Reviews with content warning for Death - Hell of a Book

If this whole book had focused on Soot's storyline, it would have been a fantastic read. However, Soot was overshadowed by the author and his journey to promote his mysterious book. Maybe it was just too meta for me. I don't know. What I do know, is that some parts were fantastic: Soot and his story, the end of the book, and interactions between the author and the Kid. Unfortunately, the rest of the book just kind of dragged for me and I found myself waiting impatiently for the plot to move past the author and back to Soot.

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bookgardendc's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

The title does the book justice. I’ve never read anything quite like this - it’s funny and complex and deeply profound and yet somehow two-thirds of the book manages to
feel fairly light. I clearly felt the inner struggles of the characters, and the generational trauma that African Americans must experience. Beautiful book.

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megdye487's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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paigereitz's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

It is, as the name suggests, a hell of a book. It is an intense deep dive into race relations in novel form, from the Black experience, and it is an emotionally heavy read, but it was so, so good. An indictment on modern society, skillfully woven through a story that is disorienting and jarring and hard and emotional. I'll be processing this book for a long time.

From the book, "Laugh all you want, but I think learning to love yourself in a country when you're told that you're a plague on the economy, that you're nothing but a prisoner in the making, that your life can be taken away from you at any moment and there's nothing you can do about it - learning to love yourself in the middle of all that? Hell, that's a goddamn miracle."

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axo17's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I really loved it. Not a huge fan of books where they jump back and forth between voices/narrations. But once you get a feel for the characters it helps a lot. I loved how it touched on a lot of different arguments to racism or what “isn’t” racism/the problem. The reason I ranked it a lower than the full 5 is because even though I understand where the the author is coming from by also using mental health as an example with the (?Schizophrenia?) I feel like that’s a whole separate issue. Yes, it adds another level to it, but it left me wanting a little more of that side to the story. Be it clarity, meat, whatever.

Ultimately, for me Hell of a Book really showed more of what I have never experienced, as far as this depth. The only other comparison I have to what people of color could go through is as a woman, I was taught to not dress a certain way, carry keys in my fingers, tell friends where I am are going on a date, dealing with misogyny, so on and so forth. I think that might be the only way I related on occasion to the multiple examples given. But. It’s just a whole world I’ll never know and I think reading it and trying to understand that hurt, is one small aim from the book in a much larger - seemingly never ending - story.

I recommend this to anyone. It might put something into perspective a little more.

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