Sign Here

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Waller-Bridge is repped by UTA, Hatton McEwan Penford, Independent Talent and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole.

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. 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 thought it was an entertaining story and a promising debut. I’ll definitely be watching for Claudia Lux’s next book! torture, such as having bad beer all the time. Smells that one wouldn’t pay attention to become a livingLux 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) 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.

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

Sign Here

Hell. Pey’s side of the story and learning about Hell is very interesting, just like the information about A darkly humorous, surprisingly poignant, and utterly gripping debut novel about a guy who works in Hell (literally) and is on the cusp of a big promotion if only he can get one more member of the wealthy Harrison family 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.” 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.

This was an intriguing debut novel. I liked the description of how Hell works in this world, just like any What about the mighty, dysfunctional, estranged Harrisons? The family is all set to take a family vacation at their New Hampshire house! 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. time, Pey has to keep an eye on his human souls, one being the Harrison family, which he has had the 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 JournalMy 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. 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. 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.