NIGHT CRAWLING BY LEILA MOTTLEY - BOOK REVIEW

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BOOK NAME: NIGHT CRAWLING

AUTHOR NAME: LEILA MOTTLEY

GENRE: CONTEMPORARY 

PUBLISHER: BLOOMSBURY

 



My, oh my! What a find. I went in search of a recently famous classic in a second-hand book shop. But when I couldn’t find the one I was looking for and I was about to leave the place disheartened, I found this one lying in a corner, pleading to be picked. Having seen it a couple of times on bookstagram, I picked it up instead of returning dejected and empty-handed. I usually don’t start the books I buy right away but something about this book made me want to read it immediately. And when I flipped that first page over, I knew there was no putting it back without finishing it. And that’s what I did too. I gulped it down like it was a potion made to heal while all it did was break my heart piece by piece. 

 

Kiara is a seventeen-year-old living with her brother and an abandoned child, Trevor in Oakland. Poverty pushes her to the brink where she chooses to earn by selling her body. But little did the teenager know that she would soon be forced to get into more and would be assaulted by the very people who were supposed to help her. She is soon caught in a mess where saving herself, her brother and little Trevor are not even an option. 

 

I am not sure why not many of us are talking about this book enough, given that it is based on real-life events that feel like a nightmare. Every page in this book shattered me completely. Some readers might even try to criticise it by tagging it “trauma porn” just like “A Little Life.” But then this is also someone’s real story which cannot be written any other way. And there is nothing pornographic about having to live such a life. If it’s traumatic, it is traumatic. If it’s worth writing, it has to be written. If it must be told, it must be.  There must be no buts and ifs. Yeah, people may not be able to finish this book because of its triggering details but if you are someone who can, then please read it. So, yes. I will be recommending this one with caution because every page is triggering and traumatic. 


[Sexual Abuse, violence, separation, mental abuse, toxic parenting]


This is a part of Blogchatter Half Marathon 2026 with Piyush’s Plotters.

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