Hell of a Book

Hell of a Book is a wry and very meta book, with wonderful and fully-drawn characters. (Even though you don't know the names of them most of the time, unless they are named Kelly.) It's very much about reality and truth, and how grief can distort both, and how that grief is deep in the bones of black Americans before they're even born. And Mott tells it in such an amusing way that will make you smile and then also punch you in the head when you're not expecting it (much like one of the Kellys).

I thought I had it figured out, but it turns out, “figuring it out” matters not at all? Mott had me, the reader, figured out first.

It's a hell of a feat, what he's done. Fantastic book.

TW: police shootings of black bodies, mental illness