Harare Review of Books

288 pages.

First published in June 2022.

Genre: Fiction.

This review first appeared in The Sunday Long read, Sept. 25, 2022 — Issue #357 (Bulldog Edition).

Kiara is seventeen, and desperate. The rent is due. Her father is dead; her mother’s in prison. Her brother has asked for time to pursue his dream of recording an album; while he does that, he’s not helping with any of the bills for their shared apartment. Kiara has tried to find a job, but has no resume, and little work experience. After a fateful evening at a strip club, she turns to sex work.

She gets caught up in a sex ring run by Oakland, CA police, who exploit her using a mix of threats and payments. After one of them commits suicide, Kiara is approached by officers who are conducting an internal investigation, but it becomes apparent that this is a cover-up. In the midst of even more threats from the officers who are abusing her, an officer in the same department decides to blow the whistle about the sex ring, upending Kiara’s life.

This is a complex novel depicting one potential aspect of Black girlhood. It aims to speak for those who are vulnerable, unheard, and mostly unseen. The author began writing it when she was seventeen, inspired by a 2015 case of sexual exploitation of a young woman by members of the Oakland Police Department, and others. The novel is understandably uneven in places, with ineffective flashbacks, and with the author’s style tending towards wordiness. However, Nightcrawling is undoubtedly a triumph, and an important novel.

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My rating: 7/10.