Kiara and her brother, Marcus, are scraping by in an East Oakland apartment complex optimistically called the Regal-Hi. Both have dropped out of high school, their family fractured by death and prison. But while Marcus clings to his dream of rap stardom, Kiara hunts for work to pay their rent--which has more than doubled--and to keep the nine-year-old boy next door, abandoned by his mother, safe and fed.
One night, what begins as a drunken misunderstanding with a stranger turns into the job Kiara never imagined wanting but now desperately needs: night crawling. Her world breaks open even further when her name surfaces in an investigation that exposes her as a key witness in a massive scandal within the Oakland Police Department.
My Thoughts
This was a very emotional book with a hopeful ending. In Nightcrawling we meet 17 year old Kiara, a young woman with the world on her shoulders. She along with her brother Marcus also a young adult, found themselves alone after the death of their father, lock up of their mother and abandonment of their uncle.
Marcus, wanting to become a rapper and strike it big, left the responsibility of paying bills and everything else to Kiara. Kiara, unable to hold a job, decided after a chance encounter, that prostitution could be a way out. Little did she know this type of life would lead her down a hole too difficult to get out of.
This story was really touching on so many levels. I felt that Kiara was left alone to take care of the everything with very few options. It made me think about people who sell their bodies and the difficulties they face or the circumstances that led them to that life.
This was a very good story indeed.
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