Sign Here by Claudia Lux Review

Overall: 4 out of 5

Mastery of Writing: 3 out of 5

Characters: 5 out of 5

Plot: 4 out of 5

Uniqueness: 5 out of 5

Enjoyment: 4 out of 5

Sign Here is an utterly hilarious debut novel whose winding story and deliciously dark humor will have you rolling on the floor laughing all the way to hell.

Sign Here is dark comedy, murder mystery, and dysfunctional family drama all wrapped into one book. If you are looking for a crossover between Helluva Boss, The Office, and a classic family murder, than definitely do not skip this one!

Sign Here follows two different settings. The first being Hell itself, following hell corporate climbing businessman Peyote Trip and his new sexy and charming partner, Cal. Together the two try to make the most soul selling deals in their office, and they just might have some secret ulterior motives. The second story which weaves throughout this novel focuses on young teen Mickey and her family as they take a vacation to their lake house with her new best friend. Alas, this lake house has a few dark secrets tied to it, and everyone seems to be hiding something from each other.

This novel utilizes multiple perspectives in the telling of its story. I am normally not a huge fan of dual perspectives, as I feel it often distracts from the story. In this case, I would have been perfectly content with the switch of perspectives if it had simply focused on just two different ones-Peyote’s and most likely Mickey’s. However, rather than assigning one perspective per side plot, the author chose to switch from multiple different perspectives per setting. While the chapters alternated by setting, establishing a pattern, the perspectives were all over the place, allowing for some slight confusion when reading.

One thing that I must praise this book for is the descriptions of this version of Hell. The descriptions of how Hell worked, what people did in Hell, and all of the tiny miniscule details (only being able to drink Jager, having to go through five different pens before one works, having to listen to a perpetual car alarm go off in the parking lot) just made the book laugh out loud funny.

The characterization in this story was fantastic. Our characters in Hell were both baddies and sweethearts. Peyote and Cal’s characters really grew on me, and had me rooting for them at every step. There were places where I was holding my breath with them, which is always something I want a book to do. As for the on Earth characters, I was also extremely sympathetic towards them. All of the characters, despite the crazy murder plot mixed in with their lives, seemed like normal and human characters. They seemed like people you would actually find and maybe even know. This made the crazy ending so much more impactful.

While I appreciated the two storylines, I do admit that I thought that the combining of the two towards the end was a little sloppy. I think it had wonderful potential, but I feel like the execution was slightly off. I still enjoyed nevertheless.

Sign Here was a perfect addition to my fall reads, and I am so glad I was able to give it a read. This book is full of laughs and groans, and will for sure make you feel like you are in book heaven rather than hell.

Sign Here was my Book of the Month pick. Want to receive monthly books? Sign up here: https://www.mybotm.com/kdntajovd5?show_box=tru