Review: Nigthcrawling by Leila Mottley

 

I read this book as an e-book advanced reader copy from Netgalley. The book is due to be published on June 7th. 

In the book, we follow the life of Kiara, a young black woman living in Oakland struggling to get by. Her parents are out of the picture and although her older brother used to work, he has given that up to pursue a career in rapping. Unfortunately, he is not good enough to ever get anywhere with that so instead, he is burdening Kiara to be the main breadwinner. 

Kiara goes out in search of work and finds herself accidentally selling her body. After this incident, she turns to prostitution in order to pay the rent. As time goes on, she gets more wrapped up in the dangers that come along with sex work. 

Mottley does a good job of portraying the human side of sex work without victimizing her characters. It's not that she doesn't show the brutality of the work, but she does so in a way that is tasteful and leaves her characters' autonomy. She also shows the joys present in the lives of Kiara and those she cares about. It's a full-fledged life instead of the story of a victim. 

This book has not only a fascinating story, but it is also well written. I can very well see college courses analyzing the book for its literary value sometime in the future. Mottley is most definitely a writer to look out for given this is her debut novel. 

I will say that the content of this book is dark. Readers should be advised of the presence of adult-minor relations, sexual abuse, general abuse, police brutality, drug abuse, child death, child neglect, and more. This book is not for the light-hearted. Despite the dark content, this book is a must-read and an important look into the experience of sex workers, especially when dealing with police forces.