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A review by aywebster
The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris
3.0
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:
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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).