Nightcrawling

Leila Mottley's writing style is so assured, in many ways it's hard to believe she was only 17 when she began writing this. In other ways, it seems more obvious. This novel covers a lot: poverty, sex work, police brutality and corruption, addiction, and the realities of being a young black woman in modern America. And while Mottley has clearly done her research, at times the prose paired with the subject matters teetered on the edge of the melodramatic. That sounds like an extremely crass way of putting it, but sometimes it all just felt like TOO much was going on. Nevertheless, this was so impressive for someone so young, and I have no doubts that Leila Mottley has a promising career coming up, and I am very much looking forward to reading whatever she chooses to put out next.