Unfortunately, this one just wasn't for me. From the reviews I've seen and the rave responses that it's gotten, I think I was expecting something more tense, something that felt like the thriller it's marketed to be. Instead, I found the pacing really slow - it took forever for anything to really start going (despite the promising opening chapter). It felt a little unfocused overall, but I did like how things were revealed and the style of writing too.

A wonderfully-written, thought-provoking book, worth the hype! Razor-sharp, funny and at times chilling, it's a compelling read that you'll want to finish in one sitting. I look forward to seeing what Zakiya Dalila Harris does next.

3.5 stars

This has been one of my most anticipated releases of 2021, after having had a few days to reflect I can really appreciate what Harris was aiming to achieve with this one – for me it just missed the mark ever so slightly. At times it felt as if it was 2 books in one, the first being a chunky slow paced 300 page novel following the life of the only Black person working at a publishing house in NYC & then a smaller 70 odd page thriller with an underground network, some sinister occurrences that had me flipping through the pages swiftly!

Our narrator is Nella, a young black woman working at Wager Books as an Editorial Assistant in NYC. It quickly becomes apparent that Nella is frustrated with being the only Black person, trying with little luck to campaign for diversity – so when another Black girl named Hazel is hired, Nella is delighted! We follow as Hazel settles into her role, quickly becoming the office pet & it’s clear that Nella is jealous, yet uncomfortable…something seems off! One day, Nella finds a note on her desk…”Leave Wagner now”. Needless to say, what ensues is witnessing Nella spiral downwards into paranoia as she becomes consumed with trying to decipher if Hazel sent the note, then more plot twists start occurring & we are introduced to a whole array of other characters….

I loved the inside scoop on the publishing world, especially from the perspective from a POC – I felt Nella’s frustration so vividly! Another aspect I loved was witnessing Nella’s unique relationship with her best friend Malaika – talk about gals having each other’s back! What I will say is that I unfortunately found myself feeling so confused at points, when the narration jumped to new characters, not fully understanding/following what was happening…only further along in the storyline did I finally manage to connect all the dots & when I did – WOW! Two thirds of this novel is slow paced, with all of the action jammed into the final third – which to me felt worrying whilst reading as I had no idea how it would all tie together! Perhaps it would of benefited from being slightly more refined/tightened up – allowing it to be an easier plot to follow & still allowing suspense/twists etc, as many have mentioned before perhaps a case of trying to achieve too much in one novel.

Now with all that being said, I want to highlight that I cannot fault Harris’s writing, she is one to watch & I will definitely be picking up anything she writes in the future. Alongside that, I will say that I did read this one when I was burnout by work/life & feel perhaps I would have had a slightly different experience if I wasn’t so tired! If you like a slow burn with an eerie finale, I would recommend this one.

The Other Black Girl follows Nello who works as an editorial assistant for New York publisher, Wagner Books. Nella is the only black girl that is employed at Wagner, and she has been determined to change that. She is happy to hear that Hazel, another black assistant, is starting at the company in the cubicle near hers and they become friends. Until Nella receives a not saying to leave Wagner now, things take a dark turn.

Right this book was not really what I expected going in to it. I really enjoyed getting a feel of the publishing setting and career as that has always really intrigued me, and this is from Harris’ own experiences from working in publishing. When Nella receives the notes the intrigue and questioning is really there and you’re doubting whether Hazel’s comments are genuine. I did really enjoy the build up and didn’t feel like it dragged too much.

I did feel like this novel was trying to do too much, it was trying to be a contemporary, a thriller and even some other genre aspects were later brought in and I don’t think it executed them all well. I was also sometimes confused as there felt like lots of side characters and I couldn’t keep track of who was who sometimes. The pacing near the end felt a little off as everything that was more thrilling was crammed in to the last 15%. Some plot points left me with questions as they weren’t developed on and I wanted things to be explored more, like with her boyfriend and her friendships.

This was a ambitious debut novel with an interesting twist, however it just left me wanting more from the story. I am interested in what Harris writes next though.

3.5 stars

I have adored reading The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris as a #buddyread with my colleague.
We have had a lot of fun discussing the characters, plot developments and the ending of TOBG over many messages this week.
This book has been described as a thriller and I can understand this description as there is a definite feeling of suspense as you progress through the book. Less a whodunit more a whatsgoingon?
I really felt for Nella who, as the only black girl working in a major publishing house, is regularly dealing with microagressions and challenging behaviour. When Hazel joins Wagner Books, Nella feels she finally has an ally to work with but...well looking at the title of the book you start to wonder...
It was interesting reading the development of the relationship between these two characters and something my colleague and I discussed. We tried to guess in which direction the book was going to take, with not much success! I was happily pulled along by the plot enjoying Nellas discussions with her best friend and her boyfriend as well as trying to deal with the weird notes left at work and trying to work out how to deal with the changing office politics.
During our buddy read, we talked about how books and films are marketed and hype surrounding new releases. Personally, I am quite happy to start reading a book that I know next to nothing about, I quite often end up reading outside of my comfort zone that way and end up learning a few things. For instance I now know a lot more about black hair than I ever did before. I thought TOBG was cleverly written and with a unique premis that I totally bought into.
I would say that this is one of my favourite reads of the year so far and definitely one that I'll recommend to my customers as a bookseller.

The tagline of this book is pretty spot on.

The concept of this story is really cool I think and it was such an eerie read. I really enjoyed this read overall. It did really well to capture that toxic New York office atmosphere and corporate white offices "engaging" with diversity in their workplace.

Some reviewers are pointing out how clearly of a picture this book painted of the publishing industry, but I would argue this is most corporate American industries to be honest.

My main disappointment with the book was the pacing, but I do feel like this can be a staple for this genre - which isn't something I'm 100% used to. I wouldn't let that stop you from picking this one up as the pacing could help really build the tension of the situation.
I do wish the whole conclusion didn't happen in essentially the last few pages and I still had so many questions at the end that felt really unsolved.

Overall, the concept and execution of this story is still really cool. The whole vibe is hopeful, then eerie, and then down-right frightening and uncomfortable.

This is a bit of an odd one; feels like two books slightly jarringly fused. Part realistic, slow-burn thriller set in a publishing house, part slightly mad sci-fi. Nella's story moved too slowly for me, and the interspersed chapters from other POVs were difficult to follow. The conclusion of the book was just a bit nuts. Lots of potential and promise here but I do wish it had had a harsher edit.

This is an interesting one because it almost feels like there's two books in one. The first is a slow paced story about how working world can be for POC. Nella works in publishing and is trying to navigate the challenges of being the only Black woman in the office when Hazel joins. Nella is excited by having another Black colleague but all doesn't go quite as she expects. She spends much of the book slowly being overshadowed by Hazel, not sure if she has a friend or someone trying to undermine her. This side of things was certainly interesting but it moved a little two slowly to really grip me. We spend a good three-quarters of the book here, watching these dynamics play out.

The other side of things is a pretty sinister thriller. Nella starts receiving threatening notes and knows that someone wants her gone from her job. She tries to figure out who it is as her professional life stars to slip of her grip, with the story getting darker and darker as we learn more. This is the part that I can't make up my mind about. It definitely added much of the intrigue to the book and kept me hooked, but it also got more and more far fetched.

It becomes a surreal and chilling book about how far you'll go to get ahead and who you'll involve to get there. Can't quite decide on it yet but I'm sure it'll be a book that gets people talking.

The Other Black Girl was definitely a book of two halves for me. The majority of the book is a slow paced, realistic thriller set in a publishing house with a real sense of unease running through it. After years of trying to promote diversity in her workplace, Nella struggles when a new black girl is hired who doesn’t seem to share the same ideals as her but is also winning over the bosses and undermining Nella at every opportunity. I really liked the portrayal of black issues that are at the forefront of this part of the book; the dilemma of trying to speak up that one of the companies best-selling authors has created a harmful stereotype of black culture within their writing was really interesting and I liked how realistic Nella felt. As this part of the book is so long you also start to see the plot from all sides, it was an interesting balance between how much gas-lighting and undermining was going on from Hazel but also how much could be just jealousy from Nella about someone else coming in and taking her ‘position’ within the company. Nella comes across as a bit unhinged at times which cast her reliability into question nicely.

By around 80% of the book, I was still very unsure where the story was going and not much had actually happened. There’d been a few warning notes at Nella’s desk demanding that she leave her job but I really think this section could have been edited down considerably. There were also a few chapters written in other perspectives but these were confusing, I didn’t really understand how they related to the story and as the plot was so slow and they didn’t move it on at all I found myself very frustrated with them.

At 80% we suddenly get a massive genre change and the whole book takes on a bit of a sci-fi tilt. This was immensely jarring and because the previous parts of the book had been so realistic it just felt a bit ridiculous. By 91% I felt like the plot had finally gotten going but this didn’t really give the book anywhere to go once the reveal had been made. The change came from nowhere and hadn’t really been set up or alluded to in the previous half of the book and so there was nothing to grasp on to. I really think the hair-care party which sparked the change should have come at 50% of the novel and then the rest of it focussed on fleshing the idea out and showing the reader the motivations behind what was happening. All we got in regards to that was a monologue from one character right towards the end which just seem to portray them as a straight-up evil, without any light or shade. It would have been great to get a few more hints earlier in the story as to what was specifically going on as well. The twist at the end felt very predictable once you knew what was going on and I’m still left with a lot more questions than the ending answered.

Overall, The Other Black Girl is a slow-paced read with a jarring plot and genre twist that came way too late in the story to do anything with. Thank you to NetGalley & Bloomsbury Publishing for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Absolutely loved the start of this, so full of promise and I couldn't wait to carry on reading. Then - pages and pages where very little happened. Dialogue with paragraphs of back-story in between, I soon lost interest. I was so sorry about this, especially when this book is getting rave reviews. I can only think that maybe this isn't a book for me and perhaps I misjudged when I asked for it.

I enjoyed The Other Black Girl however I don’t think the Marketing of this book quite fits the bill. A lot of the action happens very close to the end of the novel and I think comparing it to Get Out and Devil Wears Prada doesn’t do the book any favours.

I think this book is powerful in addressing the anxieties Black employees of the publishing industry face and Harris’s writing is poignant and it should be allowed to speak for itself. The core of this book is about the truths facing Black folx in the publishing industry and the examination of how this relates to the wider world that is biased against people for the colour of their skin. It is not however a manual on how to fix it but a long overdue fictitious satirical look at the publishing industry.

My main issues are with the marketing which overshadows a good book.

This book is great fun and I enjoyed it a lot!

I’ve seen it compared a lot to other things - The Devil Wears Prada and The Stepford Wives among them - but the closest of the comparisons is Get Out.

But is it horror? I guess that’s a matter of opinion.

The Other Black Girl follows Nella, an editorial assistant in publishing who is the only black girl in the office, until Hazel joins the business. Hazel is instantly popular and successful and everyone loves her. Nella is glad to have a black ally, but something is weird about Hazel, and Nella can’t work it out.

But then Nella starts to receive threatening notes telling her to leave her job and she wonders if Hazel is involved.

This is brilliant, terrifying satire that definitely makes you think. I found it utterly compelling and couldn’t stop reading. I did find the multiple perspectives a little tricky to juggle at first and got the times and characters a bit confused but by the end I understood the importance of this context.

I think this book is going to be huge this summer. 4 stars

This was surprisingly a chilling and uncomfortable read, it slowly got more and more disturbing and by the end it is incredibly dark and "Get Out" vibes. If you love a thriller that is thought-provoking this book is for you - it was fascinating to see the author's depiction of micro-aggressions in a white dominated industry and then have everything you thought you knew about the characters and plot completely flipped. The one struggle I had was that I didn't find any of the characters particularly likeable but maybe that was the point!

This is certainly going to be one of the most discussed literary novels of 2021 – at least in the United States.

I think it’s a book best read largely cold – so I don’t think it makes sense to say to really add anything to the blurb in terms of plot/characters etc and I will try instead to focus on overall approach and themes.

And it is very difficult to categorise:

As a book that blends part literary fiction, part Book Club discussion book; part modern social comedy of manners; part girlfriend-bonding book; part story of everyday office life – all refracted through a lens of black experience in a white dominated world: there were elements that reminded me of the 2020 Booker longlisted “Such a Fun Age” and others that reminded me of the 2020 Women’s Prize longlisted “Queenie”.

But this also contains further elements.

The first is a biting satire on the lack of diversity the publishing industry – an element briefly explored in the 2021 Women’s Prize longlisted “Luster” but which here is front and center of the book.

Now I know, I know ......…. there are too many books written about writing, authors, books etc and it always seems to imply a lack of imagination…. but this one I think works well. There is a lot to be said for the publishing industry examining the inclusion plank in its own eye before turning its literary fire on wider society (here my scriptural analogy fails as wider society has less of a mote and more of a forest in its eye). Even an area of particularly interest to me (literary prizes) has its own issues (I am looking at you Goldsmith Prize).

The second - and the book's absolute core - is a really hard hitting examination of the issue on how to succeed in a world which is systematically stacked and institutionally biased against you.

Do you adapt and fit in even if it means compromising your beliefs and values;

Do you fight back hard – yes risking your own success and possibly creating a counterproductive backlash but at least knowing you have spoken out and retained your full integrity;

Or do you try a difficult middle line, keeping your hard down with the aim that once you rise to the top you can then effect lasting change from there – and if you take that route what does it actually mean and when do you make the decision to come from undercover?

(All of this is examined for black people working in a white-dominated world – and I am not qualified to express an opinion there: although I think people may well relate to it on a political, ethical or religious front also).

And this is a book which – I suspect uncomfortably for many readers – does not give answers – in many ways simply pointing out the issues with each of the different approaches.

I think some readers may also be uncomfortable with the way that the nature of the book’s examination means that the different approaches (and those following them) are effectively set up in opposition to each other more so than against their common oppressors (although I think that can be gathered from the book’s title).

And the third is a part thriller, part dystopian, part surreal element which I think really distinguishes the book.

Overall I think this will probably be the most original book I read this year.

This seemed promising and had some really interesting bits but I found it poorly edited with too much detail. After reading the first 100 pages, the next morning I couldn't really remember what had been happening, nor did I feel compelled to continue. It didn't feel like a thriller and the characters were not interesting. I have heard a lot of buzz about it and will be interested to see what readers think as I'm afraid I didn't think it lived up to the hype.

Ohhhhh I did not like this book at all. I've been trying to write this review for a while now and I'm not sure I'll do a good job of it.

So we're following Nella Rogers, a young editorial assistant "who is tired of being the only Black employee at Wagner Books. Fed up with the isolation and microaggressions, she’s thrilled when Harlem-born and bred Hazel starts working in the cubicle beside hers."

Sounds really promising right? The premise was good, the start too but where is the thriller and the book I was promised that was supposed to "keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last twist"????? 😫

I endured every single page of this book and it nearly had me in a reading slump for a week. I did not care for the characters much, there was practically no action and it may have been a tiny bit better towards the last 80 pages but I mean, no.

It really could have worked so well as the subject matter is very relevant but all it did was left me deflated and annoyed at another wrongly marketed book. Don't say it's a thriller when it's not. The ending was also so far fetched too I kept rolling my eyes 🙄.

It might work for some, I get that. But not for me...

2⭐️

Thank you to @Netgalley and @bloomsburypublishing for this ARC in return for my honest review.

A story about a Black girl working in one of the biggest publishing houses in the world combined with a thriller side to it? The Other Black Girl took discussions around race in a predominantly White and Eurocentric industry to a whole other level.

Nella Rogers is fed up with working at Wagner Books as their only Black employee, so when Harlem-born Hazel starts working with her, she's beside herself with joy sharing experiences of racial microaggressions and natural hair care. Soon after, Nella begins to receive mysterious and disturbing notes warning her to leave publishing while Hazel swiftly builds a rapport in the office climbing her way up the career ladder at Wagner.

I thought this would be a story of betrayal, but it went beyond my expectations with its spectacular twist. I was blown away, not least for its timely social commentary but that its intersection of subliminal White supremacy with a thriller bordering on sci-fi was intense and impressive. Everything in the novel was well fleshed-out and I felt like I was walking In Nella's shoes.

It took a little too long for the climax and big reveal to kick in but as the book ends on a cliffhanger, I'm hoping that there will be a sequel. Both fans of thrillers and those who study Critical Race Theory will likely enjoy this!

This is not a story I saw coming, partly because I was misled by the blurb for Zakiya Dalila Harris's novel comparing it to The Devil Wears Prada and a workplace comedy drama this is not. It is a chilling and deeply unsettling examination of the black experience in the predominantly white publishing industry, set in New York at the fictional Wagner Books. For 26 year old Nella Rogers, a lonely and isolated black editorial assistant, negotiating the micro-aggressions of her daily working life has been a far from a comfortable experience. So when another black woman, Hazel, is employed and working beside her, she is delighted and looking forward at long last to having a friend and ally. The two women bond over discussions on haircare, but as Hazel's stock rises in the office, Nella begins to get hostile notes.

The underlying sense of menace grows, as strange events, manipulation, and intrigue conspire to erode Nella's reputation and there is a historical thread of a black editor from the past that begins to connect with the present. There are twists and turns, all leading to a shockingly surprising conclusion. I am not going to lie, it took me a long time to feel as if could understand what the book was about, at times it felt like a excruciatingly slow burn of a office drama before the suspense kicked in, although the portrayal of the white working environment was detailed and insightful. This is a challenging, discomfiting and imaginative novel with a strong social commentary with its core themes of racism, tokenism and the nature of diversity in the publishing industry. Furthermore, it is depressing how far some in the black community will go to fit in and succeed in the workplace rather than being supportive in their relationships with each other.

This is a intensely dark, satirical, and thought provoking read, but it is far from perfect, and whilst I eventually found myself engaged by the original and compulsive storytelling, I don't think its a book that will appeal to everyone, it requires patience and some might find the narrative ventures far too much into what might be seen as insane territory. Many thanks to Bloomsbury for an ARC.

Okay, first I LOVE that a book is called this. How many times have we said or thought this phrase?! I love the moments in this book that felt real / that I recognised from my own experiences and that those things were being said in a mainstream literary context. I liked the bits of humour and the fun it allows you to poke at yourself with the contemporary references – and that there are so many of them. Usually, they take me out of a story, but the tone of this book fitted with them perfectly. The story built up well and was well put together. There are so many interactions, events, and depictions in this book that I don’t often, if ever, see in mainstream reading that may have made me view the novel with rose-tinted glasses. But even being critical the writing was engaging. The book always had a specific direction and was well thought out. There are some characters that I cared about that were not tied up at the end, which I would have preferred. The epilogue was maybe too short and would have been served by some character jumping first (showing you how they are ‘today’), with the current epilogue right at the end. I believe every individual and their motivations completely. I wanted to keep reading to find out what was going on but in general I’m not a ‘creepy book’ person and if this wasn’t about black women in the workplace I probably wouldn’t have read or enjoyed it – that’s the hook for me. It kind of reminds me of Such a Fun Age in that it tackles issues of white supremacy and racism but with this ‘literary, what a crazy plot/ person’ edge/ twist. I can’t be mad about that, but I can say I would enjoy reading some of these observations just littered through a romance novel / a novel about something else, but maybe I just need to look harder. I enjoyed the book jumping around in place and time – but I would have wanted a physical copy to flip back and reference some of the people, dates and places.
And finally: Let's talk covers - The blue cover is SO much better than the yellow cover - hands down in my opinion - the afro-puffs and earrings on the blue with a black woman's face is elegant and says so much more than a broken afro comb.

A compelling story that I found unpredictable. I really appreciated how Harris weaved Black culture into the story. I did feel it could have benefited from better editing and being shorter as there was a lot of unnecessary detail and dragged-out scenes, but it's still an interesting and original novel.