The Other Black Girl

The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris
Published by Bloomsbury Publishing on August 17, 2022
Genres: Fiction / Horror
Pages: 357

Twenty-six-year-old editorial assistant Nella Rogers is tired of being the only Black employee at Wagner Books. Fed up with the isolation and the micro-aggressions, she's thrilled when Hazel starts working in the cubicle beside hers. They've only just started comparing natural hair care regimens, though, when a string of uncomfortable events cause Nella to become Public Enemy Number One and Hazel, the Office Darling. Then the notes begin to appear on Nella's desk: LEAVE WAGNER. NOW. It's hard to believe Hazel is behind these hostile messages. But as Nella starts to spiral and obsess over the sinister forces at play, she soon realises that there is a lot more at stake than her career.

My Thoughts

It was difficult to pinpoint the genre of this book. It has been compared to The Devil Wears Prada but it’s no workplace comedy more like a satire/mystery/horror. I would have preferred having Nella narrate the whole book, rather than dipping into other characters and it took forever to get going. When I was at 50% I considered DNF’ing because of the snail-like pacing, however I persevered and it did perk up in the last 20%. Another negative is – I’m beginning to get bored with stories about writers and/or the publishing industry. There seem to be several books recently that don’t look outside this environment and I’m going to start avoiding them. Overall I enjoyed it as I got towards the end and as a white woman I felt, rightly or wrongly, that I got a flavour of Black American culture.