‘The Other Black Girl’ is an incredibly clever and timely novel. It tells the story of Nella, the sole black woman in her office, who is initially elated when she meets Hazel. But she soon becomes suspicious of her when she starts to receive threatening notes, warning her to get out of the office for good.
I really enjoyed this story- the characterisation was very good, and I enjoyed the pace. It built up really well to the final twist, which was darkly funny at the same time as very disturbing. I am really interested to see what Zakiya Delila Harris writes next!

Now, this book I really had to sit down, let this book settle in my brain before I reviewed it. The premise is very interesting and I couldn't wait to read it. Now that I have, I'm left feeling unsatisfied. The ending and plot twist didn't hit for me. The book is very slow-paced which was to create suspense, but the action gets going for the last 25% of the book. So it is a slow burner, as we get to see Nella in the work place and her interactions.

Now the book is described as The Devil Meets Prada meets Get Out. Perhaps, TDMP at the beginning but very less Get Out. I didn't know this was a thriller until we got towards the end. I was expecting more on about the lack of diversity in publishing but there was much more than that but I couldn't figure it out. At times, I was left feeling a bit confused and frustrated!

The author does do a great job of discussing the microaggressions Black women face in the office and exploring what it means to express your 'blackness' at work. I enjoyed Nella and Malaika's friendship. There were also other POVs in the novel, but I feel like they could've added more suspense to the storyline. The subplot wasn't as interesting as seeing Nella go mad and I was going crazy with her! 🤣

However, I did enjoy the book at the end, it just took a long time to get there! I know that this book will be a huge buzz around this book in 2021! I really didn't expect it to end the way it did. I would recommend it for the journey. Interesting debut from this author!

3.5 / 5

Thank you to Netgalley and Bloomsbury UK for an ARC in exchange for a honest review.

This is a book of two halves. The first part is office life, race and friendship. I was happily pootling down a country lane of office politics and iffy friendships when things started to get weird. At first I thought I was misunderstanding things, then stuff starts happening which most definitely does not fit into the 'girl about town' category. The second half is science fiction and thriller but still in the office.

The major switch in direction can be disconcerting but go with it and you will be rewarded with an intriguing plot, great characters and a tense finale.

Thank you for the opportunity to read 'The Other Black Girl'.

I was unaware fo the hype about this book before reading it and do see similarities to 'The Devil Wears Prada'.. The author has given a clear picture of book publishing which was interesting and I learnt all about the different categories of curly hair. However, I found the eventual plot to be ridiculous and can't understand why the author added this in - it would have been a far better book without it. I also found it confusing having chapters about minor characters but no real explanation of who they were until much later in the book.

Well, this took me by surprise. I hadn't read the "<i>Devil Wears Prada</i> meets <i>Get Out</i>" copy but I was definitely expecting more <i>Devil Wears Prada</i> than I got, and far less <i>Get Out</i>!

I was delighted when I first realised what was going on (no spoilers), and I think this is a fantastic premise for a book. If I have a couple of criticisms, I think the book could have used a tighter edit, and better pacing - it takes too long to get going, and then there isn't really enough time to delve into the - potentially super juicy - ramifications of the main plot driver. I would have liked to read a whole book about the political and cultural possibilities of a world where this device exists, but sadly this attempt didn't quite pull it off for me.

Having said that, it does work in a DWP kind of way for the publishing world. If anything I would have liked more of that too! Maybe I want two different books - one of each - to allow these brilliant, upsetting, infuriating, intriguing ideas to flourish.

The element I liked most was the storyline about the Nella's inspirational predecessor, the Black editor of a book by a Black woman. Initially (before I picked up on the horror elements) I assumed that the book would be mainly about the legacy of these women, and how a millennial inheritor engages with it. Now, how about a third book about that ... ?

Essentially, having written this, my criticism is a standard first-novel criticism: there are just too many good ideas in this. Each deserves a full novel treatment of its own, and I would read each one.

3.5/5 Stars

Thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC.

PS. Anyone who loves the premise should check out <a href="https://fatrascaltheatre.com/vulvarine-a-new-musical/">Vulvarine</a>, a musical about a plot by anti-feminists to subdue all of womankind, and the everywoman hero who foils it.

The Other Black Girl has been featured in National Book Tokens' 21 books to look out for in 2021 on Caboodle.

I’ve had to let The Other Black Girl Settle before I could a review, notably as I feel like I am swimming against the tide, having looked at other opinions.

The premise is sound. Nella has worked at a prestigious publishing firm for 2 years. She’s talented, gets on well with her boss and is hoping for a promotion. She is also the only black employee save for colleagues in administrative and facilities roles. She’s thrilled when Hazel, who is also black, is recruited and hopes she has found a friend. Hazel quickly becomes office darling and can do no wrong. Then Nella starts to receive threatening notes, warning her about her safety at work.

The issues faced by black people in a predominantly white industry (and wider society) are handled incredibly well throughout and made me stop and think. However, the first 1/3 to 1/2 was a little slow and there were various strands which I didn’t think well signposted and therefore the timeline was initially difficult to keep in check. Overall, while a smart nod to the societal issues of race, I’m still a little underwhelmed by the reveal (I don’t want to give away any spoilers) given the strong plot premise.

Many thanks to Bloomsbury and Netgalley for the ARC.

Ooooh this book! I’m going to be so careful how I review this because I really loved launching into this novel with a fairly limited idea of what to expect within the pages. For that reason I’m going to go very light on discussing plot here and focus instead on how I felt about the novel as a whole!

The Other Black Girl is set in the offices of the fictional Wagner Publishing in Manhattan, where assistant editor Nella has long been the only Black member of staff. Struggling to get her voice heard when she addresses her concerns about racial stereotyping in a hit author’s new book, she’s delighted to discover that the company’s brand new hire Hazel is another Black woman. The two hit it off immediately but then Nella begins receiving anonymous notes telling her to leave Wagner immediately and she notices that something about Hazel isn’t adding up. I was drawn in by the thriller premise but I stayed for the hot take on the publishing industry and the clever, unique story that spanned decades, made me think and felt totally fresh.

I don’t know a huge amount about the publishing industry other than what I try, as a writer, to understand. I’ve been told that it’s very white and middle class on the whole and, after the BLM protests last year brought this discussion to the fore and celebrated Black authors, I have followed a lot of initiatives and indie publishing houses that are working to change this. The Other Black Girl’s author Zakiya Dalila Harris worked in publishing in Manhattan before leaving to write this book and I appreciated the opportunity to experience this world through her eyes, to see the workplace in action rather than discussed in think pieces. The novel is very much set in the modern day and I particularly enjoyed Nella’s attempts to communicate her experiences to White colleagues in the discussion forums Wagner sets up in an attempt to increase diversity at the company. The conversations she recounts are at once funny and depressing, and reminiscent of what has been happening at companies across much of the world at the moment. Harris is excellent at writing dialogue and interactions that crackle with subtext. She does this with Nella’s attempts to communicate with her boss Vera and with Hazel, experiences that seem clearly negative but are then smoothed over again and again until both Nella and the reader begin to wonder how much is reality and how much paranoia.

In this novel Harris demonstrates a talent for writing social commentary while also weaving a story with an intriguing mystery at its heart. Like many other thrillers it was a compulsive read and at about the halfway point I hardly put the book down, desperate to find out who was behind the notes. Unlike other thrillers however, it felt packed full of information that was new to me, and I regularly found myself stopping to think. The structure really lent itself to this, switching between locations, characters and time periods to weave various aspects of the story together.

This is the second book I’ve read - Queenie was the first - where the protagonist is a Black woman, a fact which is essential to the storytelling. Like Queenie I found the experience of seeing a familiar world but from a different perspective really interesting and a little bit disconcerting. This, for me, felt like it went a step further than Queenie, exploring the world of the book through Black women of different ages and personalities which I loved. Obviously, in real life, I’m White and so I wouldn’t necessarily be naturally included in many of the conversations and situations that take place in the novel, nor would I have any way of adding to them if I were. So, for me, this book epitomises a hugely important aspect for reading for me, which is the opportunity to enter worlds you simply wouldn’t otherwise. There’s regular studies that look at how fiction readers have more empathy than non-readers, and I’m sure this is a key part of it.

The core concept of the book is surprising and strange, bordering on sci fi but firmly entrenched in our current society. Mostly I loved this although at times I found aspects of it a little convoluted and found myself flipping backwards and forwards to check what time period we were in, who was speaking or exactly who I was most concerned for. The downside for me to the multi-faceted approach to this novel is that I didn’t feel 100% satisfied that everyone’s story was tied up at the end. However, because this story is so closely tied to reality, I understand that individual stories don’t realistically end in a neat and tidy way.

I’m not surprised at all that I’ve already seen people shouting about this book, if anything I would have anticipated hearing about it ever more! It’s at once an enjoyable page-turner and what feels like an essential discussion of modern day diversity problems in the workplace, a fresh work from a fantastic talent.

Somewhere between 3-3.5

One of the buzziest debuts of 2021, The Other Black Girl is something of a literary world mash-up between Get Out and The Devil Wears Prada.

Nella is a 26-year-old publishing assistant at Wagner, a publisher in New York, and the only black woman working at the company. Underrepresented in the industry, she is excited when another black woman, Hazel, joins the company. They initially bond over discussing hair care tips, but all is not quite as it seems, and after a series of unsettling events Nella begins to find herself feeling like her career is at risk.

I'm on the fence on this novel. On one hand, the workplace sections are excellent observational pieces, and Harris did a fantastic job on evoking how Nella felt being the only black woman in the publishers. It becomes clear relatively early on that something is up at Wagner, but it was a loooong slow burn to find out what was going on, with some random chapters following other women who were embroiled in what was taking place. These chapters didn't work for me - not enough had been revealed for them to make much sense - and the "twist" felt completely farcical. So much time had been spent building a very convincing setting and cast of characters, and I'm afraid to say that I found my interest waning towards the end of the novel once things were revealed, and I felt a bit like I'd been cheated by the direction in which the author chose to take the novel (can't say more without big spoilers!).

So all in all: a mixed bag. A solid debut, and one I enjoyed for the most part (with reservations).

The Other Black Girl is a tense social commentary thriller about what happens when a New York publishing house gets a second Black girl in the office. Nella is in her twenties and trying to make it at Wagner Books, but as an editorial assistant and the only Black person in the office, it isn't easy. When Hazel joins the company and the desk near hers, it seems like a chance to have an ally, but they've barely had a chance to bond before it starts to seem like people like Hazel a lot more than Nella, and notes begin to appear on Nella's desk telling her to leave Wagner now.

Going into the book having seen it being compared with Get Out, I was aware something was going to be up, but this slow burn novel lingers on the edge, occasionally cutting to another narrative that you're waiting to intersect with the main one, but mostly showing Nella in the office as she tries to improve her reputation at work and work out what's going on with the notes. Without wanting to give spoilers, it is a clearly done concept that provides a sly take on Black people's success in predominantly White spaces.

The characters are mostly there to keep you guessing about whether they might be friend or foe, especially at Wagner, and the way the book ends means you don't necessarily get answers. Nella's best friend Malaika provides some much needed outside perspective, especially as you don't see much of her boyfriend Owen (which may be for plot reasons), and the mysterious side narrative shows a bit of the wider picture without taking it too far away from Nella's story. Though some people might like more depth into some of these characters and plotlines, it's easy to see why the narrative was written this way, adding a shadowy, sinister side even to the ending.

This is undoubtedly a debut novel that people will be talking about, combining thriller with elements of satire and also a look at microaggressions in an office environment. Even if you feel like you're not interested in books about toxic work environments or read too many, this is something different, original and clever and with lingering dread.

The Other Black Girl is one of the most original, authentic and smart reads that I've picked up in a while.

Publishing people love to tear apart the far fetched portrayals of 'life in publishing' as shown in TV and film, so to see it rep'd in this book with such acute accuracy was hugely refreshing. But quickly, it also becomes soul-crushingly depressing, as we join Nella: an editorial assistant, and the only black employee at Wagner Books, navigating her way through an industry that is overwhelming white, with no real rush or desire to change its status quo.

The Other Black Girl offers up an analysis of race and the racial disparities in life, the media and the workplace that could be easily applied to many an industry, and yet is unlike anything I've ever read before. Most likely down to the way in which the book's plot sneaks into the mystery/thriller arena, adding an intensity that grips you early on.

With an incredibly relatable protagonist, brilliant ensemble cast and villains that make your hairs stand on end, Dalila's debut was a brilliant read.

A slow-burning thriller that will have you racing through its pages, horrified as each piece of the rigged puzzle suddenly starts to fall into place.

The Get Out meets The Devil Wears Prada comp was genius and so so spot on.

This was everything it was hyped up to be and better, the writing was astounding and I ate it up in two sittings. This is definitely one to read for anybody in the industry, particularly those in more senior positions should like to read it - it might be the wake up call they need.

Will certainly be buying a physical copy and re-reading on publication!

The Other Black Girl is a slow-burn thriller with an original concept.

Harris has a real knack for capturing painful moments of microagression, and she crafts a clever commentary on race which takes you to some unexpected places. Nella is a likeable protagonist: her voice has that believable balance between self-awareness and self-doubt that you need to carry off a thriller like this. Without giving anything away, the build to the denouement is perfectly paced, and there is an almost tangible sense of impending dread.

The Other Black Girl is a smart thriller, equal parts sharp social commentary and gripping page-turner.

This is such a well written, intelligently conceived and deftly-plotted book, and I was so excited to see where it was going to go. I was really rooting for Nella, and racing through the pages, totally engaged...and then it all went wrong. I can see why it has been compared to "Get Out", but for me the plot twist that comes two thirds of the way through was so ludicrous and underdeveloped that it derailed the whole thing, Reading other reviews here, I think I'm definitely in the minority, and I can see that there are a lot of things to like about this novel, but for me personally, the plot twist tanked it.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for providing a free ARC copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a lovely insight into the publishing world, but also representative of other industries and how hard it can be when you're one of the only few Black people in the office.
Nella is the only Black worker at Wagner (i.e she doesn't work in the mailroom or anything like that) and is pleased when she sees another Black girl interviewing for a role and then getting the role. Nella is so pleased to have another Black girl in the office and quickly tries to get to know Hazel. Through their interactions and throughout the course of the novel we find out more about Nella and her background. There's definitely a case of both girls being from two different backgrounds, although it's not the case than one is wildly rich or anything like that, just comfortable.
Alongside this storyline of Nella and Hazel is another storyline of a former Wagner employee, the timeline for this story starts about 20 years before the story of Nella and Hazel. Eventually, the storylines meet and you see how they intertwine.
What I liked about this book were the things it touches on and includes, it focuses on racism in general and in the publishing industry, microaggressions, conforming in the workplace and the bonding of black girls through hair. I thought the book really tackled how things like microaggressions work in offices, but also really created a wonderful safe space for the black characters in the book in regards to how they bond (through cosmetics etc).
However, I was unsure about the overall sinister aspect of the story. The book builds you up to it, even has chapters from other people to build up the suspense and then quickly takes the problem away. The way this is structured makes me think there may be a part 2 to this story, however, if there is not, then I find it weird that this part of the story wasn't explored more, or removed entirely. I think this was the most thriller part of it and it was quite a letdown.
That said I really loved the ending and the discussion around conforming.
I also LOVED the use of the cosmetics in this story, I'd guessed it but I also think it's SO clever given how we as Black women love our hair care.

Wow, I absolutely loved reading this book. A very ambitious, fast paced, original and timely novel about being Black in a predominantly white environment: the book publishing industry. Up-and-coming editorial assistant Nella loves it when she finally gets a Black colleague, but why does it feel that she's adjusting better to the many quirks of the prestigious publishing house and its employees?

I expect a lot of aspects will resonate with people in the book trade as there is a lot to recognise - even for white people - and will hopefully also be a wake up call for many in charge. Harris is very successful in getting the details just right, whilst not letting the ambitious plot get away from her.
I had not expected this level of social consciousness in a novel that was also so well written. It reminded me of Such a Fun Age from Kiley Reid. I am confident there will be a lot of buzz around this book on its release next year.

Not only a must-read for book trade 'insiders', but for everyone who wants to read a captivating, engrossing novel about social justice.

Thank you Bloomsbury & NetGalley for the ARC.

Well this was quite a ride! And a tricky book to review without spoilers.

Set in the world of publishing I was i was initially unsure if those outside the industry would find it alienating but the themes that run through it are universal. At heart it deals with systemic racism within so many organisations, and this really did give me that insight into what it must truly feel to be the only black woman in the workplace. Also tackled however is perceived competition between women in the workplace. This is all too real throughout life and this is brilliantly dealt with. Finally, ( through admittedly extreme methods!) this novel looks at the attempts made to control black women, to control black voices, by trying to make them “ fit in” to their white surroundings, making them more compliant., whilst publicly and outwardly claiming to champion diversity. This to me was the most interesting theme, and although an extreme depiction in this novel should not be overlooked.

Powerful messages told in a unique genre defying way.

Wow! The hype is real when it comes to The Other Black Girl. This is a must-read for anyone who works in publishing - Harris exposes so much of what is wrong with the industry on every level, but with such style and flair, I was laughing out loud and rooting for Nella, even whilst my blood was boilng. This had me guessing until nearly the last page, which I reached very quickly because I could not put this book down. An excellent debut, I can't wait to read what Zakiya Dalila Harris writes next!

Just - wow! I’ve seen so much hype on this online (excellent marketing and proof campaign) and was blown away by The Other Black Girl. I work in publishing and it was as if the author had dropped real-life work moments into the book. Honest, truthful, and looking at the really, very big problem in the industry, this book is essential reading. It’s the book we’ve been waiting for for a long time.

'The Other Black Girl' is a Devil Wears Prada-esque, slow-burn thriller.

There's a lot of different things happening in the book to combine into quite a reader's buffet. The prologue teases, leaving you wondering how it weaves in. There's the backstage view of an established publisher in New York - delicious and depressing in equal measure (the author has a background in publishing, so is qualified to write about it in this sense!). The dynamics between Nella and her seniors and co-workers (with some sly digs at how women can help or hinder each other, let alone when race comes into play). The racial micro-aggressions.

I enjoyed the sense of steadily building foreboding, and readers in their 20s/30s in particular will probably feel their own anxiety resonate with Nella's as she fears to lose the job she still loves despite everything. I don't want to give anything anything, but I was satisfied with how the past (from the prologue) and the present tied together, and the ending managed to be despairing, bittersweet and hopeful all at the same time.

I've given 4 instead of 5 stars as I felt the book could've been a little shorter, a little pacier; I also wasn't too sure about the "diva" male writer, who seemed to be more of a caricature-ish straw man, but that's a fairly small quibble.

(With thanks to Bloomsbury and NetGalley for a copy of the ebook in exchange for an honest review)