Hell of a Book : : or the Altogether Factual, Wholly Bona Fide Story of a big Dreams, Hard Luck, American-Made Mad Kid

Locations
Call Number: Fiction / Mott, Jason, Adult Book / Fiction / General / Mott, Jason
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Malletts Creek Branch, Pittsfield Branch, Traverwood Branch, Westgate Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction / Mott, Jason	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction / Mott, Jason	4-week checkout	Due 05-21-2024
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Mott, Jason	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Mott, Jason	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Mott, Jason	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Mott, Jason	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Mott, Jason	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Mott, Jason	4-week checkout	Due 05-05-2024

"Reading with Jenna" -- front cover.
In Jason Mott's Hell of a Book, a Black author sets out on a cross-country publicity tour to promote his bestselling novel. That storyline drives Hell of a Book and is the scaffolding of something much larger and urgent: since Mott's novel also tells the story of Soot, a young Black boy living in a rural town in the recent past, and The Kid, a possibly imaginary child who appears to the author on his tour. As these characters' stories build and build and converge, they astonish. For while this heartbreaking and magical book entertains and is at once about family, love of parents and children, art and money, it's also about the nation's reckoning with a tragic police shooting playing over and over again on the news. And with what it can mean to be Black in America. Who has been killed? Who is The Kid? Will the author finish his book tour, and what kind of world will he leave behind? Unforgettably told, with characters who burn into your mind and an electrifying plot ideal for book club discussion, Hell of a Book is the novel Mott has been writing in his head for the last ten years. And in its final twists it truly becomes its title.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Didn't quite achieve its ambitions submitted by redwood on July 20, 2022, 8:11am Hell of a Book is ambitious in its scope. It works to reckon with the psychological burdens of constant police shootings, choosing to do so in a deliberately unsettled, unreal way, and through a disconnected and reckless antihero rather than a noble sufferer. The novel has you questioning its braided narrative throughout, wondering what is happening at any point—anything and nothing is, and you can never be sure of anything but a deep-seated, profoundly impactful pain.

Very good submitted by lizgiessner on August 7, 2023, 7:42pm This book was thoughtful, interesting, and entertaining but serious, especially with regard to Black lives.