276°
Posted 20 hours ago

Sign Here

£12.495£24.99Clearance
ZTS2023's avatar
Shared by
ZTS2023
Joined in 2023
82
63

About this deal

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! 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. 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. 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.

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. 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. 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 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. J]ust like on Earth, nothing in this hilarious and surprisingly sweet journey through Hell goes as planned.”

Table of Contents

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. Looking for a fun Halloween-y book that feels like a mash-up between The Good Place, Succession, and The Office?” Lux’s take is fresh and complex, with deep character development and a plot that will keep readers guessing.”

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. I thought it was an entertaining story and a promising debut. I’ll definitely be watching for Claudia Lux’s next book! Conceptually, Sign Here has potential. But the execution makes it feel like several disjointed stories instead of one cohesive whole. 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.”Lux's take is fresh and complex, with deep character development and a plot that will keep readers guessing." - Booklist

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, 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. 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. 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.

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. 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 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 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. 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 HERE

Asda Great Deal

Free UK shipping. 15 day free returns.
Community Updates
*So you can easily identify outgoing links on our site, we've marked them with an "*" symbol. Links on our site are monetised, but this never affects which deals get posted. Find more info in our FAQs and About Us page.
New Comment