A review by jakeort
Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley

5.0

fiction is not fact, but impactful fiction reveals the truth of the human condition. kiara’s life and circumstances are not at all like my own, nor is her walk of life one i could ever truly understand, but this book gets at the core of our shared experience as human beings. leila mottley says so much about the violence experienced by black and brown women, about the destruction policing can cause in these communities, about the oppression experienced by women when they must care for the men around them. this is not what i would categorize as a pleasant read: violence and injustice abound and my heart was broken a hundred times. but i can truly say that, at certain points, i had never felt so warm reading a book: when kiara and trevor laugh together, it is rapturous; when alé shows up for kiara, it is restorative. leila mottley, this is a masterpiece.