Nightcrawling
Leila Mottley
Nightcrawling
Leila Mottley
When there is no choice, all you have left to do is walk.
Kiara Johnson does not know what it is to live as a normal seventeen-year-old. With her mother in a rehab facility and an older brother who devotes his time and money to a recording studio, she fends for herself - and for nine-year-old Trevor, whose own mother is prone to disappearing for days at a time. As the landlord of their apartment block threatens to raise their rent, Kiara finds herself walking the streets after dark, determined to survive in a world that refuses to protect her.
Then one night Kiara is picked up by Officers 601 and 190, and the gruesome deal she is offered in exchange for her freedom lands her at the centre of a media storm. If she agrees to testify in a grand jury trial, she could help expose the sickening corruption of a police department. But honesty comes at a price - one that could leave her family vulnerable to their retaliation, and endanger everyone she loves.
Nightcrawling is an unforgettable novel about young people navigating the darkest corners of an adult world, told with a humanity that is at once agonising and utterly mesmerising.
Review
Nicki Levy
Nightcrawling isthe highlyanticipated andimpressive debut novelby Leila Mottley, the2018 Oakland Youth PoetLaureate. Deeplyaffected by true eventsin her hometown ofOakland, California, in 2015, Mottley felt astrong need to give a voice to the survivor ofa police violence case. It was a case wherethe Oakland police department attemptedto cover up the systemic sexual exploitationof a young woman by several of its officers.This fictional account is an extraordinaryachievement considering Mottley was only17 when she started writing it, the same ageas the protagonist, Kiara.
At this young age, Kiara is having tosupport herself and her older brotherwho’s recording an album and convincedhe is on the brink of fame and big money.He relies on his sister to pay the rent andbills after their mother is sent to jail. Kiaraalso begins to look after the little boy inthe neighbouring apartment after hismother repeatedly fails to return home.As Kiara becomes more desperate formoney, she is persuaded to turn to sexwork – nightcrawling. She gets picked up bya police officer and from there, her wholeworld begins to spiral out of her control. Shefinds herself at the centre of a high-profilecase of sexual exploitation and becomes ‘…another casualty of a choice I didn’t know I was making’.
Kiara is in survival mode at the same time as trying to do her best for those she loves. This powerful insight into her life deserves a wide readership – it is one narrative that also tells of the many more unspoken and unheard narratives from women of colour in present-day America. Nightcrawling is an essential and convincing read for those wanting to gain more of an understanding of the universal stories of deep and institutional racism. Everything about the voice in this novel rings true.
Nicki Levy is from Readings Carlton
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