Nighcrawling by Leila Mottley
‘Nightcrawling’ by Leila Mottley
Wonderfully reviewed by our own Catalina
‘Leila Mottley asserts herself as an incredible writer with this debut novel covering the harsh realities of what it means to be a poor black woman in America.
Mottley's prose is as beautiful as it is enraging. Inspired by a true story, Mottley sets out to shed light on what happens when black poverty meets white power.
Kiara and her brother are barely making ends meet in East Oakland with no family nor a safety net to fall back on. But while her brother Marcus is chasing his dream to become a rapper, Kiara must stay grounded to pay the piling bills and the increasing rent. On top of that, she feels responsible for the 9-year-old boy next door who has been abandoned by his mother. Desperate and vulnerable, she turns to sex work to avoid starvation and soon falls prey to cruel police brutality and sexual violence.
Mottley's storytelling has kept me engaged and enraged the whole way, mainly because the events described are far from fiction - racism, chauvinism, and abuse are chronic to institutional power. If police brutality against black men has made the headlines, black women's stories of encountering sexual exploitation by law enforcers remain untold.
Mottley sheds an important light on these stories - and on the subject of adultification of black girls.’
A highly recommended read!