Arpenter la nuit

by Leila Mottley, Pauline Loquin (Translator)

A dazzling, unforgettable novel about a young Black woman who walks the streets of Oakland and stumbles headlong into the failure of its justice system—a debut that announces a blazingly original voice.

Kiara Johnson and her brother Marcus are barely scraping by in a squalid East Oakland apartment complex optimistically called the Royal-Hi. Both have dropped out of high school, their family fractured by death and prison. But while Marcus clings to his dream of rap stardom, Kiara hunts for work to pay their rent—which has more than doubled—and to keep the 9-year-old boy next door, abandoned by his mother, safe and fed.

One night, what begins as a drunken misunderstanding with a stranger turns into the job Kiara never imagined wanting but now desperately needs: nightcrawling. And her world breaks open even further when her name surfaces in an investigation that exposes her as a key witness in a massive scandal within the Oakland police department.

Full of edge, raw beauty, electrifying intensity, and piercing vulnerability, Nightcrawling marks the stunning arrival of a voice unlike any we have heard before.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Book Club, Audiobook, LGBT, Race

403 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 7, 2022

About the author

Leila Mottley is the author of the novel NIGHTCRAWLING, an Oprah’s Book Club pick and New York Times best seller. NIGHTCRAWLING was longlisted for the Booker Prize, the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel, and the Hurston/Wright Legacy award. Mottley was the 2018 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate and published her debut poetry collection WOKE UP NO LIGHT in 2024. Mottley’s writing has also been published in The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, Marie Claire, and more. Her sophomore novel, THE GIRLS WHO GREW BIG, is forthcoming in June 2025.

Reviews

[♑︎♑︎♑︎ ♑︎♑︎♑︎]

I didn't like this book so well, because every word, phrase, sentence, paragraph pulls out all the stops. To my way of reading it could have been dialed back significantly so that the high points of the story could really sing out and differentiate themselves.

For instance:

"Dee wailed and squeezed and trembled until my mama's hums drowned it all out and then the tribe of us saw the hair, saw the tiny round that crawled from her body, turning her inside out. The squeals began and the humming turned to changes and we all watched that child swim out his mama, head poking out more blood than hair, and my mama took him into her arms and laid him on Dee's breast and this was the sweetest, most whole thing to ever take place in our building, and the rain poured and poured and poured until Dee began to beg again and her birthmarked baby squirmed and Ronda gave up, passed Dee the pipe, and she faded into sky like she didn't hear her own baby crying."

Isn't that something? The rhythm, the forward motion of the language? But not for the whole book, please, and also, to my ear, it's trying too hard to be amazing, even in this brief passage, where the amazingness gets distracting. The run-on sentence, while a feat, obscures the subtle, rapidly changing emotions and moods in this scene, things that could be brought out by a full-stop along the way. You may disagree. I'll look forward to reading Mottley's next novel.

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

I chose to read “Nightcrawling”, a debut by Leila Mottley, because I lived in Oakland as a little girl in a tough neighborhood.
I spent several years living off High Street (in our cockroach gray house)….
near the funeral homes …
My father, grandparents, and other relatives are all buried in the Jewish funeral home in Oakland.

There are many sides to Oakland.
Bad rap Oakland -and great city Oakland.

Leila Mottley, shows us the ugly side of ‘Bad Rap’ Oakland.
…..the crime, the ghetto neighborhoods, the poverty, and the struggles to survive to stay alive.

When I lived near High Street, I remember walking door to door - [at age 5] - alone - selling camp fire mints …
‘needing’ to sell the ‘most’ chocolate mints in my campfire (Bluebirds) troupe because only one girl got to go to overnight camp ‘free’.
If I didn’t win that contest, I wouldn’t have been able to attend.
My mother had a low paying job at Montgomery Wards, and was financially struggling after my dad died. She was also grieving.
I spent hours a day each weekend walking door-to-door selling those mints along High Street … a very unsafe thing to do for a five year old girl.
I won that contest, and went to overnight camp.

Today — I hate knowing that Oakland still gets a ‘Bad Rap’ reputation— because many of us know it’s a beautiful city!!
However,
it was important that I visit this story — I had already known much of the horrid history - history that must not be forgotten - and crimes that should never be allowed to go unpunished.

I was pulling for greatness for this 17-year-old author even before I started reading her book. I didn’t need to—
as Mottley held her own - with no help from me.
I’m so inspired by her. She wrote a story that needed to be told…
Her writing had emotional fire— one that felt like cockroaches were crawling all over my skin.

Clearly, this is not a sunny-rosey-posey novel….
but it’s passionately written -powerfully affecting- spirited with purpose!

“Downtown Oakland has a whole lot of bars clubs, and holes where people find themselves wasted and dancing at 2 am in the morning”.
“There’s a strip club tucked underneath a yoga studio on the corner, its metal door painted a sparkling black. I can hear the faint sounds of music and even though it’s only five or so in the evening, they’ve got the door propped open. I walk into a room dimly lit by those lightbulbs that look sort of light candles, and a few lone people are propped on the stools or sitting at the circular tables, lurking in the darkest patches of the place, the poles looming large in the center, one woman aerial and another bored”.

Kiara didn’t have a resume, and she didn’t know if she wanted a job stripping… but she was desperate. She used to think the only thing one got from turning eighteen (she was still only seventeen the day she walked into that bar)….was the right to vote.
Ha…. apparently there were other benefits.

For real….
In 2005, a major scandal broke out in the news involving a teenager- a sex worker at the time- in Oakland who was sexually exploited by more than a dozen police officers.
The officers were suspended but no criminal charges were brought against them.

This story tells of the heartbreaking and devastated violence done one young girl — inspired by one case that entered the media — but there were dozens of other cases of sex workers and young women who experience violence at the hands of police and did not have their stories told.

Leila Mottley —
—at age only seventeen— she knew what it felt like to be a young black girl, vulnerable, unprotected, and unseen. When she was growing up, she was often told she had to shield her brother, her dad, and all the black men around her —
—shield their safety, their bodies, and their dreams. But what she learned was that her own safety, body and dreams, was secondary.

In this novel, Kiara was a fictional character but she was a reflection of the types of violence that black and brown women faced regularly.
In 2010, a study found that police sexual violence was the second most reported instance of police misconduct and disproportionately impacts women of color.

With Leila Mottley’s piercing prose, I am reminded that
safety, justice, joy, and love is a birthright!!

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this one. Leila Mottley's praises have been sung from all corners, her debut fêted by everyone from the Booker Prize longlist to the Oprah book club. In Nightcrawling, Mottley has an important story to tell about poverty, racism, police violence, sex work, and other things. Mottley was a teenager when she wrote this, which is quite impressive. In many places, though, it reads like undergraduate creative writing: overly descriptive, chock full of metaphors, distracting and detracting from the important themes Mottley explores. It's a shame because there's a certain rhythm to her writing that shows considerable talent. I look forward to Mottely continuing to develop as a literary writer and I hope one day Nightcrawling will be recognized as an early work on the road to greater things.

[Sujoya - theoverbookedbibliophile · Rating 4 out of 5]

Longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize!

4.5⭐

Our protagonist, seventeen-year-old East Oakland resident Kiara Johnson is struggling to make ends meet and keep it together for herself and her older brother Marcus who is unable to hold a job and would rather spend time (unsuccessfully) pursuing a career in music. Their father passed away when she was thirteen and her mother is currently a resident of a halfway house for reasons that are gradually revealed. Kiara also feels responsible for the well-being of nine-year-year-old Trevor her neighbor Dee’s son who is often abandoned by his mother and left to fend for himself. Kia genuinely cares for Trevor and her time spent with him is one of the few bright spots in her unhappy life. When her landlord doubles her rent and she is unsuccessful in securing gainful employment elsewhere, an unfortunate turn of events sees her take to prostitution in a last-ditch effort to avoid eviction and starvation. She tells herself that this is temporary and once Marcus gets a job or alternative avenues of income open up for her, she will stop. She still hopes for a better day when her brother would step up and take his responsibilities seriously and she would be free to choose the direction of her life.

"Most days I say I don’t believe in nothing, except something about the way the night colors everything makes me want to. Not in an afterlife, heaven, or any of that shit. That just makes us feel better about dying and I don’t really got nothing to fear about dying in the first place. I just think that the stars might line up and trail into an otherworld. Doesn’t have to be a better world because that probably doesn’t exist, but I think it is something else. Somewhere where the people walk a little different. Maybe they speak in hums. Maybe they all got the same face or maybe they don’t have faces at all. When I have enough time to stare at the sky, I imagine I might be lucky enough to catch glimpses of the something. Always get pulled back to this planet, though."

Kiara’s misfortune continues when she is picked up by the police. But instead of arresting her, the local officers take advantage of her situation. She soon finds herself in the middle of a shocking scandal that garners national attention. As she prepares to testify as a key witness, her life once again is thrown into chaos. While she faces threats from those who would do everything in their power to keep their abhorrent acts from being revealed in the open, she also finds support from her friends and allies who try to help her through it all.

The author had drawn inspiration for her story from the real-life Oakland PD scandal of 2015. In her notes, Leila Mottley writes, “When I began writing Nightcrawling, I was seventeen and contemplating what it meant to be vulnerable, unprotected, and unseen”.

At the end of the day, Kiara is herself a child, forced to assume the mantle of an adult, trying to navigate her way through a world that has not been kind to her and with no respite in clear view. The depictions of social injustice, sexual abuse and exploitation are immensely disturbing and I am not surprised that many have put this one aside midway. Kiara’s journey is a painful one, but she is a survivor and we keep rooting for her. The author’s writing is powerful and almost poetic in its delivery. Compelling, timely and relevant, Leila Mottley’s Nightcrawling is a brilliant debut. I am eager to read more from this talented new author in the future.

[emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

i've heard too many things about this book from too many cool people for it not to be good.

what it was: a very chilling look at a real experience that is as frightening as it is possible.

it also has moments of being purely nonsensical, which undercuts that a bit.

in attempting to relay the horrors that the girls of oakland, and of many other places, can go through, it overplays its hand at times: aging down our protagonist, creating so many obstacles, constructing actions that don't make sense in order to lead to climactic consequences.

but overall, the story is so alarming and so real that these moments of surrealism are pretty easy to overlook.

bottom line: expectations met.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Long Listed for the Booker 2022
I am stunned after listening to the audio of “Nightcrawling: A Novel” by Leila Mottley. If you enjoy a good audio, I cannot recommend this audio highly enough. Narrator Joniece Abbott-Pratt gives life to the narrator, Kiara, who tells us her story, in her own voice, as she struggles to survive on her own.

Leila Mottley began writing this story when she was 17 years old. In 2015 when she was a young teenager in Oakland, there was a 2015 court case in which the Oakland Police Department was accused of sexually exploiting a teenager and then covering it up. Mottley, in her author’s notes, states that Kiara is pure fiction, Kiara’s life is nonfiction. Mottley wanted to give voice to the girls, women, trans, boys who have been victims of violence, especially black and brown women. She states that a 2010 study found that police sexual violence is the 2nd most reported instance of police misconduct. As our world comes to terms with police brutality regarding men of color, the violence against women are neglected in the press. Mottley shows how it begins, how the victims have little or no choices. She used the research she had done on the 2015 court case along with numerous, lesser known, cases for this story. She has done such a fine job, that she is now the youngest author nominated for the Booker Prize award.

Why read/listen to this story? Well, Mottley deftly shows how a young, disenfranchised girl, who wants a good, clean life, can fall prey to violence. With no or minimal adult help, these girls are attempting to negotiate supporting themselves and doing right. Furthermore, Mottley is Oakland’s youth poet laureate, and her prose are outstanding. In a scene with her lawyer, Marsha, who is trying to get her reading for a court appearance, Kiara thinks, “Marsha done looked up ‘how to be your best self’ and found some Cosmo article about actualization.”

In fact, one of the best reasons to read/listen to the novel is that Mottley shows us how a sassy, cheeky young girl says things that are not in alignment with their thoughts. Kiara has a good head on her shoulders and thinks, plans, and strategizes how to earn money, and take care of family. But if an adult in authority asks her a question, her retorts do not reflect her intelligence. She’s learned that is the only way to survive, to be sassy.

I am a 65 year old white lady, and in listening to this story, I learned what it’s like to be a young black girl on the gritty streets of a major U.S. city. Mottley wisely told Kiara’s story with minimal graphic and horrific scenes. She didn’t need those scenes to get her message out. She allows the reader’s imagination to take themselves into that pit of hell.

This is a story of an epidemic that privileged people of our country rarely see. I highly recommend this illuminating story.

[Tim Null · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nightcrawling answered all the questions I didn't know I had. I've read numerous reviews of this book, and I agree with them all except those who criticize the writing and plot.

Nightcrawling has been a struggle for me. Reading the book was a struggle. Writing this review has also been a struggle. I beg you for your tolerance, patience, and compassion.

Nightcrawling was a difficult book for me to rate. Here's a summary of the rating process I used. First, the writing is top-notch. Therefore, I started with a 5. However, the subject matter is extremely unpleasant, so I subtracted 2 points for reader pain and suffering. Finally, I added 1 extra point for white man's guilt and ended up with a final rating of 4.

If you're a sociologist, economist, political scientist, teacher, or novelist, I'd say this is a must-read book. If you read mainly for pleasure, then you probably should avoid this book.

No one should have to live life the way Kiara Johnson lived after her troubles started, but the sad truth is that many people do. Regretfully, there are people who put their best foot forward but still discover doors are slammed shut in their faces. Also, some authority figures are jerks. They want others "to feel small so they can feel big," and there will always be people like Kiara Johnson who "don't got no other choice" except to choose amongst many bad alternatives.

This is a sociologically important book. It's also politically and economically important. It makes all the bad stuff we may know about on an intellectual level feel viscerally real, and this realism burrows deep into the marrow of our bones. Nightcrawling proves that sometimes fiction has more realism (is more believable) than nonfiction.

This is an important book. It helps us understand the economics of our world. It helps us viscerally feel how economics impacts the lives of everyday people.

Nightcrawling is not an easy book to read. It makes us care about people and then forces us to watch them as they stumble and fall. Nightcrawling made me feel deeply blue in my heart and soul, but the book's ending brought me great relief. It was upbeat but still realistic. In its own way, the book's ending redefined family to include the people who help lift you up in times of trouble.

[Lit with Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you Tandem Collective Global and Penguin Random House Canada for my gifted copy. IYKYK my reviews are always honest.

Writing: 3.5/5 | Plot: 3/5 | Ending: 2.5/5

THE PLOT

17-year-old Kiara, left to her own devices without help from her older brother, turns to prostitution to make ends meet.

MY OPINION

This was a difficult read because it was a deluge of traumatic events. Prostitution, abuse of all forms, death, murder, etc... Not to mention the dirty cops. Kiara never got a break. And on top of that, she became a stand-in mom to Trevor while his real mom hit the block looking for a fix.

Keeping in mind that Leila Mottley was only 17 years old when she started writing this, I think she has potential to be a great writer. There were several introspective quotes throughout this story, but sometimes it was trying too hard to be deep. I think this can be attributed to the author's age—teenagers can have moments of lucid brilliance sandwiched between notions that dating an older man is totally normal because "I'm really mature."

I found the ending particularly weak. After such a compelling story about the horrors Kiara faces as a young prostitute and the fallout from the OPD scandal, the author forces things to end on a high note. But instead of closing the book with hope, I found myself feeling uneasy, wondering: what TF is gonna happen to Kiara now!!? She can't be on the streets anymore because she's too famous for her own good. And what about lil Trevor, shuttled off to some foster care family?? Who will he grow up to be?? And Marcus??? There were so many frayed edges. I felt like Kiara was in deeper shit by the end of the whole ordeal.

All in all, an impressive undertaking by a young author. At 17 I was skipping a record breaking number of classes LOL. I definitely wasn't selling my manuscript at an auction to publishers all over the world lol.

PROS AND CONS

Pros: at times, thoughtful, poetic prose, enjoyed the fictionalized version of the OPD scandal

Cons: did not feel authentic at times—some major themes left unexplored after being briefly mentioned, ending was contrived, at times overwritten and awkward

[Cheri · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story is set in Oakland, California, and while there are a few neighborhoods in Oakland that are what some might consider relatively well-off, Kiara Johnson doesn’t live in one of those neighborhoods. Kiara lives in a run-down Apartment building which is inappropriately named Regal-Hi Apartments, where the only thing high about it are some of the tenants. There is a pool, which is accessorized with used bags filled with dog poop floating on the surface. For Kiara, this is home, there is nowhere else to go.

Kiara’s family seems to be losing everything a little bit at a time, and a little bit at a time it diminishes her, taking the people she loves away. First, her father, who spent much of her young life in prison, died when she was just 13. Her mother was ‘sent away’ after another tragic event which followed not long after. She and her older brother Marcus are the only ones left in the apartment, neither one finished their education, and Marcus has dreams to be a star. They are broke, and rent is due. Kiara looks for jobs everywhere she can think of - but the local stores won’t hire her. She goes to the strip club hoping her brother’s ex-girlfriend who works as a bartender can give her a job, but at 17, she’s too young to work there. Her brother’s ex feels bad about not being able to help, so she offers her a drink. And then another, followed by two more. As she leaves, a man follows her out of the club, takes her to a place, and after he is done with her, he presses an unexpected roll of money into her hand and walks away.

It isn’t that she intended her life would turn out this way, but with her brother not able to have held onto a job and unwilling to find a new one because that would take away time from his time spent dreaming about making a career in the music industry, and a landlord threatening them with eviction, along with no money for food, Kia is glad to have the money. At least it is something. Temporarily.

There is a darkness in this story, softened by the beauty of the prose, but Kia is someone you will root for. Her life, at her young age with only vague memories of parental advice, has been filled with pain and an almost feral drive to survive which only increases as she is left with more responsibilities - including a nine-year-old whose mother leaves him with Kia, and then disappears. There is no one to turn to for help, and so she does what she believes she needs to, in order to endure.

This is a story of survival, of compassion despite the affliction of poverty and crushing injustices. An incredibly moving story shared through prose that mesmerizes. That Leila Mottley wrote this at the age of 17 is nothing less than astonishing.


Published: 07 Jun 2022

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group / Knopf

[Shelley's Book Nook · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Reviews Can Also Be Found On:

My Blog - Twitter - Amazon

This book was so crushingly heartbreaking and so difficult to read, especially since it is based on true events. The author was just seventeen when she wrote it but I in no way could tell it was written by someone so young, in fact, it was quite the opposite. The prose of this novel will floor you, it is so lyrical and poetic, even if the subject matter is so dark. This is not a book for the weak of heart or stomach, but if triggers don't get to you and you can handle a gritty tale I highly recommend this one for the sheer brilliance of the writing alone. I know this is a short review but I don't think I can add anything or do any justice to this book. I was amazed.

My Goodreads friend, Kelly, turned me onto this book. Her review can be found HERE she's much better at this reviewing stuff than I am so check it out...thanks, Kelly!

Many thanks to my local library for my copy of the book. The two weeks I waited for the book sure were worth it! Thanks, Toronto Public Library!

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oof, what a powerful debut novel. Nightcrawling details the story of seventeen-year-old Kiara Johnson, a young Black teenager who turns to sex work to pay her family’s rent and care for the abandoned nine-year-old boy next door. I think Leila Mottley does an excellent job portraying the many pressures and forces of oppression in this Black girl’s life: the weight of caring for the Black men in her life, the abuse enacted upon her by the police, and how some women (e.g., women affiliated with the police, her own mother) judge her for the actions she took to survive. Despite the intergenerational and present-day trauma Kiara experiences, she still cultivates some moments of joy and connection, such as with her on and off-partner Alé and her connection with the boy next door, Trevor.

Overall, I felt immersed in this story and so angry and saddened by the immense difficulties in Kiara’s life. Mottley’s writing is vivid and gripping and expresses Kiara’s pain and how she’s forced to put one foot in front of the other to just get to the next day. I appreciated how Mottley didn’t give us a happy ending, because it’s up to us with privilege to fight for a world where Black women aren’t forced into these horrendous circumstances. In her author’s note, Mottley says she felt inspired to write this after learning about the Oakland Police Department’s sexual exploitation of young women – I think she did a successful job of capturing this injustice and bringing it to readers’ attention with Nightcrawling.

[Debbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes, images get stuck in your head…

Wow, this is one dark novel, but its mesmerizing prose and captivating star of the show made it unputdownable for me. It gives you an up-close look at a (fictional) poor, black, 17-year-old girl in Oakland, California. Kiera, or Ki, as she is called, struggles to eat and pay rent, and she ends up a streetwalker—or here, called a nightcrawler (which is way more visual). The cops in this story are bad bad abusers, so be prepared to be sickened. Kiera is the one telling the story, which adds a layer of realness.

I meant it when I said this book is dark. Look at how the book opens:

“The swimming pool is filled with dog shit and Dee’s laughter mocks us at dawn.”

Now, this sentence might send some running for cover. There aren’t other scatological images, don’t worry, but the poop in the pool is mentioned numerous times. But way worse than that picture (unfortunately, imprinted in my mind—will I ever not see it?) are the many sexual abuse scenes, which are very hard to watch and which are also stuck in my head.

Really, I understand if people have to pass on this book, and it’s a good idea to do so if you have triggers. But for me, I appreciated getting a view of what life could be like for black people in a poverty-stricken city. It shook me up—and it made me furious at how oppressive the scene is and how corrupt police can be.

Kiera lives in a slum apartment and takes care of a 10-year-old boy because the mother has basically abandoned him. Kiera’s relationship with the boy is touching and heartbreaking. Kiera has a brother, who is a mess, but who loves Kiera so much he has a tattoo of her fingerprint on his neck. This is another image I’ll remember.

A funny aside: I felt pretty damn cool that I knew what a grill was. If you had asked me a couple of weeks ago, I would have said, “George Foreman” as fast as could be. But the other day I watched To Tell the Truth (yep, a true confession about one of my “bad TV” addictions; hangs head in embarrassment). On the show, a panel has to guess which person out of three is telling the truth about having a certain occupation. In this case, the panel had to figure out which of the three people was the real “grill maker.” I was completely confused when the questions from the panel were about teeth instead of about cooking hamburgers in the backyard. So I Googled “grill” and discovered that a grill is also a set of gold teeth that some hip-hoppers wear. Ah ha! I’ve seen gold teeth but I didn’t know anything about them, like that there were qualified people who made grills to fit over your teeth. So fast forward, I came across” grill” in this book and patted myself on the back for knowing we weren’t talking George Foreman here:

“His cheeks dip into his face and I know he’s sucking them in, making them touch his grill.”

Had I not seen To Tell the Truth, I would have been trying to figure out how he got his cheeks to touch his backyard grill. See? Bad TV can be very educational.

But seriously, this book is amazing. It’s impossible not to care deeply about Kiera and not to be wowed by the language. Every single sentence is rich and it’s easy to pay attention to them. They flow, oh so smoothly—they aren’t too abstract and I didn’t have to read them more than once. My only complaint is that the sentence structure and vocabulary are often way too sophisticated for Kiera. I did a “nevermind,” because the story was just too good for me to worry about it.

I know the book is fiction, but it has a link to real life in that the author (who is only 19; she wrote the book when she was 17!) grew up in Oakland and she knows the scene. The story is based on a 2015 case of a cop who committed suicide.

This is Mottley’s debut novel. It blows my mind that she can already write with such passion and compassion, and with prose to die for. And her characters’ hearts and souls just ooze off the pages.

Those who want a gritty story and can stomach the darkness, look no further. Prose is gorgeous, plot is ungodly dreary. The prose wins.

I have my eye on this author. She’s so young, she has the whole world ahead of her to write more gems like this one. Can’t wait!

Thanks to Edelweiss for the advance copy.

[Kezia Duah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! Mottley did not hold back in this one, and I’m certainly grateful to be exposed to the uncomfortable truth that is desperately needed to be told.

Some of us will probably never relate to what Kiara went through in these pages, but it’s the reality of many young girls in this system. We can tell that she grows up way too fast as she shoulders responsibilities a teenager should never have. She and her brother both find ways to cope with their broken family, which unfortunately creates conflict between them for most of the book, revealing how these situations continue to drive the family further apart.

There are many uncomfortable scenes in this one that had me hurting in my soul. To think that these events are inspired by true events is indeed very harrowing. Once you enter into the kind of world that Kiara is forced into, it is a struggle to get out of and this is explored throughout the book. It didn’t get easier. Kiara’s interactions with other people in this book were a great part of this story because it assured us that Kiara was still a human being with a whole life. Mottley also does a great job of including many aspects of the system that allows events like this to persist.

The ending was not what I hoped for, but was oddly what I exactly needed. At the end of the day, circumstances might never change or only get slightly better, but it’s internal peace that one discovers that helps them get through it all.

I would highly recommend!

[Richard Derus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Real Rating: 4.5* of five, rounded up because something big is happening

Longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize which, frankly, ::gobsmacked::

Now an Oprah's Book Club selection!

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Nineteen! NINETEEN!! Author Mottley is all of nineteen, twenty minus one. And she's written this amazing, full-throated roar of defiance in the face of the overwhelming, outrageously powerful white hegemony that controls Oakland and California as a whole. I am revolted that this story flowed as naturally as a river does to the sea out of Leila Mottley, but it did and readers should bear witness with her as Kiara, at a revoltingly early age, learns that men will pay her to use her body for their pleasure.

It's a painful awakening. It's a godsend of money. It's a trap, it's baited with the exact things Kiara needs to walk into the trap, and it's painfully obvious that her world is over. It's a new world entirely, now that she's the one paying the rent.

I will say that, to the sensitive fleurs among us, this story will not go down well. It's honest, it's angry, it takes nothing from you and gives everything to you, and it's a gift so bitter that it makes you wish you hadn't opened it because now you know and can't pretend you don't.

We're always trying to own men we don't got no control of. I'm tired of it. Tired of having to be out here thinking about all these people, all these things to keep me alive, keep them alive. I don't got no air left for none of it. Maybe {her frenemy} is right, it's time to let go, to let one of them take over, take care of me. But I can't stop thinking about {the} call, if {her brother} is alright, if maybe he's got enough money to help us out.

In the middle of a dreary afternoon spent doing something horribly hard, watching her mother as she dies, avoiding a gang of teens who could easily have decided she was a target, riding a bus on a hot afternoon and getting into her rent-due apartment...she wonders how she can help her older brother. Because now, next to making the rent, she's got a much, much bigger problem: How to keep that brother alive. Literally not-room-temperature alive.

That {bad moment from childhood}'s sort of what this feels like: the helplessness of it. Like standing on the road that leads to here and noticing a path you didn't know existed and not being able to take it. Like the road that leads to here was never the only road and time made me forget that until these sobbing moments when I remember, when the fog clears and I'm looking back and there's a fork on the ground, another way.

That ought to ring a bell in us all. If you're an adult, you most likely found yourself nodding along and recognizing those emotions. You'll likely recognize the others about regrets and about consequences and about prices you can't pay to avoid. This is that kind of a story, it's that kind of a world that Kiara and her wide found family live in. And those who make it out? They change addresses. They can't really change when so much around doesn't. This life is what you make of it, true, but is your inward being as malleable as all that?

What makes me so happy is that Author Mottley is here, is the one telling the story to my white-person eyes. I'm so happy that someone in publishing saw this manuscript, heard this rage-filled, sorrow-drenched scream of pain and said, "there's a proud, fine writer being born here, let me put the privilege and prestige of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., behind it and make people listen." So, listen: If you're wondering if this isn't more misery porn, or worse, disaster tourism, then I'm going to bring it to you fresh, this ain't that. (My Texas bleeds through when I want to make sure y'all're listening.)

When I was in the agenting business many long yars ago, an ancestor of this story came across my desk. I loved it. I loved its vernacular honesty and I loved its visceral reality. I wanted to make people read it...stop them in the halls of our building and say "just this bit right here! you'll love it!" and I was talked out of it. See, I'm white, and male, and even then that meant my privilege wasn't going to sail that beautifully loud sound-cloud out onto the lakes of white-people culture. Publishing might be doing better, but it's still the world where I was told to my face by an editor about a non-fiction book by and about African-Americans (as the polite term was then) I wanted her to buy, "who will buy it? Black people don't read."

Thirty years on I'm still appalled by that memory.

And thus it's extra delightful to me that I'm reading this auspicious debut from a young Black creator with the colophon of a very, very distinguished house that made its cultural capital a century ago by taking just these sorts of chances. (Joseph Hergesheimer won't mean much to most of y'all, but he was quite a noise on the 1917 Knopf list....) I couldn't do it; someone could, though, and that it's taken this long to make the waves it's already making (LitHub loves it, forevermore! That's Establishment imprimatur enough right there!) is, well, for me personally both validating and frustrating. I wish I'd done it; I'm thrilled it's been done.

Don't deny yourself this treat. I can't say I liked Look Homeward, Angel a whole lot, but it was a clarion call, a loud voice in full cry, saying, "there's a new way to do this!" That's what Nightcrawling is, that loud voice. Spend some extra time with her and learn what will make you sad to know.

[Maxwell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize

Leila Mottley's debut novel Nightcrawling fictionalizes an all too-real story of police brutality and exploitation of a young Black girl in Oakland, California. Kiara is 17 years old when the story begins. She lives with her older brother in a rundown apartment complex and just trying to make ends meet. She also often looks after her neighbor, a 9 year old book named Trevor whose mother, Dee, is a drug addict and neglects him. In the course of the novel, Kiara gets caught up in sex work that pulls her into a high profile court case with the Oakland police department.

The truths in this book that Mottley explores, as she excellently states in the Author's Note, about the adultification of young Black girls and the prioritization of Black men over their female family members are highlighted really well in this novel. Mottley's ability to craft emotion and bring you into Kiara's heart and mind shows a lot of skill for such a young writer (I only note her age here because SO much of the discourse around this book has been about the fact that she started writing this at 17 and is now the youngest person ever longlisted for the Booker prize at 20 years old).

Nevertheless, I had a lot of issues with the writing in this book. As a debut from a young writer, and positioning it especially against other authors on the Booker Prize longlist this year, it reads as a first novel. The sentence structure at times is so clunky and awkward, I found myself re-reading certain paragraphs just to make sure I didn't miss a detail or some word earlier in the sentence that would provide the context I felt I lacked. This happened multiple times, from the first chapter onward. I also had heard from others who had read it before me that this was 'flowery' or 'purple prose,' and while I do think she leans more into the poetic, literary writing style (which I'm fine with and definitely enjoy when done well), it felt more like she used two words where one word would suffice, a little too often. It became really noticeable and distracting the more the story went on.

Along with the somewhat awkward writing style, there were reveals or pieces of information doled out at times that felt jarring compared to the context of that particular moment. Without spoiling anything, there's something that happens with Kiara's mom that is explained to the reader over the course of the novel that is confusing and feels a bit misleading or purposefully vague until the 'right' time to let them in on what exactly happened. When it's first introduced, I genuinely thought I may have missed important details because I was so caught off guard by the reveal that it didn't even feel like a purposeful reveal. There were also scenes (like when Kiara goes to see her mom) that utilized a character reciting a huge monologue of past events to tell the reader something important that didn't feel natural to what two people who have a shared history would talk about. It's these sort of choices that felt a bit unnatural and awkward that took me out of the story and dampened the reading experience for me.

While I didn't hate this book by any means, I think the hype around it has definitely done it a disservice in my eyes. I think Mottley is a good storyteller, with a strong voice and style all her own (and if it works for you, I think you will really like this book! So many people have). From my perspective, with a different editor I think this book could have been way stronger and even more impactful. I appreciated the story, I enjoyed Kiara as a character and following her journey, but the delivery of that information on a sentence level left something to be desired.

[Meike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now Nominated for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel 2023
Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2022
At 20, Mottley could become the youngest contender to ever win the Booker: Growing up the daughter of an author, she started writing this debut aged 16, because she wanted to tell a story representing Black girlhood with a complex, vibrant protagonist - and she succeeded. Young Kiara grows up in the projects of Oakland, her father, an ex-Panther and ex-convict, has passed away, the mother is in a halfway house after a suicide attempt and a stint in jail. Her beloved brother Marcus dreams of making it out of poverty by becoming a famous musician, and Kiara is stuck with the role of provider - but what is a 17-year-old high school drop-out supposed to do? Right: She sells her body.

For Mottley, the pressure on Black women to take care of men and their communities and how that expectation can crush them is a key topic of her text. The novel, set in 2015, was also inspired by a real police scandal that was uncovered in Oakland during that time, and which the then-teenage author was following in the media. But while the story is mostly grim, including paragraphs and conversations brimming with doom and several graphic scenes of rape and other forms of physical as well as emotional violence, the story also highlights the power of solidarity between people. Mottley refrains from reducing her protagonist to a mere victim cliché and gives her a rich inner life, individuality, and thus dignity.

The language is very precise, the descriptions are apt and the evocations of moods work pretty well. Still, the story didn't really grab me: It partly felt rather slow-moving and lengthy to me, some important scenes towards the end (which I will not spoil) felt too hasty, while others were too drawn out. All in all though, I'm looking forward to reading more novels by Mottley, because she is a writer of great talent with an important agenda.

You can listen to Mottley talking to Seth Meyers here, and to Trevor Noah here (kudos to those two for frequently inviting interesting writers to their late night shows!).

[Ceecee · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 rounded up

Oakland, Ca. Seventeen year old jobless Kiara (Kia) Johnson lives with her brother at the Regal-Hi. It sounds glamorous but its so far from that in its squalid, run down, high rent grubbiness. She lives with her brother Marcus who has delusions of making it big as a rapper which means no money is coming at all. She's worried, she's frustrated, she has to get a job but she has no resume so she's trapped. She does what she has to do in order to survive, in other words, nightcrawling. The inevitable vulnerability leads to her becoming ensnared by those more powerful than herself. This is based on a true story of a major scandal of sexual exploitation by members of the Oakland PD, though the character of Kiara is entirely fictional.

This novel stuns you in several ways. First of all, the way it's written is amazing as the quality of the prose is outstanding. The author makes you feel what Kia feels and I can hear her voice via the dialogue. She's a survivor with a heart of gold. Secondly, you are stunned by the horrifying and shocking abuse, how a human being is treated like trash and is powerless to do anything about it as the system is stacked against her. The injustice angers and sickens you. Thirdly, the author started writing this book when SHE WAS 17!!! What a phenomenal talent has just emerged, I'm in awe of her literary ability as it's so accomplished.

This is a debut of raw honesty, it's very powerful as not only does it demonstrate the grinding poverty and mouth to mouth existence that some people have to live day to day but it reveals the rotten underbelly and corruption of the justice system and how it's manipulated by those who should know better. It's obviously a very dark topic but it's extremely moving, compelling and devastatingly heartbreaking. I really like the way it ends - there is some hope, I have my fingers crossed.

Overall, I can't deny this is a tough read but it's one I recommend for the sheer quality of the writing and with what it reveals.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Bloomsbury Publishing PLC for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 4 out of 5]

10th in my 2022 Booker Prize longlist rankings - my Bookstagram rating, ranking, summary review and Book themed Golden Retriever photo is here: https://www.instagram.com/p/ChbeUjxs1...

"I don't know." I tell her, and I really don't. Telling her would have been like saying this is my life now, like committing to the streets. Letting the streets have you is like planning your own funeral. I wanted the streetlight brights, the money in the morning, not the back alleys. Not the sirens. But, here we are. Streets always find you in the daylight, when you least expect them to. Night crawling up to me when the sun's out.

To write an accomplished literary novel at the age of 19 is an impressive feat. For it not to be (as one might thing) autobiographical but instead based on a real life example of insitutionalised misconduct (here by the Oakland Police Force) and aimed at giving a voice to the voiceless victims even more so. But to do that with such an originality of phrase and language in a way which not just gives that voice (here a seventeen year old) a level of articulation, but also effectively confronts the structural sexism by disassembling conventional writing is I think close to astonishing.

The book’s protagonist is Kiara Johnson. Her father was later in life a Black Panther, stitched up by the police and jailed he died of undiscovered cancer some time after his release. Her devastated mother is in a halfway home on parole after an attempted suicide which followed the drowning of Kiara’s baby sister due to neglect. Kiara’s older brother – who initially committed to looking after her – has instead focused all his efforts on an attempt to break through as a rapper, his and his friends lack of talent leading them instead to increasing involvement in crime. Kaira is also babysitter and effective care giver to a 9-10 year old Trevor – the largely abandoned son of a junkie in her flat.

The book opens with Kiara receiving a notice of a huge hike in the rent she and her brother can already not cover – and struggling to make any headway with a job, she drifts into prostitution and from there to servicing a group of policemen (anonymous to her and us and only known by their badge numbers) at a series of parties.

When one of the policemen commits suicide and names his guilt over his treatment of her in his note – a major misconduct enquiry kicks off, but this only makes Kiara’s life harder as the police force closes ranks to protect its own and to discredit her testimony in front of a Grand Jury and both her brother and Trevor are swept up in the aftermath.

As an aside the book opens with an excrement filled swimming pool – which made me worry we had an other Ottessa, more Moshfegh – but that was far from the case, Leila Mottley is a much more accomplished writer, and the pool rather than gratuitous scatology is instead a recurring and important image in the book – representing a sense of frustrated and fouled up freedom and friendship.

So why not a five star review. Well to be honest the voice did not really quite work for me. I always have a slight issue with novels where the writer is from a more privileged educational background than their protagonist and yet gives that protagonist an unusual eloquence. But I think the larger issue here is that the book seems to permanently be dialled up to a 10 and unlike Nigel Tufnel and his famous Marshall amplifier (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KOO5S4v...) it leaves her with no where to go to add additional emphasis.

And perhaps as a corollary to this – for a novel which is largely around getting us into the head of a memorable narrator, I felt myself always slightly distanced from her, the author at times I think favouring phraseology over clarity.

But overall while far from flawless, this is I believe the first novel of what will be a famous and fresh new voice in fiction, and worth reading for that alone.

[Eric Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's a geeky pleasure in discovering connections between authors so when Ruth Ozeki described in her speech after winning this year's Women's Prize for Fiction that her student Leila Mottley's “Nightcrawling” was just published, it made me even more eager to read this debut novel. It was a delight to find that it's a book worthy of all the buzz it's been getting as it is so moving, impactful and skilfully written – especially for an author who has only just turned twenty years old. It follows the story of Kiara who is seventeen at the start of the novel and lives with her brother Marcus in a run-down apartment complex in Oakland, California. They're in danger of being evicted because of rent increases and it entirely falls to Kiara to gather the money since her father is dead, her mother is absent and Marcus is more focused on trying to launch a music career rather than finding paid work. Since she didn't finish high school and doesn't have a resume, her options are extremely limited and she becomes a prostitute. However, when she's cornered by the police she's ensnared in a situation where she is frequently taken advantage of and abused. The narrative steeps us in Kiara's perspective and journey through this harrowing situation in a way which is so vivid and striking, but also artfully illuminates wider issues concerning the danger and violence experienced by many Black girls and Black women in America.

Part of what makes this such an arresting tale is that it is based on a real case from recent years and it's one that Mottley read about when she was Kiara's age. Being a character so close to her age and one who is from the same city gives a real authenticity to the voice of the character. She's entirely fictional but the way the author portrays her complex psychology and development makes her multi-dimensional. More than this it's written in a way which highlights the many issues at stake which could lead a young American girl to being the victim of such an atrocious crime. We are entirely locked in Kiara's point of view yet can see from what she witnesses how the police systematically abuse their power and the difficulty of making the perpetrators accountable. Through her struggle we're made aware why so many cases of abuse go unreported and aren't brought to justice and how there isn't enough support for the most vulnerable citizens in this country. Additionally, the story shows how the innate intelligence and artistic talent of many young people isn't developed because of the circumstances they struggle under and the concept that if something isn't profitable it isn't worth pursuing.

Read my full review of Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley at LonesomeReader

[NPC · Rating 2 out of 5]

First of all I should say that I agree with everything this author is saying politically. This is a book about the disturbingly warped relationship between the police and the people they are supposed to protect. On the surface, it’s a stark portrait of poverty, racism, sexual violence, and the broken social system in America. Of course I agree that this is a really important topic and it’s a good thing that stories like this are being celebrated.

But this book left a bad taste in my mouth. It’s based on the real-life case of Celeste Guap, who was sexually assaulted by a network of police officers in Oakland. The case was a shocking miscarriage of justice, mishandled in every possible way, even the way in which it was reported in the media, and a fictionilisation focusing on the victim is a wonderful concept for a novel.

The problem is, Mottley’s “humanisation” of this neglected victim (in the book her name is Kiara) is not entirely convincing. At least, for me it wasn’t. Kiara is a perfectly virtuous, naive Mary Sue who occasionally gets angry about all the injustice being inflicted upon her. As a narrator, she seems all too generic—I never got the sense of the distinctive voice of a real person.

Part of this is probably caused by the writing style. The way Kiara speaks (“Got a gig but it don’t pay much and they raising our rent”) is completely different to her internal narrative voice, which is just garden-variety creative-writing-degree prose. I was surprised to see other reviewers raving about the writing, as it struck me as pretty heavy on cliches, and sometimes very clunky.

Overall, I don’t think Nightcrawling is as empathetic or as authentic as it claims to be. Though it purports to give voice to one woman’s real-life experience, in reality it seems like a sanitised, easily-digestible fantasy of what that experience might have been—a moralistic performance of empathy that erases the individual supposedly being empathised with.

[Ron Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leila Mottley is living the dream.

Last week, the 19-year-old author released her debut novel, “Nightcrawling,” with the prestigious publisher Alfred A. Knopf.

And Oprah picked it for her book club, essentially guaranteeing the novel bestseller status.

Such instant success at such an early age — youngest Oprah pick ever! — can create a distortion field of exaggerated expectations, but in this case, “Nightcrawling” really is a powerful, poignant story worth your attention. Despite all of Mottley’s good fortune, she demonstrates an extraordinary degree of sympathy with people who have none.

What’s even more remarkable is that “Nightcrawling” isn’t one of those thinly disguised diaries we’ve come to expect from precocious young novelists who can’t think of anything else to write about except their own heartache. Mottley explains in an author’s note that she was inspired by a scandal that broke in Oakland, Calif., while she was a high-schooler there: In 2015, a police officer’s suicide note launched an investigation into the sexual exploitation of a young woman involving several police departments in the Bay Area.

Using the general outlines of that case, Mottley has imagined the life of a 17-year-old African American high school dropout named Kiara Johnson. As the story begins, Kiara’s life is already shattered. Her charismatic. . . .

To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...

[Angela M]

DNF
I’m always interested in an author’s inspiration for a novel. This one is based on a true story of how a young black prostitute was sexually abused by police officers . This is a debut novel written by a seventeen year old girl and there’s a lot to praise here , but reading about the abuse was just too much for me so I’m giving up at a third of the way through . Please read the other reviews because it’s an important story. I’m not going to rate it since I didn’t finish .

I received a copy of this book from Knopf through Edelweiss.

[leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

based on a true case involving the oakland police force , nightcrawling is a searing debut novel which explores the dark underbelly of a city and justice system rife with exploitation, corruption, poverty, and structural abuses of power which have been allowed to fester for years. albeit difficult to read at times, the novel’s darkness is softened by its lyrical prose, which becomes even more impressive once you realise that the author was only 17 when it was written.

the book's protagonist kiara is a force of a character, serving as a raw reflection of the violence enacted upon black women and girls, but also a celebration of their strength and courage. she’s one of those protagonists that you will continue to think about even after you’ve closed the book.

[Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader · Rating 5 out of 5]

“A NEW YORK TIMES WRITER TO WATCH - A dazzling novel about a young Black woman who walks the streets of Oakland and stumbles headlong into the failure of its justice system--the debut of a blazingly original voice that "bursts at the seams of every page and swallows you whole" (Tommy Orange, best-selling author of There There).”

Did you know Leila Mottley wrote Nightcrawling when she was seventeen years old? In this powerful tribute to her city and inspired by true events involving corruption, Nightcrawling is the story of teenager, Kiara Johnson.

Her father has passed away, her mother is in a halfway house, and her brother, who promised to protect her, is pursuing his music dreams; this leaves Kiara alone with rent coming due. Finding a job at seventeen is not easy. Kiara lands in a very dark place trying to survive. Not only is she taking care of herself, but she’s also caring for an often alone, too, nine-year-old Trevor.

Nightcrawling is penned flawlessly with emotion in its every precise word. In the author’s note, Leila Mottley shares that while Kiara is fictional, the true story is not, and in turn, it’s not just the story of one young girl exploited, but many, many times over. An urgent story addressing the adultification of Black girls and the failures of the justice system. Let us listen to this powerful voice and be inspired for what is next.

I received a gifted copy.

Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader

[Jasmine]

DNF on page 100. The abuse is just too hard to read right now. I took a long break from reading it, but still can’t digest it.

It is amazing that this was written by a seventeen-year-old. I would definitely try something else by the author.

There are several other positive reviews, so be sure to give those a read before being swayed by my thoughts.

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for providing an arc via Netgalley.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you told me this was a YA debut, with heavy themes, somewhere at the intersection of There, There and The Hate You Give, I would have let it slide… However, you put it on a longlist of literary fiction novels (which this absolutely isn’t), so I read within this framework.

Has anyone edited this? Just curious...

Some paragraphs were painful to read. That ridiculous amount of similes and run-ons shouldn’t have gone past a more skilful eye. I was constantly pulled out of the story because of sentences like these:

“In the ten minutes it takes to get to the other side of East Oakland, I slip into the lull of the bus, the way it rocks me back and forth like I imagine a mother rocks a child when she is still patient enough to not start shaking. I wonder how many of these other people, their hair shoved into hats, with lines moving in all directions tracing their faces like a train station map, woke up this morning to a lurching world and a slip of paper that shouldn’t mean more than a tree got cut down somewhere too far to give a shit about.”

Read this aloud and tell me how it feels.

It would be wrong of me to ask for character nuance, storytelling mastery or even grit from such a young writer, but was the team behind her blinded by all the potential buzz around Mottley’s age??? Because that’s what I keep reading about.

There were so many other better books that could have made the list.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5
Longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize
Longlisted for Center for Fiction First Novel Prize

"In 2016 in the Bay area, a case broke where a young girl was sexually exploited by many Bay area officers… I was wondering about this girl and this particular iteration of police violence that I think a lot of us don't talk about. "
Leila Mottley to Trevor Noah on the Dailey show

Nightcrawling, Leila Mottley's much-lauded debut novel, has earned her the reputation of "wonder kid." Written when Mottley graduated high school at 17, Nightcrawling has been a New York Times bestseller, selected by Ophrah Winfrey's Book Club, and longlisted for prestigious literary prizes. After finishing the novel, I found myself intrigued by three stories: the author's tale, the novel itself, and the 2016 case that inspired the book.

The Author: Who is Leila Mottley?

Leila Mottley was born in 2002 and, at 20, is considered a rising star on the literary scene. She grew up in Oakland and is the youngest of three children of a biracial couple Ann Bauer, the Director of a local pre-school, and Norris Mottley, a fundraising consultant, and playwright. Leila learned her love of writing from her father and began writing poetry at an early age.

Her interest in the writing led Leila to enroll at Oakland School for the Arts, a 6-12 charter school emphasizing arts education. Here Leila's poetic talents were recognized by her teachers, who encouraged her to apply to the competition for the poet laureate of the city of Oakland, a title she won in 2018. As a result, Leila began to give poetry readings and participate in poetry slams throughout the city.

When Leila was fourteen, in 2016, the story of the teenage sex worker exploited by the local police broke in the news. The story moved her, and she followed it with great interest. Then, in her senior year, Leila began to write a novel about a young black woman who became trapped in this situation. When Leila entered Smith College in the fall of 2019, she showed the story to her creative writing instructor, Ruth Ozeki. She recognized the book's potential and referred Leila to her literary agent. After a bidding war, the novel was picked up by Knopf publishing.

The Novel: Nightcrawling

Nightcrawling is the story of Kiara Johnson, a 17-year-old African- American Oakland teenager whose options have run out. Both of her parents are out of the picture. Her father, a former Black Panther, died of prostrate cancer upon release from prison. Her mother is in a halfway house for drowning her infant daughter. Oakland is gentrifying, and the rent on the apartment Kiara shares with her older brother has just been doubled.

To make matters worse, her brother has decided to pursue a career as a rap star and refuses to work. In addition, Kiara cares for and provides a semblance of stability for her next-door neighbor Trevor, the 9-year-old son of an unreliable drug addict. As Kiara is a high school dropout, she has difficulty finding work and decides to turn a few tricks to make rent and food for the month. Unfortunately, Kiara is caught by two unscrupulous cops who threaten her with arrest unless she provides sex at police parties. She complies, and the abuse is brutal. Then, one of the officers involved commits suicide and names her in a tell-all suicide note. Internal affairs get involved, and Kiara's life spirals further out of control as she becomes the key witness in a massive police scandal.

When Nightcrawling was longlisted for the Booker, I decided to read it or rather listen to it on audible. I was interested in finding out what had inspired a group of critics to select the work of a 17- year- old for such a prestigious award. I finished the book two days ago, and I think that what makes the book work or what made it work for me was the authenticity of the protagonist's voice. What Leila Mottley understands is what it is like to be an adolescent. This book could have easily become a work of sordid sensationalism, but it doesn't. Sad, abusive scenes are followed by segments demonstrating friendship and resilience. There are happy and tender moments with the nine-year-old Trevor and with her best friend.

I didn't feel that Nightcrawling was a great work of literary fiction. It doesn't compare to a book like Shuggie Bain, which won the Booker two years ago. However, it is quite an accomplishment for a 17-year-old, and I look forward to reading her future work.

The Case that Inspired the Novel or Truth is Stranger than Fiction (Forgive the Cliché)

When I finished the novel, I googled the 2016 Oakland police scandal. I found the story of Celeste Guap ((pseudonym). Celeste's family is originally from Nicaragua. Her mother worked as a police dispatcher for the Oakland Police, earning over $100,000. Celeste's mother was involved with a police officer who was like a father to Celeste. Unfortunately, he was killed in the line of duty when she was 12. After his death, she began to occasionally exchange sex for money. In a newspaper interview, Celeste said that she did it because it was "all around her." She made connections via social media and slept with three police officers as a minor.

Celeste believes that none of what happened to her would have occurred if her mother's boyfriend had been alive. She claims he would never have allowed it. However, she was coerced into providing sex to multiple partners at police parties. Unbeknown to her mother, several of the officers involved were her " friends."

When one of the officers committed suicide and named her in his confession. Like her fictional counterpart, Celeste became the center of a police scandal. A few officers lost their jobs, and others just received reprimands. Celeste sued the Department and received a million dollars in compensation with no liability. She is now 23, lives with her two-year-old son, and works as a Sex Workers' Rights Activist. On her Facebook page, Celeste was asked about the book Nightcrawling. She said, "It's pure fiction."

NPR News Account: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-w...

[NILTON TEIXEIRA · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have to say that I’m very thankful for Ophra’s Book Club.
Because of this club, I have read some terrific books such as A Fine Balance (my very favourite book of all times), The Pillars of the Earth, I Know This Much is True, House of Sand and Fog, Fall On Your Knees, An American Marriage, The Invention of Wings (just to name a few).
There was a time that I truly believed that I couldn’t go wrong with her choices.
But unfortunately some did not impress me. Some I couldn’t even finish.
This one is one that I almost quit reading.
I do (must) give a credit to the author, after all she was only 17 when she started writing this book.
My main problem was the lack of passion (or emotion).
I thought that for a story being told in first person was too dry. I didn’t feel a thing.
Not even anger (where I should have).
Also, I thought that the writing style, although not bad, was not very consistent (I’m not sure who to blame, the author or editor).
The storyline is sad, no doubt about it. Some readers found it disturbing or depressing, but because I was not emotionally involved, I did not feel it.
It does not matter to me if this is a fiction, a true story or based on a true story. I needed it to be told with the heart. I needed to feel that heartbeat. I needed to feel that there was some authenticity.
To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, I once knew this singer who had a terrific voice, but unfortunately, instead of singing with his heart, he would sing with his brain, worrying about being perfect and trying to impress the public with his high notes.
If I had felt at least engaged, I would have given this book a higher rating.
I’m quite sure that this author will have a terrific success in her career, and I’m truly looking forward to reading her next work, just to witness her growth.

[Constantine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Genre: Literary Fiction

Kiara is a seventeen-year-old girl living with her brother Marcus in an apartment in Oakland, California. All Marcus is thinking about is launching his music career, leaving all the hard work of money earning to Kiara. The girl has to do something so they won’t be evicted from their apartment. Being a high school dropout with no resume makes it even more difficult for her to get a job. One night, something happens to Kiara, which leads her to become a prostitute as a last resort. We follow her story, her struggle, and all the hardships this black girl endures.

This is a good debut novel for a 19-year-old author (her age when she wrote it). I think Leila Mottley will have a strong career if she continues writing on hard-hitting subjects like this. Being picked by Oprah's book club is a big recognition in itself. Then the book successfully made it to the longlist for the Booker Prize. So there is a lot going on for this author.

The story is gripping and deals with dark subjects. The characters are quite strong too. The writing was sometimes poetic and, at other times, it felt too descriptive and different. I am not sure how to explain it, but it is apparent that the author has written this at different stages of her life. There is a polarity between the chapters when it comes to the writing. At times, this novel might disturb you because what you are reading about are things that actually happen in our world. So beware of the trigger warnings because they are many.

[Bianca · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5
As many others had stated before me, this is an impressive debut novel, written by a teenager no less, when she was seventeen-eighteen. The fact that it is based on a real life case makes this novel more powerful. Of course, it's horrific that the police, who are supposed to protect and respect the law, disregard it, not to mention the ick and moral considerations - using a seventeen-year-old for sex parties.

The narrator of this novel is seventeen year old, Kiara Johnson, who had been dealt bad cards in life - her father passed away, her mother is in jail, and her guardian, her older brother is a lost, head-in-the-sky dreamer, who can't help to pay the rent. The rent is put up yet again, there are no jobs to come by, so what's one to do? Start night crawling.

I appreciate Mottley's intentions and writing, to be honest, I wasn't quite as affected by the novel as I should have been. Something was missing. Grittiness (is that a word?)? Throughout the novel, I felt distanced from what was happening to the characters - I could always sense the author's hand and viewpoints when writing beautiful, impressive sentences, which I didn't quite believe as they were supposed to come from a teen who hadn't finished high school.

While I'm not one to care about endings, I don't expect books to have nicely wrapped endings, in this case, the last part of the novel and the ending felt rushed, unbaked and left me unsatisfied.

Regardless of the fact that I wanted a bit more from this novel, Mottley showcased her talent in this novel, so I'm looking forward to reading more from her.