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. 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. 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 Journal It's a very interesting, unsettling and attention grabbing interpretation of hell and my favorite bits of the book definitely involved Peyote and his interactions with this co-workers, and the brief but horrifying glimpses into the punishments they mete out and experienced first hand in hell's ever revolving hierarchy. It's a harsh juxtaposition between these moments and the relative mundanity of the Harrison family vacation but I feel like they suited each other well and made for an interesting reading experience overall. It's here I must admit that I'm underselling the Harrison's storyline a bit but it's your typical domestic thriller so I don't want to give anything away there really.

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 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. The only thing I wish was that this had been Claudia Lux's second or third published work instead of a debut. This reads like a debut. It felt like she had so many great ideas and was afraid of not getting another opportunity, so tossed them all into this book. With more experience, I think her work will soar. This needed a bit more editing and polishing. I just hate that it's already out there. She can't rewrite it. I liked this book a lot but it could have been 5 stars. Just some missed potential which is sad to see. 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 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.In essence, I enjoyed Peyote and all the descriptions of Hell and his job, but everything else fell flat. It was somewhat fun and funny, a little bit thrilling, but never enough of either to make an impact. Final Thoughts

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.” Special thanks to the publicists at Penguin Random House and to NetGalleyfor providing me with an ARC of this book! SummaryOne plot focuses on a demon(?)/ former-human-suffering-eternal-damnation in Hell and his new coworker/buddy, Cal. This was the plot that had drawn me into this book, as the author seemed to have an original take on Hell-- the closer to the "Downstairs" you got, the worse your suffering. Naturally, our MC, Peyote Trip, is on one of the more "comfier" levels of Hell, where the extent of his suffering is immeasurable puddles, bars that only serve jägermeister, and radios that play solely your least favorite music. It was highly remeniscient of The Good Place at first, but got old really fast, especially in how cyclical and repetitive it was. 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. Parallel to Peyote’s story we follow the Harrisons, who have not one but many a big family secret and the agents of Hell working on them ceaselessly. You see, Peyote can get a promotion if only he succeeded in convincing one more member of the Harrisons to sell their soul... As for complaints? Well they say the devil is in the details, and there are some details that needed to be fleshed out and others that didn’t always bear up under closer scrutiny: **SPOILER** if drinking the water in hell makes people lose their memories, it shouldn’t have made a difference that Peyote drank coffee or beer instead, since both are made with water. The memory-wiping effect should have still occurred. Also, several times screaming matches were happening where others clearly would’ve heard - sound travels - yet somehow no one did. They’d have had to be deaf! , but these were minor issues for me. I think we started out on an interesting path. But kept getting side roads that you thought would all lead to the same location but didn't. A lot of those roads were completely unnecessary and avoidable.

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.There were some aspects of the ending that I completely missed. I came to GRs for answers but the book is so new, there's not a lot of discussion or questions about it. Or maybe it's just me! I was definitely confused on some parts and not sure I interpreted the ending correctly. 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.

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. Amind-bending, riveting debut…Part thriller, part family drama, with a dash of horror thrown in, and it works beautifully. Engaging characters (even in Hell!), impeccable plotting, and plenty of twists will keep you reading all night.” Special thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions. Lux's take is fresh and complex, with deep character development and a plot that will keep readers guessing." - Booklist 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.

The Harrison storyline was more interesting. It's a combination of family dysfunction and coming of age, with a dose of mystery thrown in. But it also had some of the same issues as the other storyline, coming across as trying too hard to be deep and poignant, which ultimately made what could've been an intriguing tale into an overwritten one.