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A review by clara_mai
Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley
4.0
Streets always find you in the daylight, when you least expect them to. Night crawling up to me when the sun's out.
This is a fantastic debut novel (it's wild to think about that the author is the same age as me). Inspired by real events, it accounts the experience of Kiara, a 17-years-old Black girl in a difficult familial and financial situation getting into sex work and ending up being sexually abused and exploited by a whole ring of of police officers. While revealing the corruption of the police and the justice system, the narrative also centers on Kiara's relationships to the people in her life, both complicated and beautiful. I think this could have been even more powerful if it was overall less metaphorically dense, if the imagery had been reduced in some places so that it would hit even harder in others. Overall though, the prose has great rhythm and storytelling-wise this book is just brilliant.
This is a fantastic debut novel (it's wild to think about that the author is the same age as me). Inspired by real events, it accounts the experience of Kiara, a 17-years-old Black girl in a difficult familial and financial situation getting into sex work and ending up being sexually abused and exploited by a whole ring of of police officers. While revealing the corruption of the police and the justice system, the narrative also centers on Kiara's relationships to the people in her life, both complicated and beautiful. I think this could have been even more powerful if it was overall less metaphorically dense, if the imagery had been reduced in some places so that it would hit even harder in others. Overall though, the prose has great rhythm and storytelling-wise this book is just brilliant.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Abandonment, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Suicide, Rape, and Child death
Moderate: Addiction, Death of parent, and Drug abuse
Minor: Transphobia