Reviews with content warning for Stalking - The Other Black Girl

Reviews tagging 'Stalking'

The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris

67 reviews

bootsmom3's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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seawarrior's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I'd been waiting to read this book for a while so maybe it was inevitable that it didn't live up to my expectations as a mystery novel. However, I don't regret having spent time with it and absorbing what it had to say.

In creating the political environment of Wagner Books and Nella's personhood the writing was strong and sharply observant. Nella felt like a person who could feasibly exist and it was easy to empathize with her motivations and anxieties as she navigated routine microaggressions from her coworkers and the strangeness of Hazel's possible sabotage attempts. Yet the numerous times facets of her personality and viewpoints were revealed through extended flashbacks was disorienting, which I also felt from the book as a whole. It was difficult keeping up when the chapters switched perspective to a different woman, and wasn't sure if this was meant to be a deliberate effect on the reader or not.

My other primary issue was that the final reveal of the conspiracy each of these women were involved in, and that Hazel was using against Nella, was stunning but not necessarily satisfying. By the time its secrets were unraveled, this overarching conspiracy felt almost silly in comparison to the realistic tone the novel already established. Regardless, it does serve to well illustrate not only the ruthless competition that Black women encounter in the workplace, but the exhaustion of enduring it and maintaining agreeable even when encountering massive insensitivity from white coworkers.

The Other Black Girl may not be a debut with perfect execution, but it has a point to make that is worth paying attention to. I would still recommend reading it and look forward to Harris' future works.

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rwalker101's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

The blurb on this book has changed from "Get Out meets The Devil Wears Prada" to "Get Out meets The Stepford Wives", and frankly I find this second blurb a much more apt comparison. The first thing you have to know is that this is a fantastic slow-burn book, and most of its narrative has Nella feeling very deep and very personal feelings about many complicated issues. These are necessary to understand, if you are going to comprehend the horror of the ending.

In my recent review of Coraline, I mentioned how I had watched the Stepford Wives, and how I had found the concept of betrayal in horror deeply affecting. The Other Black Girl scratches that same itch, but it comes from a slightly different place. Instead of drawing horror from betrayal of a personal nature, Harris draws on the horror of not receiving help or guidance from members of your community. The book hinges on this concept of minority community; members of your same demographic are supposed to look out for you, to share knowing glances with you and be an empathetic shoulder to lean on when it all gets to be too much. The villains of the book weaponize this commiseration, using it to draw in innocent black women and make them party to their darker, but ultimately sympathetic schemes. The ultimate question Harris poses is this: is it better to sacrifice your minority identity so that you may be better accepted by the majority? Or is it better to speak your mind, even when it turns almost everyone in your life against you?

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davidrb's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Honestly still not sure about how I feel on this one! However: it was well written, well paced for the most part, and frankly stunning for a debut. I will for sure be checking out Harris' future work, revisiting this book after awhile, and searching out other reviews! I'm sure I missed a lot of nuance within the themes, and I'm interested to see what other people think. Thought-provoking for sure, and a thriller that is heartbreaking and breakneck fast in turn.

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mlthomas234's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Really like Nella’s storyline, up to and including the end. Loved how Hazel’s character evolved (from ambiguous to sinister). I also liked how Nella was never the “perfect” black girl and was very aware of all the ways she might be seen as “less black” because of her upbringing, who she dated, when she started thinking about social issues, etc. given all of that, I️ wish we’d seen her struggle a bit more with Hazel’s question at the end rather than it being skipped over directly to the epilogue. What went through her mind? Did she really consider it? For how long? What was the turning point?

I️ also had trouble following the storyline of the writer/author pair of women and the resistance— pretty much everything outside of Nella’s story, the chapters were interesting on their own but found it difficult to follow on how they all connected. Ultimately, I️ just accepted them for their high level message (“something is not right, got it”), and kept reading. Thinking back I️ wonder what would be lost if those scenes weren’t included? They made things more confusing which isn’t the same as making the mystery more interesting.

Overall, Harris did a great job delivering on what was promised: a sharp thriller that explores the dynamics (and fears) of what it’s like to be a black woman in the workplace.

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