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Nightcrawling
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Apr ‘23 GR: Nightcrawling
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message 51:
by
Angel
(new)
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rated it 5 stars
Apr 21, 2023 04:43AM
I am feeling so sad for Kia; I am up to page 135 and this little girl has gone from being raped on a rooftop to thinking “Badge 612 moans like he ain’t never f***** before. “ She’s a baby and is quickly becoming hardened. Numbing her senses with Tequila and whiskey and out there trying to hustle. It just makes my stomach roll. She has just “escaped” Camilla’s trap party and these creepy cops… I just want her and Trevor to be safe. This book is traumatizing.
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Angel, and we thought Native Son was the worst. It absolutely was back in the 1940s and look at us.now. One thing is for sure, Kia is a likable character and Bigger was not. Even though the dire circumstances are equally bleak if not much worse for Kia as they were for Bigger, she is someone to root for from page one. What an old grownup soul in a child’s body. She really is only a child. A child with no no safety, no love, and no respect.
Black people have taken two steps forward and one step back. Our lives are traumatized at birth by no fault of our own. I say this because art mimics life. These last two books have been completely traumatizing. Powerful writing in both cases, but heart wrenching.
Yeah I am still battling Bigger, trying to finish that one as well. He’s in jail, just threatened to kill the pastor for giving him a cross after seeing a cross burning outside the jail. As unlikeable as Bigger is, I do feel some empathy for him. He’s had a rough life and all he knows is pain and pain sometimes begets anger and rage! He killed Mary out of fear because of the times they lived in back then. Nowadays that probably wouldn’t have happened. The horrific way he disposed of her body was shocking, yes, but in some ways (God forbid I say this), he had no choice. How he treated Bessie was heartless though. But I think that comes back to that rage and his lone wolf thinking. I know what is going to happen to him but I still want to finish the book. Life gets busy for me and my reading always seems to be when I am about to drop off to sleep. But I will keep plugging away at both books. Back to Night Crawling, I hope it doesn’t end up with Kia dying. Please, no!
Just finished the audiobook. Took me a while to get into the story, but once I did, it was riveting. I felt for everyone in the story, with the possible exception of the police. This is presented as fiction, but as the author’s note suggests, the fact that is happening all around us “makes me wanna holler”.....and I work with these issues every day. I just happened to see a program last night on sex workers. Combined with the book, and what I hear from my social work students, I can’t just see a “prostitute”. There is so much more history and context behind their experiences. I love the term “nightcrawler” and all that it symbolizes. When I was a camper, we called the process of boys camp heading over to girls camp “night riding”—suggesting this goes beyond one’s prostituting themself in the stereotypical sense. Makes me wonder if as women we are not all complicit in this practice in one way or another in some part of our lives (author talks about catering to her dad, brother and Trevor). I don’t knowLastly, I love the symbolism of the “shitty” water—it’s ability to both give life and take it away.
A sad, but thought-provoking story. She is a wonderful writer.
Mod
In this case, Kia being raped and immediately (for all intents and purposes) turned into a sex worker. Another example (forgive me if I’m not PC) was that of a little boy molested or raped by an older man…who then grows up to be a homosexual.
I really didn’t have any comments on it, but I thought it was an interesting topic to think about.
This book really broke my heart, like some of your stated earlier, Kia really didn’t have a chance. It seems like she had to almost grow up overnight becoming a nurturing provider for her older brother and took on that same role for her younger neighbor. The road looked very bleak for Kia and I don’t know that she’ll rise out of that hell.
I cannot help but wonder if this book will be made into a movie. It broke my heart and the author’s note at the end was the straw that broke the camel’s back - so to speak. I wept. There is something very sick at the base of our humanity that needs to be healed.
Mod
Nightcrawling is interspersed with flashbacks to moments in which Kiara felt connected with her big brother, Marcus. Is Marcus a good brother? How do these flashbacks differ from the Marcus who interacts with Kiara within the timeline of the story? In what ways does he support Kiara and in what ways does he fail her?
I think that Marcus took good care of his little sister as long as he was her big brother. Once his role changed from brother to parent, things fell apart. He was not properly equipped to be her father. He didn’t have a strong enough father or uncle image to reference. I believe Marcus got lost. After he got lost he was buried in guilt and depression. He most likely has a story to tell that will keep him, unfortunately, in a dimmer light than Kiara’s brightly shining light, but, most likely I will have a bit more compassion for him after I hear his side of the story. Even though I was not happy with him for most of the story, he is more likable than Bigger. I felt that very strong redeeming qualities were possible for him when he requested that uncle get his friend with the baby out of jail instead of him.
Mod
The way Marcus was portrayed in this story he inherited his mother's behaviors of falling apart when life becomes overwhelming. Their mom didn't continue doing her job as a parent when her husband died and in kind Marcus didn't step up when their mom went to jail. He was 17 or 18 years old so to me it's really hard to put the burden on him of stepping up but in the story didn't they somehow finesse it so Kiara didn't go to foster care? I can't really remember but if that's what happened then he should've tried harder to take care her.
What do y'all think?
Mod
In this case, Kia being raped and immediately (for all int..."
Oh to be a fly on the wall during that conversation, I'm sure it was interesting.
Ok, so I can't find the page but I don't recall Kiara being raped, coerced, or molested during the encounter that sparked the thought of going into sex work. Did she say no or try to pull away from that guy?? Whether she did or didn't doesn't change my opinion of her decision after the ordeal but it will correct me on if she was raped or what not.
I took it as she needed money and sex work was something that she was willing to do because she did it and continued to do it. I understand that she was 17 years old going on 18 years old but the way her mindset was written is that should understood that there were other options and paths to take. She chose sex work because it was fast money, it certainly wasn't easy but she got it faster than waiting on a job.
She was raped. The night she got sloppy drunk in the bar and left alone without any protection, and polka dots followed her, guided her to a rooftop and took her virginity, she was raped. It was statutory rape because she was under age and she was not in any shape to have a clue as to what the heck was going on. After she had made it to the ripe old age of 18, she would have been raped then too by cops who used authority to make her do what she didn’t want to do. Do you think being too scared to move while a cop holds a gun to your head as he fu#%€s you is something other than rape?
Mod
I’m not talking about the incident with the cop. I was only speaking about the incident that kicked it all off.
Yes, statutory rape I forget about that. Yea because of her age it was statutory rape.
Yes, rape primarily because of her age and also because she was basically incoherent. She was in no physical or mental shape to know that the word no was an option.
She was raped on that rooftop by the guy who was checking her out in the strip club when Marcus’s former girlfriend was serving her drinks. She left with him but I don’t think she fully knew what she was getting into and he pretty much forced her against a wall and raped her. He thought she was a sex worker and she didn’t know what to think. She was so messed up. That was rape.
That was absolutely rape, hands down, regardless of her age. And she left alone very drunk... He followed her and maneuvered her so he could do whatever he wanted.
That’s right. She did leave by herself. He followed her out.
Turtle crossing the finish line,finally! Here is my review. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
