4 Stars
At the beginning of
the novel, Kiara Johnson is just three months short of her 18
th
birthday. She and her brother Marcus
live in an apartment in East Oakland.
Their father is dead and their mother is in prison. Their rent is doubled, and Kiara fears they
will be evicted. Marcus, though older,
is unwilling and unable to hold down a job; his focus is on becoming a star
rapper, though his talent is questionable.
Kiara tries to think of a way to find rent money, but being a high
school dropout, she has no luck finding a job.
Desperate, she stumbles into nightcrawling (sex work) which provides
enough money to pay the rent and help her look after 10-year-old Trevor, whose
drug-addicted mother has abandoned him. Then
she quickly finds herself part of a sex-trafficking ring servicing members of
the Oakland Police Department.
This is not an easy
read. Much of it is heartbreaking as
Kiara faces one problem after another.
The book touches on several heavy issues: police corruption and brutality, sexual
exploitation and violence, racism, gender inequity, poverty, misogyny, family
dysfunction, child neglect and abandonment, and the unfairness of the justice
system. To describe the book as intense
and gritty is almost an understatement.
The Author’s Note indicates that the story is based on real events (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/07/oakland-police-officers-fired-sexual-misconduct-scandal)
and that makes the story that much more disturbing.
Kiara is an amazing
character. Though she has virtually no
one supporting her, she refuses to give up and be crushed by the problems she
faces. She is abandoned by family and
society, but her tenacious spirit means she remains resilient. An especially admirable quality is her fierce
protectiveness of Trevor. It is not difficult
to conclude that she sees herself in Trevor so is determined that he not suffer
as she has. A friend tells Kiara, “’you
got too much heart to be a sellout, Ki, you ain’t cruel enough for none of
that. I know you wouldn’t go leaving
Marcus or Trevor or me just to make bank.”
Kiara’s challenges would leave many strong and determined people totally
devastated. What is also amazing is that
Kiara is able to find moments of joy amidst the pain she experiences.
A particular focus of
the book is how women, especially racialized women, are expected to put others
first. In her Author’s Note, she
mentions, “Like many black girls, I was often told growing up to tend to and
shield my brother, my dad, the black men around me: their safety, their bodies, their
dreams. In this, I learned that my own
safety, body, and dreams were secondary, that there was no one and nothing that
could and would protect me.” Kiara is
forced to grow up quickly because “these streets open us up and remove the part
of us most worth keeping: the child left
in us.” She describes herself as feeling
“stuck between mother and child.” She
realizes “how sacred it is to be young” and wishes for comfort from her mother
but a visit to her shows her mother “asking me to fix her up.” Kiara lets her older brother pursue his dream
and protects Trevor however she can, feeling she is expected to “hollow myself
out for another person who ain’t gonna give a shit when I’m empty.” Though she admits feeling she is being asked “to
wring myself dry of everything I got":
“I’m tired of it. Tired of having
to be out here thinking about all these people, all these things to keep me
alive, keep them alive. I don’t got no
air left for none of it.” Kiara is one
of many black woman expected to sacrifice for men; in the process she becomes “vulnerable,
unprotected, and unseen.”
Though used to
describe some horrific scenes, the language is very lyrical. Of course, this is not surprising because the
author was once Oakland’s Youth Poet Laureate.
This is an emotionally
raw novel which is difficult to read but is nonetheless a necessary book.
Note: I received
a digital galley from the publisher via NetGalley.
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