So creepy, in a good way. Truly disturbing, kind of in the vein of GET OUT. A really riveting way to explore the way respectability politics have been part of a BIPOC person's life, and the ways it is harmful. I really enjoyed this read, even though the ending, argh.

This book didn’t do it for me. It was a super slow burn with minimal payoff in the end. There were several random characters introduced briefly throughout and then the story would move on coming back to them wayyy later when I had already forgotten who they were and how they were important to the context of the plot. I also feel like the author tried to weave a very complicated web but waited until the very end to unravel it and left us with so many unanswered questions, so many underdeveloped characters, and didn’t pull it all together and make sense of it all like I was hoping for. I would not recommend this book and wish I hadn’t spent so much time trying to get to the end just to be disappointed.

This book was not what I expected! This one took some unexpected turns but wow was it good. What a fabulous debut novel. I can’t wait to hear more from this author!

A sharply written book about two Black girls working in an all white publishing house, Wagner Books. Neila is tired of being the only Black girls and of the micro aggressions and isolation. Then Hazel starts working at Wagner and Neila thinks she has found a friend. Then the notes begin to appear saying "Leave Wagner Now.:" The twists and turns begins and will keep you turning the pages as fast as you can. .

As a black woman (who just happens to be a writer that previously lived in NYC) I found this book to be very intriguing. I worked previously as a magazine editor (never at a publishing house) and some of the office happenings were similar. (Think "only black girl in the office" type stuff as described within the book.) I found the idea premise to be great: what would happen if the only other black girl in the office turned out to be an enemy instead of an ally? I will admit that it did take me awhile to finish this book because it was slow going in some parts. I wish it had moved faster. Also, the story line got a little loopy to me. I didn't really like the angle it took with the evil whole hair grease thing nor did I like the ending. Overall, it was a pretty good read, but not something that I would pick up again.

This is a great end of summer read (and also perfect if you're looking for a creepy fall book). Described as "Get Out" meets "Stepford Wives" this is another story about the publishing industry, but with a focus on how white and racist it can be. If you read and loved When No One Is Watching, this is definitely one you'll want to add to your TBR.

I haven't ever read anything like this book - and I love being surprised!
It had all the elements of a great mystery with commentary on race and gender that is both subtle and biting. I would 100% recommend this title to readers looking for a thriller with a modern voice.

I am as sucker for a protagonist who both annoys and endears me. Nella is complex in her emotions and interpretations of her hostile workplace. She is desperate to be seen and valued, but always seems a bit lost. You want to root for her, even when she is her own worst enemy.

I finished this book in a day, and then purchased the audiobook for a different perspective. Equally enjoyable experience!

Very excited to see what this author does next!

The mystery in this book didn’t’t click and it didn’t keep me interested. Although the writing was well done, I didn’t find myself rushing to finish.

I wasn't sure where this book was going, but it did not disappoint — the tension rose steadily, the characters were compelling, and there was a surprising conclusion that made perfect sense. As someone who works in publishing, I also enjoyed the behind the scenes details about life as an editor. The perfect marriage of social commentary with an interesting thriller plot.

This is the third new release I've read this year that had a really good premise, but just didn't land the execution. This title has been marketed as "Devil Meets Prada" meets "Get Out," but it just didn't deliver on the suspense/horror that it promised. The tension does pick up about 80% of the way through the book, but by that point my interest had pretty much checked out. Also, nothing particularly unexpected happens at any point in the book. The plot is pretty straightforward, and the "twist" at the very end was fairly predictable.

That being said, the concept is really interesting and the characters were fun to read. Harris is a fairly new writer, and I'd be interested in reading more of her work in the future with more experience and better editing.

THE OTHER BLACK GIRL by Zakiya Dalila Harris is a New York Times bestseller and LibraryReads selection for June which features a young Black woman, Nella Rogers, who is working in the publishing industry as an editorial assistant. When another Black assistant, Hazel, is hired, Nella is excited, but soon struggles more and more with the office atmosphere, including a threatening note: Leave Wagner. Now. There is an increasing atmosphere of menace and suspense, but the story could have moved much faster. Harris deftly conveys the difficulties of being Black in a White space (e.g., " ...they rarely asked her about 'Black issues' – either because they didn't want to offend her by doing so, or because they simply didn't care enough to ask. But other times she found it almost demeaning, as though accepting Wagner's job offer had also meant giving up her Black identity") and I liked the perceptive and often satirical writing. However, I was confused by jumps in the timeline and appearance of new characters who were not fully introduced. Consider giving this sometimes dark debut novel a try – reviewers Edim and Corrigan (video link below) praised THE OTHER BLACK GIRL which received starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly.

This title was mentioned recently on PBS NewsHour when Jeffrey Brown interviewed Glory Edim and Maureen Corrigan about their suggestions for diverse books to read this summer:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/need-a-new-summer-read-heres-a-diverse-list-to-pick-from

It's so satisfying to see a debut novelist come roaring right out of the gate with a book like this. It's clever, it's suspenseful, it feels, as the publishing professionals that the protagonist Nella works with might put it, "timely." Zakiya Dalila Harris real eye for details that make little social interactions within a workplace much larger than they might appear. It was a pleasure to read, and I can't wait to see what Harris does next!

I absolutely inhaled this novel in two days. This is compulsively readable and Harris winds the tension through to the very last page. You distrust all of the characters at points throughout the novel and the discussion of hair culture was an interesting element in the overall plot.

You can find our review of this novel with our interview with the author in the link below.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/zakiya-dalila-harris/id1511650673?i=1000528390053

This wasn't the rollicking summer thriller I expected, but it is quite a thought-provoking book. Harris uses the story to bring up important questions about Black women in overwhelmingly white workplaces, and the different decisions these women might make to get by. While it is satirical, I feel like Harris didn't take it far enough in the end to make her point. The ending left me feeling murky—while I understood what she was trying to get at, I feel like some readers could come away from this book getting the wrong message, if just read on a surface level (which summer books often are. Though maybe I'm not putting enough faith in readers).

I think more editing could have been used here, as well. The pacing was really off—most of the action happens in the last quarter of the book, and I even contemplated not finishing it when I was slogging through the middle. It really could have been trimmed down—and I think if it were, Harris's message would have been stronger.

I'll be curious to see what Harris writes next. Her writing is clever and subversive, and I'm sure her next works will be intriguing.

Nella Rogers is a hard-working editorial assistant who can't seem to secure a promotion despite her dedication and determination. And as the only Black woman on the editorial staff at Wagner Books, she is continually subjected to slights and subtle forms of hostility. When Wagner hires new staff member Hazel-May McCall, Nella dares to hope that her work environment is about to take a progressive step forward . . .

Yet as Nella gets to know Hazel, it's uncertain whether her new co-worker is the ally she had hoped for. As Hazel scores several coveted assignments, she begins to outshine Nella and achieve favored employee status. And when Nella begins to receive threatening notes at work, her career appears to be hopelessly unravelling.

Can Nella successfully navigate the unexpected and dangerous obstacles she faces? Is there a chance that she and Hazel can move forward as friends and colleagues?

The Other Black Girl offers a fictional account of the world of publishing from the unique voice of an insider. Ms. Harris weaves together an account of day-to-day race relations in the workplace with a subplot of strange and mysterious goings-on that give the story a sinister twist. It's a notable debut novel from a talented writer.

What a unique book! I can honestly say I’ve never read anything quite like this one before. It was suspenseful and eerie without being scary. This book has also made me think more about what I can do to make space for BIPOC in my work place, and how important their voices are. Well done Zakiya! I’m looking forward to reading more of their work.

Good stuff first. Absolutely first-rate writing with many witty observations and spot-on delivery of how Black folks talk to each other. The rhythm and riff of the Black women's voices was authentic, easy and not at all the contrivance that Black voices and dialogue can sometimes feel like in popular fiction. The author managed to immerse us in the main character Nella's world so that we get a pretty good sense of what it's like not only to work in a publishing house, and how the political machinations could, over time, wear a sistah down, but about what it's like being a young striver in a big city, ambitious enough to want to make your mark. Some writers are just keen observers ... you can feel it in their work that they pay close attention to the world and take from it every interesting nugget that they then share with us in ways that add richness and dimension to even minor moments in their books. This writer feels like that kind of observer (and writer) and I appreciated that about her prose. Even when I didn't understand why a scene wasn't edited out (and there were a few) I could still appreciate that they showcased the author's absolutely undeniable way with words.

And, the not so good stuff ... So ... I won't be breaking any new ground here when I say I was expecting something very different than was delivered by this book. I think I get that in marketing it, it was expedient to bill 'The Other Black Girl' as contributing something profound to the conversation about the Black experience, delivered in a very unexpected package. And I think while it's true to say the package was original, the insights about the Black experience may feel revelatory only to white people. For Black readers who were expecting something that would thoughtfully dissect what it's like for some of us who work in majority white professional spaces, this book didn't quite deliver the goods. It comes as no great revelation to us, for instance that when more than one Black person tries to thrive in white spaces, it often becomes like the game 'Survivor' because there can be only one. It's also no surprise that some Black folks who thrive in those spaces have done so at the cost of a little (or big) piece of their souls. We're all likely to be similarly underwhelmed by the exploration of the paradox that white people tend to love Black people who perform Blackness, but who also don't belabor the grievances that sometimes accompany Blackness (think Will Smith. Lol). And finally, it isn't particularly new to us that oftentimes it's other Black folks who will remind renegade, field Negroes that it could be quite pleasant on the plantation if only they would do what Massa tells 'em, and do it with a smile.

To be fair, almost no one can live up to the expectations Black folks put on books by Black authors that tackle "real issues". But what's interesting is that the ones that have been most lauded by the still white-dominated literati have dealt with "Black issues" in the realm of the the magical (think, 'Underground Railroad', by Colson Whitehead, or ''The Water Dancer' by Ta-Nehisi Coates). It's almost as though the industry can't stomach unadulterated realness about what it's like to be Black, so Black creatives have learned to surround it with the mythical and magical, which relegates racism and white supremacy to the realm the mythical, or 'fictional' rather than simply positing that they are very much real. It works for white readers, but often leaves Black consumers of this work feeling vaguely dissatisfied, kinda like when someone tells a difficult truth and then follows up with, 'But you know I'm just kidding, right?' This book felt like that to me--like a steel fist swathed in several velvet gloves to make the punch not hurt so much. And further, the celebratory dance of white folks who liked it (warning: cynical observation ahead) feels a little like the self-flagellation of white wokeness--those who woefully commiserate with Black folks about how awful "the racism" is without having to confront their own complicity with it.

Having said that, I look forward to more from this author. I feel like she has really important things to say.

Very well written and twisty thriller but the ending just wasn't for me. Loved the inside look into the New York publishing world, though. I was hooked from the beginning!

“The first sign was the smell of cocoa butter.”

This lively and imaginative story explores what it's like to be the only black woman in the workplace. Nella is a rising star in a fictional publishing company but must deal with microagresisons on a daily basis. Things start to look up when another black woman named Hazel is hired at the company. Will this new hire be helpful to Nella, or will it make her position at the company more tenuous? There are subtle hints at foreshadowing, but the book does not start out like a traditional thriller, instead reading like contemporary fiction.

There is something off about Hazel's behavior right from the beginning but everyone seems to fall in love with her so Nella chalks it up to her own imagination. I loved the author's sharp and witty observations about life in the publishing world and I honestly could not figure out if Nella was just being insecure about her own job or whether Hazel was not being totally up front about her background.

“Nella didn’t know what to make of any of it. The kind of celebrity status that Hazel had achieved in such a short span of time rubbed her in a way that bothered her, and it bothered her that she was bothered at all—especially since she and Hazel were supposed to be on the same team.”

This tension is sustained well throughout the story, but my issue with the book was the surprise twist at the end, which turned this book into more of a horror genre. Whoa. Even though I enjoyed this book, I did not think the ending was 100% necessary to the plot. I think you should definitely go into this one without reading any spoilers! I loved the cover and the overall pacing of this book so pick this one up if you want to see what all the buzz is about.

This is as much a story of feminism as racism. There have always been women who helped and mentored those who came after, just as there have always been women who jealously guarded their accomplishments and had no qualms about stepping on the backs of other women to get there. Adding the intersectionality of racism and feminism gives the story a new lens for readers to view the world through.