Thank you to Netgalley, Bloomsbury Publishing and Zakiya Dalila Harris for my arc of The Other Black Girl in exchange for an honest review.

Published 1st June 2021

Nella has been fed up of being the only black girl in the ultra white world of publishing in New York. So she’s ecstatic when new girl Hazel-Mae joins and she finally has someone to help her defend the micro aggressions and racism embedded into the publishing world. But no sooner have the girls started bonding then Nella begins to find notes threatening her and telling her to leave Wagner Books, and as Hazel’s career flourishes and Nella’s declines she begins to wonder if the other black girl could be the one sending the notes and trying to sabotage her…

Wow. It’s hard to say what I made of this book! It’s such a mix of genres it’s hard to pin down exactly what was going on all along.

The positives for me were definitely that it’s the first book to have got me engrossed in a long time. I found myself thinking about it at work during the day and looking forward to picking it up and finding out more in the evening. The initial feeling is a bit like The Devil Wears Prada competition in a cut throat publishing world with a sinister edge. But then it develops into something more sci-fi and horror-like. I really liked Nella’s character and Hazel made a fantastic nemesis. The characters were well written, the setting perfect and the right amount of edgy tension was always present.

The only negative for me is that I felt more explanation could have been present. The ending was quite ambiguous and open ended and didn’t really provide any proper answers. Which after all that build up I would have preferred.

After reading the blurb, I was super excited to read this book. I did enjoy it and it was a good story line, although it was a bit slow at some points. I feel like it needed something extra to give it that "wow factor" that keeps me reading until late in the night. It definitely does have "The Devil Wears Prada" vibes and I could imagine the different characters around the office.
Overall, Zakiya Dalila Harris should be commended for her style of writing. It was very thought provoking and this novel was very original and full of emotion.
Thank you to Zakiya Dalila Harris, NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing Plc for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Wow, this book is un-put-down-able! The plot is sso sharp and fast-paced that you just have to read the next chapter. Harris does a great job of highlighting the microagressions and 'soft' racism that Black women have to deal with every day in the workplace. The hair grease used to soften the edges seems to be a stand in for white privilege and fragility, forcing these women to be less than they are in order to 'fit in'. This book owes a lot to Jordan Peele, and also strikes a similar note to Kiley Reid's Such A Fun Age. Harris is one to watch.

This book started strongly for me as I liked the protagonist Nella, I liked the insight into her experiences as the only Black woman working in an editorial team at prestigious publishing house Wagner Books and I liked the tension that was created when new starter Hazel, the other black girl of the title, puts Nella on her toes and causes her to negotiate the line between comradery and competitiveness. All of these elements set the book up well and made for a promising start to the story.

Unfortunately it went a bit downhill for me from there. The pacing in this book is way off with two thirds of the book feeling very slow, repetitive and quite dull and then the "action" ramping up and feeling quite rushed in the final third. There is far too much time spent "setting the scene" and building the mystery and not enough time allowed for the explanation at the end so it made for quite a frustrating read overall. The resolution to the story was too absurd for my tastes too and didn't do justice to the nuanced and clever details and observations which featured through much of the story. I am disappointed that I did not enjoy this book as much as I was expecting to but can appreciate why other readers have liked it a lot more than me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for the ARC.

The original blurb for “The Other Black Girl”, the debut novel by Zakiya Dalila Harris described it as Get Out meets The Devil Wears Prada, and this is one of the reasons that piqued my interest. The yellow cover with two broken teeth on an Afro pick was the other reason I thought this book would be an interesting read. I have to say the book did not disappoint at all.

Despite micro aggressions, white privilege, office politics and racism and diversity in the workplace being central themes, the book was laugh out loud in places. It was also relatable for me as I have often been the only Black person in white spaces. The excitement conveyed when you see someone who looks like you entering your workplace hoping and praying that they will give you the nod, and being disappointed when they don’t acknowledge you was so well explained here.

I believe, non Black people would also enjoy reading the book, as the writing is clever and thought-provoking. It will also make people rethink their own behaviour and prejudices without being preachy.

Set in the world of publishing, the book is not only funny but also a thriller, and possibly science fiction. As the reader you are rooting for Nella (the protagonist) and become more and more suspicious of the Other Black Girl, Hazel. The narrative style also introduces other characters who you’re not quite sure how they fit into Nella’s world but the twist brings everything together.

I’m definitely looking forward to seeing what else Harris writes, and due to the originality of the story, as well as it not being a stereotypical Black book I hope her work is recognised in forthcoming book awards.

***Thank you to Netgalley and Bloomsbury for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.***

I enjoyed this title, although a bit of a slow burner to start it soon gathered speed and had me curious as to how the Nella and Hazel relationship would progress. Nella’s initial excitement of no longer being the only black girl in the office is short lived as Hazel makes her mark within the company by using her charm to ease herself into new relationships with colleagues – including those that Nella has struggled to gel with. When Nella receives the note “LEAVE WAGNER NOW” she becomes suspicious of those around her, especially Hazel, and it becomes her mission to understand more about her.

Although this is classed as a psychological thriller, and there were a few twists, I felt it did not have the usual grip of this type of genre and that the thriller part was a side show for the main message to highlight the struggles of black women in the workplace. There is so much that could be discussed about this debut novel, and I think we will be hearing a lot about it in the coming weeks and months.

Many thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, Zakiya Dalila Harris and NetGalley for the review copy.

The Other Black Girl is both a thought-provoking and enthralling thriller about an African-American woman navigating a nearly all-white workplace inspired in part by the author’s similar experience in the New York City publishing world. Young, ambitious and hard-working editorial assistant Nella Rogers has now worked for prestigious publishing imprint Wagner Books in New York City for two years and has been the only black person present for the extent of her tenure so far. Depending on her mood she has a few different feelings about it but one thing she always feels is like an outsider. So when a seemingly fashion-conscious black girl appears on her floor, she is excited and glad to finally have an ally, someone she can relate to and someone who understand the adversity she feels. Hazel-May McCall is Wagner’s newest editorial assistant and the calm and assured woman becomes a friend to Nella. Initially, they share stories and get along swimmingly, even discussing the mostly-ignored racial politics in the office, but it isn't to last. Nella continues to struggle when she gets mistaken for Helen-May ”the other black girl” as if their only trait was the colour of their skin and she suffers through a reading of a bestselling white author’s manuscript with a black character who is one-dimensional and more of a stereotype than a real person but her criticisms fall on deaf ears. Hazel’s introduction is presumably a nod to the need for the firm to be inclusive and an attempt from the all-white higher-ups to show they treat everyone as equals; the ”Diversity Town Halls” scheme claims to tackle racism head-on but does nothing of the sort. A short time later, Nella begins to receive anonymous notes with one reading: “Leave Wagner. Now”.

She soon realises that there's something not quite right about Hazel. Her superiors treat her as one of them, something they have never done with Nella in the whole time she's been employed there. She seems to be adored and praised by those higher up in the company and she posits that the reason may be because Harlem-born Hazel fits perfectly with their stereotype of a black person; for starters, she was born to parents who were ardent civil rights activists. Who is writing these notes and for what purpose? Is it Hazel? Nella begins a deep dive to search for answers and uncovers a dangerous conspiracy more ubiquitous than she could've ever known. This is a riveting genre-bending psychological thriller crossed with a social satire and with touches of horror, magical realism and sci-fi where micro-aggressions and gaslighting turn the ‘civilised’ atmosphere of a publishing company into a slowly unravelling horror. It is about race, though I think anyone who has worked in a corporation will find themselves identifying with the narrator’s questioning of her colleagues’ authenticity and her own self-belief. It’s uncategorisable, but most importantly it’s a funny and pointed takedown of a self-proclaimed progressive culture that is also a page-turner. It's nuanced, with characters who are so skilfully painted and full of life they leap forth off the pages and the dark humour adds a little lightness to a bleak topic. Sharp and full of insights about race, class and gender, this gripping, twisty read will keep you on your toes until the end. This is a totally fresh and intelligent take on the thriller genre which also has plenty to say on a burning issue of our time. Highly recommended.

Wow what a book! Almost a satirical expose centred on the publishing industry, this is a no holds barred exploration of identity, competitive environments, experiences as a black woman in the workplace, privilege, and race. It is better that readers go into this book not knowing too much about the plot, as personally I think that will spoil the enjoyment and understanding of it.

With so many complex themes interwoven, it would be easy for the story to become lost, but I really feel the author has handled this well in The Other Black Girl.

It is badged as The Devil Wears Prada meets Get Out and when we first meet twenty-six-year-old editorial assistant Nella Rogers, you might be fooled into thinking it is just about office dynamics at publishing house Wagner Books. Nella is the only black person working at Wagner and is excited when she sees another black girl has joined the company – Hazel. Suffice to say this excitement is short lived. When Nella later receives a mysterious note with the words “LEAVE WAGNER. NOW.” the Get Out element really starts coming into play and we move from contemporary fiction into the psychological thriller realm, supported by the stories of Shani, Kendra Rae and Diana.
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Nella is a solidly crafted character and I think many women will be able to relate to her experiences. I found there were points where I really understood her actions, and others where I was frustrated by her decisions – when she lets her guard down or doesn’t assert herself enough but I think that makes her all the more realistic, and it keeps you fully invested in her journey and world. I particularly enjoyed the dramatic irony of Nella’s partner Owen ensuring he was not “The Dumb Fool” by checking she wasn’t putting herself in harm’s way, when in fact Nella would in fact herself later become “The Dumb Fool” whilst we the reader frantically begged her to open her eyes.

The structure really allows the story to slowly unfold. It is told in four parts but with multiperspective elements and shifts in time, which serve to flesh out the more complex elements of the plot – particularly towards the climax of the story where you might find yourself a bit hazy, shocked and wondering what is really going on. With so much happening, I think it’s paced nicely as anything else would not have allowed enough time for explanation.

Knowing that Zakiyah Dalila Harris has put “really large chunks” of her own lived experience into the book really enhanced my reading of it. It is accessible to readers of all backgrounds but as a black woman there were many elements of it that particularly resonated with me. I think for example that the focus on and significance of hair in the story will really land with readers in different ways.

For me the overriding emotion whilst reading was just this deep sense of unease, which completely drew me in. Dark, deep, terrifying, and then some, I would say this is a psychological thriller but in a refreshing and unexpected way, as I don’t think I have read anything else like it. From the acknowledgments I see it is already being adapted for TV and think it will translate brilliantly on screen.

Can’t wait for more books from this author! Thanks to Bloomsbury and NetGalley for my ARC.

The Other Black Girl is one of the most original novels I’ve read for a while.. Nella works for an highly prestigious publishing house in New York, as their only black employee she constantly finds herself fighting prejudice and struggles to fit in. She is delighted when Hazel arrives, they quickly bond and she feels that the tide of discrimination is turning in her workplace. Events quickly take a sinister turn, Hazel seems to assimilate so quickly and Nella feels she is being pushed to the side - then the anonymous notes telling her to get out start arriving...
The Other Black Girl is an excellent, thrilling and brilliantly written novel. It also provided me with a fascinating education into Black politics, life (and hair products) in America.
Thank you to #netgalley and #bloomsburybooks for allowing me to review this ARC

This is a mind-blowing novel that does not fit neatly into a genre, nor does it make for easy reading --though it is completely gripping. It’s a thriller with a dose of horror – and also an exposé as it blows open the ‘whiteness’ of the publishing industry while also exploring the complexities of the Black experience and race politics in publishing and elsewhere. It is even more powerful given Harris’ explanation in the acknowledgements that ‘large chunks’ of her own experiences are ‘woven throughout’ the book.

Nella Rogers works as an editorial assistant at Wagner Books, and she is the only Black person employed in a professional position. She is ambitious and principled as she faces daily micro-aggressions, tokenistic ‘diversity training’ and powerful authors and editors who are uninterested in understanding their own biases. Then Hazel-May McCall, another Black girl, is hired; initially Nella is thrilled as there is finally someone who will understand the nuances of Nella’s experiences on a daily basis – but Hazel acts differently around her white employers, and seems to have doors opened for her. When anonymous threatening notes begin to arrive on her desk, Nella feels vulnerable and suspicious.

The story is largely told from Nella’s perspective though there are several other characters whose inner monologues and experiences are shared, adding to the mystery element of the novel; I found myself waking up in the middle of the night trying to fit different pieces of the puzzle together – a sure-fire sign of a well-plotted book. It is also beautifully written; while I read it the first time for plot, I feel I need to go back again and read it again, savouring the evocative details and the rich language. Hair was a motif throughout the book, and I found it fascinating: Harris rightly decided to use hair-linked lingo that white people like me may not understand, but I sure do want to find out more – and I am now hankering for the delicious smell of cocoa butter.

To sum up: a clever, provocative novel that may leave you feeling uncomfortable, and a great read that will leave you hungry to hear more from debut author Zakiya Dalila Harris.

I don't really know what I just read. For over half of it I was thinking it was political, full of the unconscious bias many of us are guilty of (uncomfortable as it is to admit this) then it suddenly became something entirely different. Somewhere on the blurb it compares it with 'Get Out' but I've never seen the film, so the nearest comparison I can make (and I realise it's not good enough) is Stepford Wives..

I took me a while to decide what I thought about about this book, in all honesty. It didn’t quite live up to the quality that I had predicted.
I loved the characters of Nella and Hazel initially, and especially enjoyed the office drama setting and the way they both led the story.
About half way through the book there started to be some hints at a more sinister side and I did start to think that all was not what it seemed, especially in regards to Hazel.
I think the ending is where it all becomes a little more exciting but I will be honest, I had no idea what was happening and what was actually going on. I was left very confused and felt the time I had invested into the book and into the character of Nella (whom I loved) was just wasted as I still now - have no idea what her fate was!

An unusual, unsettling and gripping novel. I agree with other reviewers that the story really picks up pace in the final 25%, but I enjoyed the growing sense of disquiet in the first sections of the book. The comparisons with The Devil Wears Prada are justified, but it goes further than that.

Many thanks for this review copy in return for this honest review.

This book brought back memories of when I was 20 and working as an intern at a huge corporation. It was a very conservative environment and I was the only Italian who wasn't working as cook/cleaning person. It was well before any idea about inclusive work environment came into being and I know how I felt when I was labeled as the "foreigner".
I felt a strong bond to Nella and I think I would have reacted like her if someone like me had joined the team.
It's a gripping, darkly humorous and well written story. A thriller that made me reflect and brought back memories.
I don't know if the depiction of publishing workplaces is right or exaggerated, I know that some thing are common to all working environment and the author did a good job in describing the dynamics.
Good character and plot development, a thought provoking stories. The hype around this story is justified.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

An electric debut novel that will keep readers hanging on every page. I was immediately drawn to Nella's story and quickly became emotionally invested in every twist and turn. It's a must-read for fans of psychological thrillers.

I thoroughly enjoyed the genre-bending nature of this book and the exploration of racism within the publishing industry. I wish that the suspense and excitement of the final few chapters was more prominent throughout the narrative.

Nella Rogers has achieved what she could only dream of, at 26 she is editorial assistant at one of the most prestigious publishing houses. The only thing she has been struggling with the last two years is how the idea of diversity has never entered her workplace, after the Asian girl left, she is the only person with a different background. Things change when unexpectedly Hazel is employed and gets the cubicle next to her. Nella senses immediately that with another black girl, they might finally make a change in publishing, promote more diverse authors and bring forward new topics relevant to a large audience which wasn’t addressed so far. However, it does not take too long until Nella’s work life starts to go downhill.

Zakiya Dalila Harris’ debut novel has been called one of the buzz books of 2021 by several magazines. I was intrigued by the blurb immediately, a kind of horror version of “The Devil Wars Prada” sounded totally enthralling. For a long time, “The Other Black Girl” could fulfil the expectations, there is a highly uncomfortable feeling creeping around, yet, the end was a bit too much for my liking.

Nella is quite a likeable young woman, hardworking and even though not an activist she is following the Black Lives Matter movement even before this becomes a widespread phenomenon and big news. She imagines being able of making a change in the publishing industry but first needs to get at the position where she has the actual power to do so. Therefore, she is quite assimilated and she swallows comments from her colleagues even though they might be quite offensive for persons of colour. With the arrival of Hazel she seems to get an ally and befriends her immediately.

For the reader, even though there are some chapters which seems unrelated to Nella’s story but hint at some goings-ons beyond her scope, it is obvious that Hazel is not the friendly and reliable colleague Nella assumes, this was an aspect which annoyed me a bit, I didn’t get the impression of Nelly being that naive and credulous at first and would have liked her to be a bit cleverer in relation to what happens at her workplace.

The novel, however, is quite strong at portraying Nella’s feelings as being the only black girl, the role she assigned to as representative of a totally diverse group which is just too simplistic, yet, nobody really seems to care about the concept of diversity, having one black girl is enough. She has other issues than her colleagues, especially the talk about hair was quite a novelty, even though this is a huge topic if you do not have the easy-care blond hair.

Overall, I liked the writing and found Nella’s perspective and the insight in the publishing world interestingly realised.

So very different and, at times, a bit strange and unsettling!

Nella Rogers works in publishing at Wagner Books where she feels very much the token black girl. She’s fed up with never really feeling a part of things so when the other black girl turns up in the cubicle next to hers, Nella is delighted. Just as a friendship begins to bloom, there is a succession of things which leave Hazel as everyone’s best friend and Nella as public enemy number one. Then Nella begins to receive little notes telling her to leave Wagner; is Hazel really going to be that obvious in her take-over, or is there more to this than meets the eye?

Who knew the world of publishing could be so cutthroat? Everyone I deal with is always so nice! There are more than one narrators in this book, and for quite some time I didn’t know what the connection was. On several occasions I was reading on assuming I was still with one person when I suddenly realised it was someone else now. It’s really hard to put this one aside; it’s a compelling read and one where I was almost afraid to miss a word in case it altered something and I missed it! For a long time I wasn’t really sure what was going on, then it got even more complicated and by the end I was left wondering what happened to some of the characters. From time to time I had the chilling feeling of glimpses of The Handmaid’s Tale and the Stepford Wives. Weird and sinister with an almost futuristic feel to it, it was strangely enjoyable. I thought I had hair problems – I shall look at anyone with black hair with a new admiration from now on! A spirited, potent read and one I’m sure will make this author one to note for future. For me, I’m happy to give this one 4*.

My thanks to the publisher for my copy via NetGalley; this is – as always – my honest, original and unbiased review.

I really loved the main character of this book. But the plot developed very slowly - a bit too slowly for me - and I found myself wishing it would move faster. I liked this book but I didn't love it. I can see it getting glowing reviews though and that's great, I can see why a person would love it, its just wasn't that book for me.

Really well written and darkly humorous. With two black, talented, female protagonists pitted against each other, this book has you on your toes. Nella is 26, talented, ambitious ....and black. She is fighting for her space in a competitive white dominated publishing industry. When Hazel joins the company, she is thrilled to have a partner in crime, a comrade, a confidant. However, Hazel is one thing to her face and another behind her back, and she is rapidly more popular than Nella ever was. Nella has to question who she can trust. And then she begins to receive sinister notes telling her to leave.

It was unusual to have such a uniquely black voice, fighting for black causes and representation and at the same time, the satirical opposite (without given too much away). I found the point of view really interesting, and the cultural arguments fascinating and informative. At the same time, I could identify with the professional competition and politics. Great pace, beautiful prose, well-rounded characters, this story swept me up, eager to learn which side triumphed.