Today's Read Contributor Jason Mott’s newest novel, People Like Us, released on August 4, 2025, has quickly garnered acclaim for its emotional resonance and literary ambition. Chosen as PEOPLE Magazine’s Best Book of August, the novel presents a vivid dual-narrative structure that dives deep into themes of race, identity, trauma, and the paradoxes of public life. Building on the stylistic foundation he laid in his 2021 National Book Award-winning novel Hell of a Book, Mott again explores what it means to live and write while Black in America—this time through the intertwined stories of two very different men connected by invisible threads of memory and cultural expectation.
The first protagonist is a semi-famous Black writer navigating the complexities of celebrity within literary circles. Frequently mistaken for other well-known authors like Colson Whitehead or Ta-Nehisi Coates, he endures the unsettling reality of being recognized more for his identity than his individual voice. His life is defined by a loop of airport lounges, hotel rooms, and speaking engagements. He reflects on the absurdity of fame, where visibility does not equate to understanding, and public attention feels like both a blessing and a distortion. His narrative is wry, sharply observational, and at times surreal, confronting both the fatigue and the humor that come with being seen through the lens of stereotype rather than substance.
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Running parallel is the story of another Black writer, one who has fled the United States under mysterious circumstances. This character’s journey takes him to France, where he exists as a fugitive of sorts—though what he’s fleeing is not made immediately clear. He’s funded by a wealthy and enigmatic benefactor who demands only one condition: that he never return to America. His tale unfolds with elements of magical realism, including floating handguns, symbolic sea creatures, and dreamlike scenarios that reflect his psychological dislocation. His world is quieter, more introspective, filled with lingering ghosts and imagined conversations. Through his character, Mott explores the trauma of displacement and the aching longing for home, even when home has been a source of pain.
As the novel progresses, these two narratives begin to intertwine, and the emotional weight of their convergence becomes apparent. Though their paths are different—one marked by overexposure, the other by self-imposed exile—their struggles echo one another. Both men wrestle with their place in the world, their role as storytellers, and their attempts to reclaim personal agency in systems that so often reduce Black identity to monoliths or caricatures. Their voices may be distinct, but the underlying search for authenticity and belonging unites them.
Critics have lauded People Like Us for its unflinching honesty and stylistic daring. The novel seamlessly blends memoir, satire, speculative fiction, and autofiction, offering a complex and multifaceted view of what it means to write while Black in the 21st century. Reviewers have compared Mott’s prose to literary giants like Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin, noting how he skillfully toggles between humor and heartbreak, absurdity and clarity, to craft a narrative that is both timely and timeless.
The structure of the book—a fractured mirror of identity—is one of its most compelling aspects. Mott gives readers a sense of disorientation that mirrors the characters’ own fractured sense of self. Time blurs, memories surface without warning, and reality is constantly in flux. The novel often reads like a fever dream, but beneath its surrealist veneer lies a deeply grounded emotional truth.
Mott originally began this book as a memoir but pivoted to fiction, believing that fiction could offer him a more honest way to examine his personal experiences. In doing so, he revives the character of “Soot” from Hell of a Book, reimagined here in older form and grappling with new layers of grief, disconnection, and creative pressure. This decision transforms People Like Us into both a standalone achievement and a spiritual continuation of Mott’s earlier work.
Beyond its literary merits, the novel has struck a cultural chord. Its release arrives at a time when conversations about race, authorship, and representation continue to evolve within publishing and society at large. People Like Us enters this dialogue not with polemic, but with nuance, compassion, and a willingness to sit in the uncomfortable middle space where truth often resides.
PEOPLE Magazine praised the novel for its emotional depth and cultural urgency, calling it one of the most compelling fiction releases of the year. With glowing reviews from major outlets and an enthusiastic reception from readers, People Like Us is poised to become one of Jason Mott’s most significant contributions to American literature.
As the summer continues, People Like Us stands not only as a literary highlight of the season but also as a reminder of fiction’s unique ability to tell hard truths—sometimes through laughter, sometimes through tears, but always through empathy and imagination.
