--- title: Nightcrawling: 100 Must-Read Books of 2022 description: Find out why "Nightcrawling" by Leila Mottley is on TIME's list of the must-read books of the year. canonical: https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2022/6228597/nightcrawling/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-11-14T12:53:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-03T00:10:36.150Z og:title: 'Nightcrawling' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2022 og:description: Here's why it made the list og:url: https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2022/6228597/nightcrawling/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbbdd2effe03f901c/698a37bbcabb1dc44fe50e50/Nightcrawling.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 'Nightcrawling' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2022 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Nightcrawling' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2022 twitter:description: Here's why it made the list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbbdd2effe03f901c/698a37bbcabb1dc44fe50e50/Nightcrawling.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Nov 14, 2022 # Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff  Power, corruption, and survival are the driving forces at the heart of Leila Mottley’s debut novel _Nightcrawling_, which was longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize. In rapidly gentrifying Oakland, 17-year-old Kiara is trying to pay her family’s ever-increasing rent. Though Mottley’s protagonist is technically a teenager, she lost her childhood long ago: her Black Panther father is dead, her mother is incarcerated, and her brother is so convinced of his future rap career that he won’t get a job. When Kiara becomes desperate for cash, she’s forced to turn to sex work of a dangerously lurid bent—servicing local police officers. While this brutal tale is a searing indictment of an unjust system, it has roots in a sobering reality. Mottley, who wrote the book just after graduating high school, drew inspiration from a real-life sexual misconduct case in Oakland. —_Cady Lang_ **Buy Now**: _Nightcrawling_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9780593318935 "undefined") | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/3TljHB4 "undefined") **Contact us at** [letters@time.com](mailto:letters@time.com?subject=%28READER%20FEEDBACK%29%20Stay%20True&body=https%3A%2F%2Ftime.com%2Fcollection-post%2F6228627%2Fstay-true%2F "undefined")**.** ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2022/6228597/nightcrawling/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2022/6228597/nightcrawling/"},"headline":"Nightcrawling","datePublished":"2022-11-14T12:53:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:10:36.150Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2022/6228597/nightcrawling/","keywords":["Books","list","best books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbbdd2effe03f901c/698a37bbcabb1dc44fe50e50/Nightcrawling.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbbdd2effe03f901c/698a37bbcabb1dc44fe50e50/Nightcrawling.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2022/6228597/nightcrawling/","name":"Nightcrawling"}}]}] ```