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A review by justinlife
Hell of a Book by Jason Mott
challenging
dark
funny
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
This one is hard to rate. There’s so much to it that I liked and so much skill in crafting this, but I really, really didn’t like the narrator.
The book has everything- unreliable narrator, magical realism, fourth wall breaking, culture commentary and much more. We follow the author of a book Hell of a Book on a book tour around the country while every other chapter we get a story of a young Black kid. The author deals with his own trauma while constantly being seen as a voice to his people’s collective and constant trauma.
There’s a lot to chew on here. Is he disconnecting to process trauma? Is the child him/the character of his book/something else? What’s real and what’s not? All can be fun to play with and Mott is successful in his delivery.
My issue was by the end of the book, the person I was rooting for just… sigh… never got where I wanted him to go. It’s intentional I’m sure, but having an unreliable and somewhat mean person to follow throughout the book got irritating. That probably says more about me though.
The book has everything- unreliable narrator, magical realism, fourth wall breaking, culture commentary and much more. We follow the author of a book Hell of a Book on a book tour around the country while every other chapter we get a story of a young Black kid. The author deals with his own trauma while constantly being seen as a voice to his people’s collective and constant trauma.
There’s a lot to chew on here. Is he disconnecting to process trauma? Is the child him/the character of his book/something else? What’s real and what’s not? All can be fun to play with and Mott is successful in his delivery.
My issue was by the end of the book, the person I was rooting for just… sigh… never got where I wanted him to go. It’s intentional I’m sure, but having an unreliable and somewhat mean person to follow throughout the book got irritating. That probably says more about me though.