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3.41 AVERAGE
3.41 AVERAGE
I wish the resistance elements had been given more attention, and our book club was murky on the intended takeaway from this, but overall I had fun reading it.
Nella was an engaging main character and the Wagner workplace machinations were really effectively conveyed. The pivot to hair grease mind control was...something!
Nella was an engaging main character and the Wagner workplace machinations were really effectively conveyed. The pivot to hair grease mind control was...something!
I really enjoyed The Other Black Girl! This is definitely a slow build of a novel and various perspectives interspersed throughout the main storyline add to the mystery of what has happened and what is to come. I appreciated the social commentary and parallels being made around Nella, a person of color, working in the predominantly white publishing industry. This is one that I'm going to be thinking about for a bit more time -- especially the last third!
WOW. This is the first book, that I have read this year, I feel deserved 5 full stars. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. This book holds so much that many people need to see. Such an amazing read! The writing style was mind altering too. I will be in a book haze for a while after this one, where I need time to recover and check myself! Can’t wait for the next one from this ZDH!
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
If I had a nickel every time I read a high-concept, racially-charged satire of the publishing industry that ultimately wrote a bunch of cheques it couldn't cash, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, and it's probably not that weird that it happened twice.
If this retrospective review of Zakiya Dalila Harris’s The Other Black Girl in part reads like a comparative essay with R.F Kuang’s Yellowface, then I’d say in my defence the latter novel somewhat invites that given how the first blurb quote on my copy of Yellowface is from Zakiya Dalia Harris. And while they are superficially similar in their tone and content, they take their high concepts in very different directions.
The Other Black Girl follows twentysomething bibliophile Nella, slaving away at her dream job as an editor’s assistant at a prestigious New York publishing house Wagner Books. She is the only black woman in the office, in a not-very-diverse industry that is notorious for being not nearly as progressive as it thinks it is. Plot kicks off when Hazel, the titular Other Black Girl, joins as another editor’s assistant. The two quickly become friends and allies - no catfights here. Hazel all but sweeps Nella off her feet, well-connected, infinitely cool and charming, always knowing the right thing to say or do, and rises up fast through the ranks. But there is a sinister air to Hazel and how effortless her life appears. As it becomes clear that Hazel is not all she claims to be, the increasingly insecure Nella starts to dive deeper into the mysterious history of Wagner’s biggest black writer and only black editor. And she starts finding threatening notes on her desk telling her to quit.
Like Yellowface, the plot is relatively slow, and not a great deal happens for large chunks of the story. But here, that’s okay. Like all good entries in the subgenre of the “office thriller”, Harris understands that workplaces can be spaces of psychological terror long before any grand conspiracies start to unravel. Nella is feeling gaslit and uneasy long before the mysterious Hazel crashes into her life - there’s a painful bit early on where she gets scapegoated for pointing out a racist narrative in a tentpole release that strongly resembles future US Senator J. D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy - and a large part of her internal narrative is spent trying to differentiate what is a sinister conspiracy vs what the only black woman in the office is just expected to put up with.
The somewhat choppy pacing is also fine because it’s a much stronger character study than Yellowface. It might seem obvious that a black writer writing about a black woman in a racist office does stronger characterization than an Asian writer trying to imagine what’s really going on in the mind of an anti-racist liberal who’s also racist but there we are. Nella makes a compelling protagonist, earnest and principled enough to be a hero but hapless and insecure enough to be relatable. And the advantage of truly making a story focused on the characters is that it much more easily allows the story to be about multiple things.
This novel is mostly about what it means to be the only black woman in the office and what it means to try and make things better from within self-serving racist institutions which pit everyone against each other. It is also about the unease one gets when befriended by the Hazels of the world, people infinitely more competent and cool than you will ever be, and how no matter how nice they are you’ll always feel like they’re out to get you. It’s also about what it means to be someone like Nella, pulled between a black world and white world and underperforming at both, for whom the presence of the titular Other Black Girl only brings this racial insecurity into sharp relief. There’s a recurring and telling bit about how Nella always mentions that her white boyfriend has two mothers, as if the latter somehow to make up for the former.
And all of this means that when at end the diabolical conspiracy is revealed and resolved rather anticlimactically (in way so convoluted that I realised I had completely forgotten what the twist actually was when I started a re-read) I didn’t really mind. The final twists link back thematically to everything I previously discussed and brings to a head the question the reader is asking from the very first page: what on earth is Nella - or any black woman for that matter - really doing at a place as messed-up as Wagner Books?
The question, and answer, ends up shining a mirror back to the reader. What you really doing with your life? Are you really making things better from the inside? Are all our current ideas of diversity and inclusivity actually doing anything? Certainly a stronger moral takeaway for me than Yellowface’s “don’t steal and publish your Asian friend’s manuscript after you watch her choke to death on pancakes”.
If this retrospective review of Zakiya Dalila Harris’s The Other Black Girl in part reads like a comparative essay with R.F Kuang’s Yellowface, then I’d say in my defence the latter novel somewhat invites that given how the first blurb quote on my copy of Yellowface is from Zakiya Dalia Harris. And while they are superficially similar in their tone and content, they take their high concepts in very different directions.
The Other Black Girl follows twentysomething bibliophile Nella, slaving away at her dream job as an editor’s assistant at a prestigious New York publishing house Wagner Books. She is the only black woman in the office, in a not-very-diverse industry that is notorious for being not nearly as progressive as it thinks it is. Plot kicks off when Hazel, the titular Other Black Girl, joins as another editor’s assistant. The two quickly become friends and allies - no catfights here. Hazel all but sweeps Nella off her feet, well-connected, infinitely cool and charming, always knowing the right thing to say or do, and rises up fast through the ranks. But there is a sinister air to Hazel and how effortless her life appears. As it becomes clear that Hazel is not all she claims to be, the increasingly insecure Nella starts to dive deeper into the mysterious history of Wagner’s biggest black writer and only black editor. And she starts finding threatening notes on her desk telling her to quit.
Like Yellowface, the plot is relatively slow, and not a great deal happens for large chunks of the story. But here, that’s okay. Like all good entries in the subgenre of the “office thriller”, Harris understands that workplaces can be spaces of psychological terror long before any grand conspiracies start to unravel. Nella is feeling gaslit and uneasy long before the mysterious Hazel crashes into her life - there’s a painful bit early on where she gets scapegoated for pointing out a racist narrative in a tentpole release that strongly resembles future US Senator J. D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy - and a large part of her internal narrative is spent trying to differentiate what is a sinister conspiracy vs what the only black woman in the office is just expected to put up with.
The somewhat choppy pacing is also fine because it’s a much stronger character study than Yellowface. It might seem obvious that a black writer writing about a black woman in a racist office does stronger characterization than an Asian writer trying to imagine what’s really going on in the mind of an anti-racist liberal who’s also racist but there we are. Nella makes a compelling protagonist, earnest and principled enough to be a hero but hapless and insecure enough to be relatable. And the advantage of truly making a story focused on the characters is that it much more easily allows the story to be about multiple things.
This novel is mostly about what it means to be the only black woman in the office and what it means to try and make things better from within self-serving racist institutions which pit everyone against each other. It is also about the unease one gets when befriended by the Hazels of the world, people infinitely more competent and cool than you will ever be, and how no matter how nice they are you’ll always feel like they’re out to get you. It’s also about what it means to be someone like Nella, pulled between a black world and white world and underperforming at both, for whom the presence of the titular Other Black Girl only brings this racial insecurity into sharp relief. There’s a recurring and telling bit about how Nella always mentions that her white boyfriend has two mothers, as if the latter somehow to make up for the former.
And all of this means that when at end the diabolical conspiracy is revealed and resolved rather anticlimactically (in way so convoluted that I realised I had completely forgotten what the twist actually was when I started a re-read) I didn’t really mind. The final twists link back thematically to everything I previously discussed and brings to a head the question the reader is asking from the very first page: what on earth is Nella - or any black woman for that matter - really doing at a place as messed-up as Wagner Books?
The question, and answer, ends up shining a mirror back to the reader. What you really doing with your life? Are you really making things better from the inside? Are all our current ideas of diversity and inclusivity actually doing anything? Certainly a stronger moral takeaway for me than Yellowface’s “don’t steal and publish your Asian friend’s manuscript after you watch her choke to death on pancakes”.
Nella is an editorial assistant and the only black employee at Wagner until Hazel shows up. Instead of having Nella's back when she starts fighting against the typical microaggressions of the publishing industry (and most industries), Hazel starts stepping on her toes and her actions become more and more suspicious.
I had conflicting emotions about this book. I wanted to like it... and I did enjoy reading it, but it felt disconnected IMO. This book definitely takes a while to get to the point. It's not necessarily a bad thing, and I enjoyed the office drama that took place during most of the story. The office storyline made sense and I enjoyed the tension between the characters, especially when Hazel starts to seemingly sabotage Nella's position.
However, when the thriller "Get Out" part of the book started to seep in, about 2/3 of the way through, it just confused me. It felt like a different book, and although I knew something was happening, I wasn't quite sure ~what~ was happening until the last 5% of the novel.
Overall, I did enjoy the book and I think it would be a good read for those who enjoy slow burners, but I wish the ending was a bit less confusing and sudden.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for gifting me the ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review!
I had conflicting emotions about this book. I wanted to like it... and I did enjoy reading it, but it felt disconnected IMO. This book definitely takes a while to get to the point. It's not necessarily a bad thing, and I enjoyed the office drama that took place during most of the story. The office storyline made sense and I enjoyed the tension between the characters, especially when Hazel starts to seemingly sabotage Nella's position.
However, when the thriller "Get Out" part of the book started to seep in, about 2/3 of the way through, it just confused me. It felt like a different book, and although I knew something was happening, I wasn't quite sure ~what~ was happening until the last 5% of the novel.
Overall, I did enjoy the book and I think it would be a good read for those who enjoy slow burners, but I wish the ending was a bit less confusing and sudden.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for gifting me the ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review!
I first read this book in 2021 and was disappointed in that I was reading it primarily as a thriller- as it had been publicized - and though I received the overall message, I let the disjointed storytelling get in the way. On this second read, with my book club, I found I still had problems following the story as it does spin around a bit. But this time I allowed the message to take over everything and it changed the entire experience.
SPOILER ALERT
That a woman would prefer to be drugged and lulled into complacency rather than endure a lifetime of constant micro- and macro-aggressions just stunned me. Read this book. Or watch the series, I understand it's on Hulu. And suspend the logistics of telling a story and let Nella's experiences guide you.
SPOILER ALERT
That a woman would prefer to be drugged and lulled into complacency rather than endure a lifetime of constant micro- and macro-aggressions just stunned me. Read this book. Or watch the series, I understand it's on Hulu. And suspend the logistics of telling a story and let Nella's experiences guide you.
Nella works for a publisher in New York City. She is the only black person in her office, so when another black girl starts working in the office, she is elated. However, the new girl, Hazel, has her own plans. I found the first couple chapters drew me in right away. The middle of the book was very slow with long chapters. The ending felt rushed and left more questions than it answered. I was altogether very disappointed.