Scan barcode
A review by ojtheviking
Sign Here by Claudia Lux
4.0
3.8 rounded up.
I'm fairly impressed that this is Claudia's first (and so far only) book. She comes out of the gate swinging (and mostly hitting), presenting an interesting spin on familiar concepts.
First of all, Sign Here presents to us a highly bureaucratic version of Hell, where you have agents being sent to Earth to make deals with desperate humans, only to make them sell their souls. Add to that the fact that Hell lives outside of Earth's timeline, meaning that these agents can visit Earth in various eras, and you have the recipe for a fun premise. Plus, as with many other interesting concepts, Lux's premise is the mere foundation for the larger story, giving it more depth and meaning than just being a cool gimmick. This premise did admittedly make me anticipate certain plot twists, and I was right about some of them, but not in a way that took away my overall enjoyment.
It's also clear that Lux has made a great effort to keep track of many moving parts, as there are several characters with their own individual storylines, and the narrative switches perspective from one chapter to another. This also gives the story drive, because it's not immediately clear how every character relates to each other, but bit by bit, everything is woven together to make more sense. Additionally, Peyton himself is borderline an unreliable narrator in the sense that his personal motivation isn't immediately clear, but that he instead slips us useful information about him whenever he sees fit.
Lux also takes her time with her world-building, and establishes the scenario and the individual personalities of the main characters quite well, before events start unfolding. But still, it's not in a way that feels like a slow burn. Spending the book's first third or so on this feels necessary due to the large ensemble of characters.
Some parts did however feel a bit uneven. While I do realize that Lux wanted to blend together both lighter and darker tones, it could feel a bit lopsided at times. The beginning feels like a dark comedy; it has some witty parts, while some of life's most morbid aspects are being explored. But along the way, the seriousness is turned up several notches, which means the humor fades a little bit away.
Also, regarding what I mentioned above about there being many characters with different storylines, this could, at times, also make the narrative somewhat uneven. You could divide it into two main categories; everything that goes on with Peyton and his job in Hell, and the soap opera-esque intrigues going on with the Harrison family, which is also trying to be a murder mystery. At times, it feels as if Lux had more fun writing about the Harrisons than Peyton, and the premise of how Hell works is overshadowed by the family drama.
But all in all, it's absolutely a solid debut. Entertaining, ambitious, shows great potential, and makes me curious about what Lux might deliver next.
I'm fairly impressed that this is Claudia's first (and so far only) book. She comes out of the gate swinging (and mostly hitting), presenting an interesting spin on familiar concepts.
First of all, Sign Here presents to us a highly bureaucratic version of Hell, where you have agents being sent to Earth to make deals with desperate humans, only to make them sell their souls. Add to that the fact that Hell lives outside of Earth's timeline, meaning that these agents can visit Earth in various eras, and you have the recipe for a fun premise. Plus, as with many other interesting concepts, Lux's premise is the mere foundation for the larger story, giving it more depth and meaning than just being a cool gimmick. This premise did admittedly make me anticipate certain plot twists, and I was right about some of them, but not in a way that took away my overall enjoyment.
It's also clear that Lux has made a great effort to keep track of many moving parts, as there are several characters with their own individual storylines, and the narrative switches perspective from one chapter to another. This also gives the story drive, because it's not immediately clear how every character relates to each other, but bit by bit, everything is woven together to make more sense. Additionally, Peyton himself is borderline an unreliable narrator in the sense that his personal motivation isn't immediately clear, but that he instead slips us useful information about him whenever he sees fit.
Lux also takes her time with her world-building, and establishes the scenario and the individual personalities of the main characters quite well, before events start unfolding. But still, it's not in a way that feels like a slow burn. Spending the book's first third or so on this feels necessary due to the large ensemble of characters.
Some parts did however feel a bit uneven. While I do realize that Lux wanted to blend together both lighter and darker tones, it could feel a bit lopsided at times. The beginning feels like a dark comedy; it has some witty parts, while some of life's most morbid aspects are being explored. But along the way, the seriousness is turned up several notches, which means the humor fades a little bit away.
Also, regarding what I mentioned above about there being many characters with different storylines, this could, at times, also make the narrative somewhat uneven. You could divide it into two main categories; everything that goes on with Peyton and his job in Hell, and the soap opera-esque intrigues going on with the Harrison family, which is also trying to be a murder mystery. At times, it feels as if Lux had more fun writing about the Harrisons than Peyton, and the premise of how Hell works is overshadowed by the family drama.
But all in all, it's absolutely a solid debut. Entertaining, ambitious, shows great potential, and makes me curious about what Lux might deliver next.