Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley

124 reviews

paigeinthepages_sg's review

dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Leila Mottley introduces readers to her poetic voice in her contemporary novel debut "Night crawling". In this story we follow the protagonist Kiara as she tries to support her family (and found family) through any means necessary. She is a "reflection of the violence black and brown women face regularly"(quote from Mottley). I thought this was a well written story (especially because Leila Mottley began writing it at 17), but I found myself searching for more emotion. This may just be because I do not connect with the story in a personal level. I also felt like the ending seemed a little rushed (although that does make it align with the current state of the US justice system) . I cannot wait to see more from this author in the future! If a contemporary fiction piece about sex work, police scandal, and found family sounds interesting then this may be the book for you!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Adult/minor relationship, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Child death, Drug abuse, and Death of parent

bessadams's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Sexual assault, Police brutality, and Death of parent

Moderate: Self harm, Drug use, Trafficking, Suicide attempt, Death, Cancer, Adult/minor relationship, Abandonment, and Violence

nordicat's review

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Police brutality, Rape, Death, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Sexual assault, and Suicide attempt

sheshu45's review

emotional sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

okiecozyreader's review

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

In the author’s note, Leila Mottley writes that when she was a teenager a story broke how members of the Oakland Police Dept and several others participated in the sexual exploitation of a young woman and tried to cover it up. She says she was 17 and “contemplating what it meant to be vulnerable, unprotected and unseen.”

Kiera and her brother Marcus are living in an East Oakland run-down apartment complex while the rent keeps going up astronomically. Marcus is trying to make it as a music star and Kiara is just trying to make rent, even if it involves relationships with men who take advantage of her by Nightcrawling. 

Such a tough read but she definitely tells the story of these women for these women.

“I am telling her how these streets open us up and remove the part of us most worth keeping: the child left in us.” P267

“Number one rule about entering somewhere you not supposed to enter us don't never guestion none of it. Don't ask nothing and don't act like you don't know what you doing because that'll land you right where you don't wanna be.” P235

“That was before I learned that life won't give you reasons for none of it, that sometimes fathers disappear and little girls don't make it to another birthday and mothers forget to be mothers." P81

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Vomit, Child death, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Racism, Gun violence, and Sexual assault

oliviantoinette's review

challenging emotional 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? N/A

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence and Adult/minor relationship

sukhlovesreading's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Addiction, and Child abuse

zoinkie's review

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Suicide attempt, Child abuse, Classism, Death, Drug use, Gaslighting, Sexual assault, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Alcohol, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexual harassment, Police brutality, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, and Death of parent

_meeg's review

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Grief, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Child death, Death, Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Trafficking, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Murder, Gun violence, Abandonment, Sexual content, Violence, Addiction, Racial slurs, Child abuse, Hate crime, Police brutality, Classism, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Drug abuse, Racism, and Sexual violence

anna_in_the_spring's review

challenging dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

Rating this book is really difficult. I can tell that it is a good book. It just really wasn't for me.
The writing is lyrical, which I only like sometimes. While I thought it was okay in this book, maybe that was because I had a much bigger problem with the language that is being used. In dialogue and sometimes also in internal speech African American dialect is being used. And I hated that. Let me explain. I am a non-native English speaker with dyslexia. Slangs and dialects in written English ( and any other written language I understand) irritate me greatly. I am at a level of reading comprehension with regular English where I can just read the text. Written dialects trigger my dyslexia and slow me down a great deal and make understanding difficult. They are like another foreign language. And I don't have the energy to deal with that. I just want to read a book, not struggle with a language that to me, who had such a hard time learning the original language, seems just wrong and like someone is playing a malicious prank on me. 
I understand that this is not the intention and I don't have a problem with the existence of dialects. Just with having to read them. I try avoiding these kind of books.
I still struggled through the book , skimming over some parts, because it is a good book. And I understand why the language is as it is. It just wasn't for me. That's fine. 
I didn't enjoy the plot, but I don't think you're supposed to. I'm not a big fan of tragedies, so again, not really for me. The subject matter is also thankfully very far removed from me. Still, if the dialect hadn't been there, I might have been able to enjoy the book, the way one enjoys a tragedy. Like this, I was never really able to get into it.  But without the dialect it would have been a different book. So, again, this was just not for me. And that's fine.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Child death, Death, Trafficking, Drug use, Police brutality, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Suicide