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The riveting new novel by the author of the 2021 National Book Award winner and bestseller Hell of a Book.
People Like Us is Jason Mott's electric new novel. It is not memoir, yet it has deeply personal connections to Jason's life. And while rooted in reality, it explodes with dreamlike experiences that pull a reader in and don't let go, from the ability to time travel to sightings of sea monsters and peacocks, and feelings of love and memory so real they hurt.
In People Like Us, two Black writers are trying to find peace and belonging in a world that is riven with gun violence. One is on a global book tour after a big prize win; the other is set to give a speech at a school that has suffered a shooting. And as their two storylines merge, truths and antics abound in equal measure: characters drink booze out of an award trophy; menaces lurk in the shadows; tiny French cars putter around the countryside; handguns seem to hover in the air; and dreams endure against all odds.
People Like Us is wickedly funny and achingly sad all at once. It is an utter triumph bursting with larger-than-life characters who deliver a very real take on our world. This book contains characters experiencing deep loss and longing; it also is buoyed by riotous humor and characters who share the deepest love. It is the newest creation of a writer whose work amazes, delivering something utterly new yet instantly recognizable as a Jason Mott novel.
Finishing the novel will leave you absolutely breathless and, at the same time, utterly filled with joy for life, changed forever by characters who are people like us.
"A meta-novel that stings and touches the reader...The whole book seems the literary equivalent of a post-bop jazz performance, with oblique happenings that compel attention because of the book's antic energy and lyrical passages." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Mott's writing is funny, intelligent, and sharp as a knife....This book is full of action, suspense, and laughs. Its reflections about being a Black American in Europe are insightful. Jump in for a full-force, visceral ride." —Library Journal (starred review)
"Mott's satire is thoroughly uncompromising, which makes it all the more refreshing." —Publishers Weekly
"Part memoir, part travelogue, part fever dream, Mott's novel deploys wicked humor and pathos to explore issues around race, gun violence, fame and mental health." —Atlanta Journal Constitution
Rated 
of 5
by
Brookleybones
Groundbreaking
People Like Us is bold and unlike anything I’ve read before. It follows a black author on a surreal book tour trailed by a mysterious figure known only as The Kid. A parallel narrative follows an unnamed writer in NYC unraveling under the weight of memory and isolation. Mott weaves humor, grief and the mysterious into a multilayered novel on identity, authorship and being seen.
Rated of 5
by
labmom55
Amazing writing
It’s been a while since I’ve read anything by Denise Mina, but I’ve liked the ones I’ve read. I’m adding this one to the list. The plot was solid, the characters fully fleshed out. Dr. Claudia O’Sheil is about to blow the lid open on how her forensic evidence falsely accused a man and led to his conviction in a double murder one year earlier. Claudia was behind a blood spatter analysis program that became the industry standard and was a key component in the case. Now what she has to say will destroy not just her life but that of several others.
The story veers back and forth between the present day and the time of the murder investigation. It moves at a nice steady pace and there’s a constant underlying sense of tension. Mina’s writing is descriptive without being overly wordy - that ability to nail a character or a scene in just a sentence or two. The book delves into class, corruption and power. Claudia is a great main character. She’s dealing with her husband’s untimely death and some serious family issues. And she’s finally trying to grow the spine she lacked the year before. She let herself get sucked in by her ego, her desire to maintain her reputation and a lifestyle she’d never had before. It’s unclear until the bitter end whether she’ll have the strength to do the right thing.
This will not appeal to those that want their mysteries to be all about action. My one complaint was that Mina wasn’t consistent about using first vs. third person narration.
My thanks to Netgalley and Little, Brown & Co for an advance copy of this book.
Jason Mott has published four novels. His first novel, The Returned, was a New York Times bestseller and was turned into a TV series that ran for two seasons. He has a BFA in Fiction and an MFA in Poetry, both from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. His poetry and fiction have appeared in various literary journals, and his most recent novel, Hell of a Book, was named the winner of the National Book Award for Fiction, 2021.
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