Nightcrawling

two fists, four pounds, and I should have known it was coming, but it still makes me jump back from the door. It ain t that I didn t see Vernon making his rounds or the flyer flipping up and drifting back into place on Dee s door as she stared at it, still cackling. I turn and look at my brother, Marcus, on the couch snoring, his nose squirming up to meet his brows.

He sleeps like a newborn, always making faces, his head tilting so I can see his profile, where the tattoo remains taut and smooth. Marcus has a tattoo of my fingerprint just below his left ear and, when he smiles, I find myself drawn right to it, like another eye. Not that either of us has been smiling lately, but the image of it ­the memory of the freshly rippling ink below his grin ­keeps me coming back to him. Keeps me hoping. Marcus s arms are lined in tattoos, but my fingerprint is the only one on his neck. He told me it was the most painful one he d ever gotten.

He got the tattoo when I turned seventeen and it was the first day I ever thought he might just love me more than anything, more than his own skin. But now, three months from my eighteenth birthday, when I look at my quivering fingerprint on the edge of his jaw, I feel naked, known. If Marcus ended up bloodied in the street, it wouldn t take much to identify him by the traces of me on his body.

I reach for the doorknob, mumbling, I got it, as if Marcus was ever actually gonna put feet to floor this early. On the other side of the wall, Dee s laughter seeps into my gums like salt water, absorbed right into the fleshy part of my mouth. I shake my head and turn back to the door, to my own slip of paper taped to the orange paint. You don t have to read one of these papers to

heath, gender, and race deepen divides, the young American Leila Mottley s debut novel is a searing testament to the liberated spirit and explosive ingenuity of such storytelling. The Guardian

Mottley accesses the feelings one sometimes has while reading Dickens, the breathless sense that some massive unfairness is being inflicted on a good and innocent person . . . Kiara s true outlet for hope is in the makeshift family of friends and relatives she manages to hold together. From such connections Mottley s seemingly fatalistic book finds its buoyant humanity. Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal

Leila Mottley s commanding debut, inspired by the life events of one woman s struggle for body and soul against crushing exploitation, is fierce and devastating, rendered with electrifying urgency by this colossal young talent. Ayana Mathis, author of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie

A searing indictment of an unjust system.
TIME

Mottley s writing is electric and stylish, which makes her subject matter especially chilling. Teen Vogue
 
Kiara s voice simultaneously childlike, lyrical, and fierce is the most unforgettable element of Nightcrawling. Mother Jones

Fast money, crooked cops, and dire consequences are at the forefront of Mottley s electric debut novel . . . A shocking page-turner. Elle

With its powerful poetry and courageous, unsparing vision, Nightcrawling is more than just a magnificent debut novel. It is a bid, by this prodigiously gifted young writer, to heal a broken world. Ruth Ozeki, author of The Book of Form and Emptiness

Leila Mottley has an extraordinary gift. She writes with the humility and sparkle of a child, but with the skill and deft touch of a wizened, seasoned storyteller. James McBride, author of Deacon King Kong
 
Electric . . . Not to be missed. Shondaland

So compelling that one cannot put it down . . . Through Kiara, Mottley gives voice to countless Black women and girls who remain invisible, vulnerable, and dehumanized by a system that deems them disposable . . . We need Kiara s story, but more importantly, we need young writers like Leila Mottley . . . A testimony to hope, resilience, and love. Liber: A Feminist Review

Leila Mottley is a name to pay attention to . . . Nightcrawling will make you desperate, it will make you awed, it will make you read anything that Mottley should ever choose to write. CrimeReads

Leila Mottley has a poet s delicate touch when she tells us the most brutal, heart-crushing truths. This is an electrifying debut. Dave Eggers, author of The Every
 
A remarkable debut novel . . . Incendiary . . . The captivating, distinctively voiced Kiara is a young black American who can shoot hoops and skateboard, but her literary antecedents are Zola s Thérèse Raquin, Victor Hugo s Fantine, and Elizabeth Gaskell s Ruth. The Sunday Times (U.K.)
 
This is an accomplished first novel with a remarkable heroine whom the reader wills on every step of the way . . . Both a searing depiction of sexual exploitation and a gripping account of a struggle for survival . . . Hard-hitting but never heavy-handed. The Economist

Unflinching, poetic, and deeply resonant, this stunning debut from Oakland teen Leila Mottley marks the arrival of an extraordinary new voice. Woman s Own (U.K.)

Feels vital in this cultural moment . . . Fires on all cylinders. Sydney Morning Herald  

Stunning . . . Kiara is an unforgettable dynamo, and her story brings critical human depth to conversations about police sexual violence. Booklist (starred)
 
A work of devastating social realism . . . executed with relentless momentum . . . A powerful discourse on the dehumanizing effects policing can have on marginalized communities, bodies, and minds (and especially on Black women). Library Journal (starred)
 
Bold and beautiful . . . This heartrending story makes for a powerful testament to a Black woman s resilience. Publishers Weekly (starred)
 
Lush, immersive. Kirkus Reviews (starred)

Moved me to tears . . . Mottley is a master at describing scenes. iNews