A review by madelinedalton
Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley

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

4.0

This is an objectively well-crafted book, and the author’s age makes it even more impressive. The writing was beautiful and lyrical, although she occasionally chose metaphors that made no sense. I loved the first person narrative. Lit fic as a genre tends to lean towards detached third person narratives, so I appreciated how the first person narrative here brought the reader close. It’s so much more emotionally impactful that way. The story unfurls very slowly, but it is almost always engaging throughout. The ending felt rushed, unfortunately. 

This didn’t have me in a chokehold like my 5 star reads do, and I wasn’t clamoring to pick it up and find out what would happen, but it was objectively very good. Even though it was a 4 star read for me, it might be 5 stars for you! I definitely recommend this one.
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