Startup Hell by Caitlin Rozakis
Publication Date: May 19, 2026
Summary from Netgalley:
A hilarious contemporary fantasy about a junior sales witch stuck in corporate hell, who has to evade devilish pacts and her kickass, world-saving, demon-slaying mum to save a (surprisingly hot) demon, and work out how to hit her quarterly target.
Morgan Blackwater’s mother is a kickass, world-saving, demon-slaying Shadow Council wizard. As for Morgan? Morgan’s a junior salesperson at a tech startup that can’t even decide what its product is. But with magic dyslexia and a disinclination to kick ass, Morgan is doing her best carving out a niche for herself in the mundane world.
Leaving work late one night, she discovers her boss dead from the effort of summoning a demon to trade his soul in order to make his quarterly target. The disturbingly-attractive demon, Lucareoth (Luke for short), is trapped here until he finds someone to sell their soul. While trying to sneak Luke out of the building, Morgan runs into her infamous mother. Apparently, someone has been summoning demons and she’s here to get to the bottom of it.
Trying to protect Luke from her mother, Morgan gets sucked into the Infernal Plane and discovers hell really is a corporate nightmare. She only gets back home with a promise to deliver a human soul of her own. While her coworkers are really annoying, she’s not willing to sacrifice their souls. The company’s tech bro CEO, though, is another story.
With Caitlin Rozakis’s signature wit, STARTUP HELL is a contemporary fantasy that exposes the demonic nature of the corporate world.
ARC provided by Titan Books via Netgalley for an honest review.
Confession:
Startup Hell is a clever contemporary fantasy that pokes fun at corporate america and tech bros. I really enjoyed the blend of a contemporary office story with a fantasy world built into it. This is a fun and fast read that will have you laughing as you cheer on the characters.
I really enjoyed Morgan as a character. She doesn’t fit into the magical world she was born into, basically because she has no magic. But she doesn’t really fit into the mundane world either. She is struggling at a job she doesn’t particularly like, and she does have self esteem issues. But then Luke steps into her life and everything changes. I loved Luke, he is such a sweetie and he also does not fit into his world. I loved how he saw our world and how hard it was for him to adjust to it. But I also loved how endearing and charming he was with everyone he met. I know that was part of his job, but it was also sweet. While I liked them the romance did fall a little bit flat for me. I think mostly because Morgan’s inner monologue about Luke was a bit repetitive.
There is also a great cast of secondary characters. So many quirky and fun office characters. Brad, the CEO, was just such a stereotypical tech-bro, but in a fun way. Even though I hated him, I still found him funny. I loved Giselle, Morgan’s roomate, who is also mundane. She was an anchor in the storm for Morgan and was often the voice of reason. Rix the hellhound also added a lot of humor to the story, I just loved him.
The world building is quite clever and well done. I love the contemporary feel with the magical fantasy elements cleverly woven into the story. The writing is witty and sharp and pokes a lot of fun at corporate culture and tech startups. I wasn’t quite expecting the story to go in the direction that it did, but it certainly made sense. The ending was perfect with everyone getting their just deserts and happily ever afters.
If you enjoy stories that revolve around real world situations, but have a complex fantasy world as well, than this is one I highly recommend. It is witty, fun and a bit on the chaotic side.
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