A review by christygoldsmith
The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris

4.0

It wasn't really thriller and it wasn't really social criticism and it wasn't really chick lit. Parts were laugh out loud funny. I appreciate the genre-busting that happened here. The cover is gorgeous. BUT. Ironically, the story really needed a good editor who would massage (force?) a direction and reasonable pacing. The ending was rather brilliant (and I love that it was thinly veiled, leaving room for interpretation), but the first half was plodding, clunky, and unfocused. In short, it falls into the MFA trap (which y'all know I can sniff out an MFA-ed author a mile away).

All in all, I love to read a debut book and the thinking here is intriguing enough that I'll pick up the author's next book. 3.5 stars.