. SIGN HERE is an awesome Halloween read!
Author 3 books8,010 followers
Half of this story takes place in hell, and those sequences were my least favorite parts! The family drama plot line taking place on earth was PHENOMENAL. The mounting tension was elevated by the very short chapters, and a continual bread crumb trail of lies, cheating, and betrayal. It got to where I almost skimming the sections in hell to get back to the drama of it all.
This is not horror by any means. Like, not at all in anyway shape or form- you know the show The Good Place? That’s kinda how hell felt in this book. It’s goofy and doesn’t seem to take itself too seriously. I almost wish the hell sections weren’t there at all because in the end I don’t think any of it really mattered or added much to the story.
I definitely recommend it, but don’t go into it expecting horror like I was in the beginning! And if you’re struggling with the hell sections, honestly just skim them 😂
612 reviews902 followers
This book was EVERYTHING. I am so happy I picked up Sign Here because it was unlike anything I’ve read before. In the same vein as Rachel Harrison’s witty and dark writing, Claudia Lux writes about hell in a hilarious and intriguing way. This book is about Peyote Trip, a man in hell who works in the Deals Department. And yes, it’s just like it sounds. Everything is damp and broken, none of the pens work, and the coffee machine is always out of order. Peyote needs one more member of the Harrison family to sell their soul, and is working on that when Calamity Gamon pops into his life.
The Harrisons are on a summer vacation to their lake house and it brings back a lot of memories. Peyote is watching the plan he set in motion, but things aren’t always how they seem, in Earth or in Hell. Secrets threaten to bubble over, and when the Harrisons decide to bring a friend of their daughter’s on vacation, Peyote may not know what’s coming, and how it affects his master plan.
Thoughts: The writing in this book was clever and witty and entertaining. From the very first page I was hooked and couldn’t put it down. The chapters that were set in Hell were amazing to read and full of surprises. Lux writes so well that I felt completely immersed in the story, and loved the way she bounced from Hell to Earth. I loved hearing about the members of the Harrison family and there were no times where I lost interest.
There are so many twisted secrets in this book that it made it fun to read. I loved the story and the journey, but I especially loved the characters. They were so much fun to read about and as well as dynamic and fun. AND THAT ENDING. I loved this book from start to finish and recommend it to anyone who likes a fun and twisted horror- 5 stars!
botm favorites thriller-mystery
547 reviews256 followers
Peyote Trip works for Hell, like literally. He worked himself up from the torture conveyor belt to a contractor for souls who closes deals with humans ready to gain things in exchange for their souls. He’s good at his job but he has the feeling there is more to him – he actually cares for people and isn’t as ruthless as the job requires. When Callie joins his team, the two of them start endeavors he never ever would have dared or dreamed doing before, but there’s still the question of whatever happened on Earth for them to end up here, since in Hell you can’t remember. Or can you?
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...
Sign Here was quite the surprise book of the year and I loved reading it! It is quirky, it is fast paced, it is touching. I would criticize that it could be a touch darker and the chapters, which alternate between different POVs are very short, so that I didn’t really have the feeling I got enough time with the different characters. Other than that, this was a sweet, great, entertaining read, I’d definitely recommend.
2,694 reviews9,216 followers
Nothing like having an “advanced” copy of a book that you don’t read until a year after publication! I was lucky enough to get this from Berkley but never read it and then it was announced back in January my newest obsession Phoebe Waller-Bridge had come to an agreement with Amazon to adapt it into a series and I still didn’t read it. What can I say? I’m a mood reader and never quite found myself in the mood. But now it’s spoooooky season and I figured a book about Hell had to at least sort of fit in with Halloween so I decided to give it a whirl.
Boy was I surprised with what this ended up being! I knew the bare bones before going in: Peyote Trip (horrible new name assignments are one of Hell’s never ending punishments – just like only the FIFTH pen you try to write with will actually produce ink, Jägermeister is the only alcoholic beverage that can be relied on being served at the local watering hole and there’s ALWAYS a car alarm going off somewhere on the street, but you can’t ever seem to locate it just to name a few others) works on the 5th Floor of Hell (a pretty decent gig, compared to the lower levels) and has set his sights on a “hat trick” of sorts where he’ll get the entire Harrison family to agree to sell their souls. He believes if he can pull this off, he just might get himself out of hell.
But then!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But then you have ANOTHER narrative. This one is with the aforementioned Harrison family themselves back on Earth and oh it is juuuuuuuuuuuicy family drama with a twist I did not see coming.
What a genre bender and an unexpected surprise. Highly recommended.
ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
arcs book-of-the-month-selection dysfunction-junction
620 reviews23 followers
Okay, so what the fuck was that.
If you enjoyed this book do NOT read this review because I am gonna rip it apart.
This book was a massive disappointment. I was so looking forward to reading it, based on the (totally misleading) synopsis, but unfortunately it’s one of the worst books I’ve read this year. I hated almost everything about it.
This book was totally different from what was advertised. I thought I would be reading about this dude Peyote who lives in hell and makes deals with people. But instead we have 2 entirely separate storylines taking place that don’t intersect at all, and I am furious that my time (and money) was so wasted.
First of all—why should I care about Calamity AT ALL? I’m genuinely asking. The General, the “training,” the toxic relationship between her and Peyote while they’re in hell—what is the point?? I didn’t care about any of it. She’s not related to the Harrisons by any stretch, so I’m absolutely baffled why half this book focused on this random chick (who was a major unsympathetic bitch of a character and manipulated Pey throughout the entire book, which was just super fun to read 🙄). This book could’ve been at least 100 pages less if we got rid of good old Cal and her irrelevant storyline.
Then the Harrisons. Oh my GOD. I hated all of them, save Mickey. Poor girl is living in the hardest time of her life (teenagerhood), and everyone just barely acknowledges her??? Sean was a stereotypical white emo dude obsessed with video games—boring. Lily had almost no personality until the end—cringe. And Silas?
Oh boy.
Silas was a selfish piece of shit human. He cheated on his wife (then girlfriend), while she was pregnant, with the whore of the town, Sarah. Then he spends his entire fucking life lusting and mooning over this dead 16 year old. Fucked up. Like dude, it’s been 17 years? You married the girl you got pregnant and now have 2 kids?? Can you maybe grow the fuck up? He clearly never loved his wife and only felt “obligated” to stay with her because she was pregnant, which is one of the tropes I hate with a BURNING PASSION. If a man ONLY stays with a woman because he fucked a baby into her, that’s not love or romance. That’s just really fucking sad. And Lily even has an affair because she’s so upset and furious that her husband has been in love with a ghost for their entire marriage, and I really don’t blame her.
THEN. Aside from all the rampant, horrible cheating in this book (no trigger warnings either? 🤔), there’s the fact that Silas is a pedo?????? He fantasizes about his daughter’s 16 year old friend and it. is. fucking. disgusting. The amount of time spent in his POV describing Ruth’s legs, hips, stomach, hair, face, collarbones, even FEET….. I want to vomit until I pass away. He spies on her naked in an outdoor shower from a window above and watches her clean herself, ADMITTING that he shouldn’t be but willfully doing it anyway. He goes out of his way to touch her and honestly pays more attention to her than his own fucking daughter, which really upset me. Just because this actual CHILD looks like your long-dead girlfriend doesn’t mean it’s okay to jerk off to the very thought of her while on vacation with your actual family, you repulsive toolbag. Silas never seemed to fully care about anyone but himself and the two dead people that passed away SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO—his brother and his side chick.
This book was absolutely terrible. No warnings at all about self harm (of which there’s a decent amount of detail), graphic cheating, torture, pedophilia, and probably other shit I’m missing. Where is that info???? Why doesn’t the synopsis or any professional review mention those things???
The writing was fine and I like short chapters, but that’s all I can say I enjoyed. Maybe the ending too, simply because the entire Harrison family was erased and honestly, that’s probably for the best. Although, yeah, that ending? Made absolutely no sense. I thought Pey was Phillip the whole time because that’s kind of what we were lead to believe (????), but then at the end it’s like, “Oh hey you have a daughter that died from cancer. Also it’s 1937 or something.” Uh what the fuck?
I bought this as my BOTM and was so looking forward to a funny, slightly spooky read. That’s one aspect that the synopsis mentions—FUNNY. I am telling you right now there’s NOTHING funny going on in this book. Am I insane?? Like why is that there??
Cheating is a HUGE MASSIVE GIGANTIC trigger for me, which is why I am in such a rage. I will be listing this book for sale on eBay as soon as I get home from work so I never have to look at this thing again.
ZERO STARS ⭐️
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
576 reviews239 followers
The Office meets Drag Me to Hell in this darkly funny take on eternal damnation. Equal parts horror-comedy, murder mystery, and family saga, Sign Here is a unique spin on the idea of making otherworldly contracts. It is a look into what people would sell their souls for, what pushes them to trade an eternity away. It is a thought provoking glimpse into what eternity truly means, how time adds such weight to the human experience, how we try to make something special with the time we have. Surprisingly meaningful message in harmony with a genuinely entertaining interpretation of life in Hell.
horror non-human-pov thriller-and-mystery
181 reviews30 followers
2.5/5
This started off strong! I was hooked from the beginning. Lux is a talented writer who clearly understands the human condition. Her writing was deep, moving, lyrical, and thought provoking. I was excited by the premise of the story, but all the good things ended here for me. I saw a lot of people saying they were invested in the story that took place in Hell but did not enjoy the story surrounding the Harrisons. I actually felt the opposite. I hope that Lux writes a contemporary/literary drama soon because I personally think that's where her talents lie.
I am definitely the kind of person who needs a satisfying ending. I can hang in for a mediocre reading experience and if the end ties it all together I can still rate the book a 3.5/4. The ending was the most disappointing part of all tbh.
1,695 reviews250 followers
This was a well written, dark, humorous story. I wasn’t totally expecting the ending thatI got butI enjoyed the whole (somewhat disturbing ride). Our main narrator is Peyote Trip is in dark underworld where the sinners go, but the level is in is more like being stuck in your most annoying day. His role is to make deals with people on earth - granting wishes and taking their souls. His dry sense of humor as he describes life in the dark afterworld was great and I loved every chapter from his perspective. The other chapters are told from the perspective of various members of the Harrison family - Peyote’s current target. It’s really hard to talk about the plot of this book without giving everything away. What I can say it is that it was a unique story that is well worth the read so pick it up.
1,836 reviews4,202 followers
There's a lot of really good writing and ideas in this debut - I'm not sure the author brought it all together for me, but I would read more from them in the future. I particularly enjoyed the comedic aspects of the administrative nightmare in Hell and wish the book had really focused on that element and not the earth plot line
physical-owned recommended-to-me
573 reviews131 followers
Claudia Lux presents an interesting idea, or ideas of what hell must look like in Sign Here. The plot line is interesting, but things get crazy once the multiple point of views in the form of the Harrison family start to chime in. Dark humor keeps you laughing or at least chuckling, while you hold on for the twisty plot ride toward the ending. Overall, a very good read and I would recommend just because of the unique storyline. There are characters we like and others we do not. The contract makes me cringe, thinking about all the people who never read what they sign!
Thank you to NetGalley, Berkley Publishing and Claudia Lux for this review copy for me to read and enjoy!