‘Mama used to tell me that blood is everything, but I think we're all out here
unlearning that sentiment, scraping our knees, and asking strangers to patch us
back up.’
Leila Mottley’s Nightcrawling
is a brutal, yet compelling read. It’s an honest documentation of survival and
law system in human-society, more than that It provides you a lens to introspect.
The story based on a true
event, Oakland scandal of 2015. Mottley has a fearless voice, compassionate
heart and a clear vision. Although, it is a horrifying account of one’s life,
still I am amazed by its breathing prose.
Nightcrawling is a dark novel,
which casts light on the hidden life of our seventeen years old protagonist.
Her name is Kia. She lives with her brother, Marcus, in a slum apartment.
Brother makes her believe that he loves her. He has delusional dreams. He
doesn’t make any efforts to provide basic facilities to Kia. When the apartment
owner threatens to rent hike, she is left with no-choice but ‘Nightcrawling’.
She is just a teen - deprived of parents - who is eager to make a living, to
survive, to endure. Then, there is another character, named Trevor, who is only
sunshine in her life, though they are not connected by blood, but the way she
cares for a nine-years old motherless kid, I could explore empathetic side of
her. The chaos is temporary, that’s what she thinks. The entry of local police
coloured this survival story into the most devastated account of injustice.
Leila Mottley approached
essential themes in her debut, for instance: gender injustice, police
misconduct, prostitution, human rights abuses, race discrimination and dearth.
Mottley’s writing enthrals you
with the opening line itself, ‘The swimming pool is filled with dog shit and
Dee’s laughter mocks us at dawn.”
Are there any cons? It’s just
the length, I wish it were crisp, and well edited at places, so that I could
visualize this powerful story in an intimate manner.
Apart from the captivating
story and rich prose style, I have been pondering over the age of writer. she
was not even 18 when she actually started working on this project. It’s a
powerful story, undoubtedly a well-deserved entry into Oprah book club.
‘...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.’
