A review by tuesdaymendoza
Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley

challenging dark emotional informative 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? It's complicated

5.0

There are certain books that transcend the transaction of purchasing a book to read into feeling like you’re getting away with something by having access to something so well-written.

For a novel that she began at 17 years old, Nightcrawling is brilliant. Leila Mottley has a wonderful writing style that shares an incredible story intentionally. She plays with using descriptive imagery and cold factual phrases so the reader can experience the intensity, detachment, and jaded nature that Kiara, and those around her, use to survive.

For a first time reader, I’d say to take note of the following: fingers, shit pool/water, colors throughout the book, the relationship to emotions the characters have, and the dynamics Kiara has with Trevor vs her own brother.

Some ways Mottley puts the reader into Kiara’s world:

“This morning is different. The way Dee’s laugh swirls upward into a high-pitched sort of scream before it wanders into her bellow.”

“Alejandra’s hair is silky and black, spilling from the bun on top of her head. Her skin is oily, slick with the sweat of the kitchen she has spent the past twenty minutes in.”

“Funeral day is a reckoning, when we mimic thieves and really just find excuses for our tears, then light up, eat until we have never felt fuller, and find somewhere to dance. Funeral day is the culmination of all our past selves, when we hold our own memorials for people we never buried right. The funeral always ends, though, and we all gotta get back to the hustle.”

Overall, fantastic!
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