It won the 2021 National Book Award for Fiction.

In alternating chapters, the novel tells the stories of two different characters: a nameless novelist on tour for a book also titled Hell of a Book, and an African-American child named Soot.

Soot, who lives near Whiteville, North Carolina, is being bullied on the school bus, while the novelist is troubled by visions of a child he calls "The Kid", who speaks to him and seemingly guides him through his issues.

The Star-News said that with the novel, Mott earned "a place on the shelf beside such African-American writers as Colson Whitehead and Octavia Butler".

[2] It was also longlisted for the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction,[3] the 2022 Aspen Words Literary Prize,[4] and the 2022 Joyce Carol Oates Prize.