NIGHTCRAWLING

From this audiobook’s opening line, Joniece Abbott-Pratt’s narration creates an immersive listening experience. She perfectly embodies the first-person perspective of Kiara, a high school dropout who is living with her older brother, Marcus, in a shabby apartment in East Oakland, California. Their father is dead, and their mother is gone, leaving them with only each other. Marcus refuses to get a job while he’s pursuing a career in music, and Abbott-Pratt’s performance perfectly captures Kiara’s anguished decision to become a sex worker to survive. With no job skills, what else can she do? With Abbott-Pratt’s empathetic understanding of the characters, especially in the dialogue she performs, she creates one of the most moving and emotionally intimate audiobooks of the year. K.D.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2022 Best Audiobook, 2023 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2022]