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3.41 AVERAGE
3.41 AVERAGE
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The idea of the book is actually really interested but I don’t think it was thought out properly . Also the ending was very unsatisfying
So much potential- unexploited.
This had the list of ingredients to entice, surprise and win me over. I really looked forward to this bad boy. I was left unsatisfied.
This book has beautiful components of black culture. The power, the grievance and injustice, hair care, music and community. I did learn new things about black hair and the faces of racism I hadn’t considered previously.
The characters are round and have their personal drives, motivations and aches. I did not care for Nella so much, as I did for her best friend. She seemed more comfortable within herself and this was a beautiful thing to see worked out on paper.
The twist of the story, whilst keeping it as vague as can be, is peculiar. It suggests it can change the way your brain works by chemicals applied to your body. This was unbelievable to me, though a wonderfully creepy concept. Nella being sold by it so quickly, after weeks of pushing off racism and injustice, was a major anti climax. I wanted to see her inner drive, though perhaps this is a white expectation put on a black woman, as the story often attempts to to explain us is an expectancy of black women. I probably do not have the understanding of racism suffering enough to judge.
I just felt there was a lot of lead-up to the twist, which then felt unfulfilling.
Besides this, I followed barely anything of the case of Keandra. There were so many names and since this whole case is explained before you know of the hair product adjusting black woman’s attitudes and consciousness, I did not understand a word of what went down in Wagner’s history.
This had the list of ingredients to entice, surprise and win me over. I really looked forward to this bad boy. I was left unsatisfied.
This book has beautiful components of black culture. The power, the grievance and injustice, hair care, music and community. I did learn new things about black hair and the faces of racism I hadn’t considered previously.
The characters are round and have their personal drives, motivations and aches. I did not care for Nella so much, as I did for her best friend. She seemed more comfortable within herself and this was a beautiful thing to see worked out on paper.
The twist of the story, whilst keeping it as vague as can be, is peculiar. It suggests it can change the way your brain works by chemicals applied to your body. This was unbelievable to me, though a wonderfully creepy concept. Nella being sold by it so quickly, after weeks of pushing off racism and injustice, was a major anti climax. I wanted to see her inner drive, though perhaps this is a white expectation put on a black woman, as the story often attempts to to explain us is an expectancy of black women. I probably do not have the understanding of racism suffering enough to judge.
I just felt there was a lot of lead-up to the twist, which then felt unfulfilling.
Besides this, I followed barely anything of the case of Keandra. There were so many names and since this whole case is explained before you know of the hair product adjusting black woman’s attitudes and consciousness, I did not understand a word of what went down in Wagner’s history.
The Other Black Girl was an enjoyable and timely read. I like that this book switches perspectives every couple of chapters to break up the main plotline a little, and then how each of these perspectives slowly come together towards the end of the story. However, (and if you've read it, I think you'll understand) I can't help but feel like the character development that the book often dives so deeply into goes to waste in the end.
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SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT:
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My biggest problem with this book was that I didn't like how Nella succumbed to Hazel and the hair grease. I kind of hate that Nella did not strengthen her involvement with KP's alliance against Hazel and instead, she just became another Hazel. This is especially because of the sci-fi-type twist that the book takes when the hair grease is revealed to be a tool used and passed down by Diana. I appreciate that this makes for a sort of a real-life call to action for readers to fight against the code-switching and assimilation that is expected of POC in the workplace; but it doesn't seem to mesh well with the fictional element of the hair grease.
This is why I feel that Nella's 300 pages of character development and flashbacks went down the drain at the end- because she ends up being just another OBG instead of having an interesting fight against it. The time I spent learning about the protagonist feels like such a waste in the end when she so easily gives up and joins Hazel...it feels like it could've been presented much better, maybe even with the same outcome. This is being compared to "The Devil Wears Prada" and "Get Out," but at least the protagonists in those films put up a fight (and actually won in the end).
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SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT:
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
My biggest problem with this book was that I didn't like how Nella succumbed to Hazel and the hair grease. I kind of hate that Nella did not strengthen her involvement with KP's alliance against Hazel and instead, she just became another Hazel. This is especially because of the sci-fi-type twist that the book takes when the hair grease is revealed to be a tool used and passed down by Diana. I appreciate that this makes for a sort of a real-life call to action for readers to fight against the code-switching and assimilation that is expected of POC in the workplace; but it doesn't seem to mesh well with the fictional element of the hair grease.
This is why I feel that Nella's 300 pages of character development and flashbacks went down the drain at the end- because she ends up being just another OBG instead of having an interesting fight against it. The time I spent learning about the protagonist feels like such a waste in the end when she so easily gives up and joins Hazel...it feels like it could've been presented much better, maybe even with the same outcome. This is being compared to "The Devil Wears Prada" and "Get Out," but at least the protagonists in those films put up a fight (and actually won in the end).
medium-paced
i was the victim of false advertisement
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
I found the pace in the first two thirds to be kind of slow, but it really picked up in the end! It was a cool twist/concept and it did make me reflect on my own navigation of the world
I was not a fan. This book was all over the place and it was painful to get through. There were entirely too many points of view and I did not enjoy the flashbacks.
The twist was even a no for me. Skip this
The twist was even a no for me. Skip this
This book is fine. It was really thrilling in some instances, but other parts of it really slogged. There were too many moving parts that didn’t really fully come together for me. The end wasn’t satisfying, not because of what happened, just because it came really abruptly and didn’t address any of the other parts of the story. I feel like a lot of questions weren’t answered in their entirety. And the B&N exclusive chapter really did nothing but give me an extra 10 pages to read when I was already burnt out. I didn’t dislike the book, though. I was intrigued most of the time, I love the idea of the story, and I’m always happy to read about black experiences from black authors. I will be reading more from her.
I really enjoyed this... up until it got weird. I thought this was a realistic-type thriller and there was going to be some intrigue. I kept reading and waiting for the exciting thing... only to discover some absolutely insane plot about a hair grease that makes Black women less Black? The whole Kendra Rae thing had potential, and I loved the writing and Nella. I just have no idea why this book took such a bizarre turn. It felt like the beginning and ending were two different books. I may need more time to process this.
I'd read more from this author, but the way it became a book about some magical hair grease just didn't work for me. I get the idea in theory, and understand the point she's making about cultural expectations for Black women in the workplace etc., but I just can't suspend my disbelief enough to like this hair grease personality changer.
I'd read more from this author, but the way it became a book about some magical hair grease just didn't work for me. I get the idea in theory, and understand the point she's making about cultural expectations for Black women in the workplace etc., but I just can't suspend my disbelief enough to like this hair grease personality changer.
I wanted to love this book so much. The whole idea of a thriller around the idea of being the only black female at work...and then another black female starts working with you but strange things start happening cuts to the core of the existence of working in a predominately white space. The whole premise is intriguing. The idea that someone has your back when you are no longer the only minority at work is a very real phenomenon. As a white passing person of color (WPOC), I have not been subjected with too many microaggressions (although there was a colleague who asked whether my mother was "yellow"). However, I have had colleagues call other co-workers by my name instead of their name and one person of color state that they never felt as though they felt anyone had their back until we started working together. These are real experiences that people deal with on a regular basis. (The New York Times did a whole article about minorities being called the wrong name even though they are not even the same ethnicity. For example, one is black while the other is Indian. Or in my case, one of us is black while the other is Asian.) Back to the book: I understand the concept of code-switching and learning the rules of how to succeed in an environment where you are the "odd man" out. As I began to write this review, I decided to give it one more star because I realized the complexity of the writing for Harris to tackle such a difficult subject. The ending was fantastic, and she did a nice job of tying up the loose ends.