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A review by lovelymisanthrope
Sign Here by Claudia Lux
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I picked this debut up from Book of the Month and was so excited to devour this story.
"Sign Here" follows a few different points of view, but there are two main stories going on. The first storyline is Peyote's. Peyote is a man stuck working on the fifth level of hell. He has worked his way up from the first level and is entirely motivated to work his way out of hell and return to his old life. The fifth level of hell deals with contracts, and the employees are tasked with finding individuals on earth who want to sell their souls (I mean who REALLY reads all of the terms and conditions). Peyote has been working for years to get the entire Harrison family to sign their life away, and he only needs one more signature to have a complete set. Enter the Harrisons: the second main storyline. The Harrisons seem like the perfect family, but they are all hiding secrets that could tear the family apart. Every year they go to the family cabin for the majority of the summer break. This year, the teenage daughter, Mickey, is allowed to invite her new friend Ruth to come along. Everything seems to be going as good as can be expected, until Ruth becomes the center of attention for all the wrong reasons.
I was kind of expecting for this story to feel more chaotic than it did because there are so many different points of view we are following, and the timeline jumps around a lot. We get the present timeline as well as the timeline from when the parents were teenagers. There was a tragic murder of a beloved girl when they were teenagers and the father's brother was tried and convicted of said murder.
While Peyote is working in hell, he is tasked with helping the new recruit to the fifth level: Calamity. Cal's character is entirely erratic and extremely deceptive, which for a person who works in hell is good, but as a character to read about it was too much for me. She is wild and a great counterpart to Peyote's dull office demeanor, but she is also off the rails.
I think this story could have been stronger if we only got Peyote's perspective. His story was what I was most invested in because the Harrisons are just a bunch of bad people who want to think they are right. I do appreciate getting to see Peyote's "set" signing their life away and seeing what drove them to that point, but I think with the technology in hell and how Peyote monitors people, we still could have gotten that story with their points of view.
Overall, I was impressed with this story, and I cannot wait to see more from Claudia Lux in the future.
"Sign Here" follows a few different points of view, but there are two main stories going on. The first storyline is Peyote's. Peyote is a man stuck working on the fifth level of hell. He has worked his way up from the first level and is entirely motivated to work his way out of hell and return to his old life. The fifth level of hell deals with contracts, and the employees are tasked with finding individuals on earth who want to sell their souls (I mean who REALLY reads all of the terms and conditions). Peyote has been working for years to get the entire Harrison family to sign their life away, and he only needs one more signature to have a complete set. Enter the Harrisons: the second main storyline. The Harrisons seem like the perfect family, but they are all hiding secrets that could tear the family apart. Every year they go to the family cabin for the majority of the summer break. This year, the teenage daughter, Mickey, is allowed to invite her new friend Ruth to come along. Everything seems to be going as good as can be expected, until Ruth becomes the center of attention for all the wrong reasons.
I was kind of expecting for this story to feel more chaotic than it did because there are so many different points of view we are following, and the timeline jumps around a lot. We get the present timeline as well as the timeline from when the parents were teenagers. There was a tragic murder of a beloved girl when they were teenagers and the father's brother was tried and convicted of said murder.
While Peyote is working in hell, he is tasked with helping the new recruit to the fifth level: Calamity. Cal's character is entirely erratic and extremely deceptive, which for a person who works in hell is good, but as a character to read about it was too much for me. She is wild and a great counterpart to Peyote's dull office demeanor, but she is also off the rails.
I think this story could have been stronger if we only got Peyote's perspective. His story was what I was most invested in because the Harrisons are just a bunch of bad people who want to think they are right. I do appreciate getting to see Peyote's "set" signing their life away and seeing what drove them to that point, but I think with the technology in hell and how Peyote monitors people, we still could have gotten that story with their points of view.
Overall, I was impressed with this story, and I cannot wait to see more from Claudia Lux in the future.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Stalking, Murder, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Pedophilia and Pregnancy
Minor: Cancer and Sexual content