A short and striking glimpse in to one young, black woman’s life in modern Britain. We follow our narrator through the injustices she’s forced to navigate on a daily basis, and the casual racism she experiences that’s woven in to the fabric of our society. She works hard and is good at her job, but where does it get her? Is it really possible for her to climb the ladder? And what of herself will she have to give up to do so? It’s a very interesting book, concise and easy to read. It won’t take you long to get through, it will really make you think, and it’s well worth picking up.

This is a short, concise debut novel that says so much about what it’s like to live in modern day Britain with racism rearing it’s ugly head throughout the narrator’s daily life. The central unnamed narrator seems to have achieved what most would consider to be an enviable lifestyle; her own home, a big promotion at the bank she works for and a boyfriend from a privileged background. However, we soon learn that she’s been diagnosed with cancer and seems reluctant to undergo treatment.
Throughout the story, the narrator recalls the ways racism has affected her life thus far; from abuse from strangers in the street to colleagues who believe her promotion is due to ‘diversity’. All these daily micro-aggressions show that despite how successful her life outwardly appears, constant assumptions are made based on her skin colour.
The author successfully conveys just how unrelenting and exhausting this feels. The narrator has strived to achieve but somehow it’s never enough. It seems that letting the cancer prevail is preferable to continuing her life.
I found this book to be powerfully emotive and as a mixed race woman sadly recognised many of the incidents described. But, and it’s a big but, I found it hard to believe that anyone would willingly suffer a painful death from cancer. Why not choose a lifestyle that provided more personal satisfaction? Overall, I loved the prose and felt that the brevity of this novel was a success despite it being about the big issues of race and class.
I look forward to reading further work by Natasha Brown in the future.
Thanks to the author, NetGalley and Hamish Hamilton for the e-arc in return for an honest review.

A refined piece of prose that is at once dreamlike and hyper sharp. Brown captures the ebb and flow of one's innermost thoughts, oscillating between the urgent and the mundane. Those moments in the text when Brown captures the pain of racism were heart-wrenchingly precise.

Natasha Brown expertly uses a stream of consciousness narrative style to explore issues surrounding race, identity and privilege. Although it is short, it leaves you thinking long after the final page. A powerful debut!

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin for this ARC.

Having talked to a few others who have read this I feel it's a book that some will definitely connect better with than others. Personallly I really enjoyed it and felt moved by how real and raw the main character felt.

This is a short little novella that tells of a black British woman that is going to spend the weekend at her boyfriends family home. There is a lot of exploration around race, class and taking control of your own story.

This is beautifully written and complex. I’m not 100% sure I understood everything that was discussion and I definitely want to re-read it as I think there is still a lot to unpack.

This copy was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A short but truly outstanding novel. Looking at one woman's relationship her boyfriend, her friends and the life that she has built up for herself in the wake of something devastating.

I'd heard so many incredible reviews of this that I was thrilled to be chosen, and I have to say I wasn't disappointed. Utterly amazing read.

I really enjoyed this book, at least I think I did. It really plays with your mind and you get in the head of the character. It is a very enjoyable yet unique type of prose which I guess we'll see more of in the coming years. Overall I couldn't put this book down and look forward to what is next from the author

Assembly

Ad - Thank you to the publisher for an advance e-copy to review.

“𝘈 𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘸𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘭𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘨𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘺 𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘰𝘺𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥’𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦, 𝘴𝘦𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘌𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘺𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦. 𝘈𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘬 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘬𝘰𝘯𝘴, 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘦𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯: 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵?

𝘕𝘢𝘵𝘢𝘴𝘩𝘢 𝘉𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴, 𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘶𝘱 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘳𝘰𝘸 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺.”

This is a really short story that makes clever observations of the lives we live within and it packs a punch!

We follow the protagonist and witness her experiences of race and class from inside a mixed race relationship with pressures from all angles.

The writing style is fitting for the length of the book and is much more a collection of thoughts and essays than a novel, but this sure is a fiery debut that I’m glad I read!

This is literary fiction at its best and I would recommend you pick this up, at just over 100 pages you don’t really have a reason not to!

A short, medium-paced, slice-of-life novella from the POV of someone who has just had enough.

What I loved:
- smart, witty, bleak
- insight into being a young, Black British woman
- shines a lens on classism, racism, sexism, capitalism
- the writing is often matter-of-fact when talking about aggressions and assimilation - I appreciated that it didn't feel sugarcoated

What I didn't love:
- sometimes it was hard to follow what was occurring, and I'm pretty sure there was a bit at the beginning that was just never explained?

I am genuinely struggling to put into words what I loved so much about it, but I definitely did, and would definitely recommend.

Big thanks to the author, netgalley, and Penguin General UK for the e-ARC.

Every word in this 100-page debut smacks with precise, resigned, cool fury: the anonymous Black British female narrator reflects on her post-Oxbridge career choices, her colleagues at the bank where she’s climbing the corporate ladder, the options presented to her and the state of the country she calls home. This is an unflinching, unsmiling book about privilege, sexism, pathways and injustice: “the son, of course, insists the best things in life are free’, the narrator muses while walking the grounds of her partner’s sprawling family home. “All this was, is, free to him… [young privileged people] take chances, pursue dreams, risk climbing out to the highest, furthest limb... knowing the ground beneath is soil, soft grass and dandelions.” It holds a small mirror up to society, and what you see will – correctly – leave you uncomfortable. Brilliant: read it in one sitting, and work out what you can do to effect change.

Featured in the July issue of Cambridge Edition Magazine

A beautifully written flow of consciousness from the central protagonist, a black female reflecting on the challenges and decisions she is facing in a difficult place and time.

Natasha Brown creates an uncomfortable, atmospheric and tense read. She writes to shock, evoke empathy and make you squirm.

There are challenging topics tackled bravely by Brown in this book…from racism to sexual harassment in the workplace. She does not shy away from them and portrays them in the ugly manner they deserve.

I just wish it was longer, it felt like it ended before it began and some of these challenging threads needed more exploration. Because of the length and style of writing, it felt like one thought was abandoned for another, and another, and it was difficult to follow at times with little time allowed to reflect sufficiently on the themes.

There will be triggers in here for some readers, and I will include trigger warnings for: mental abuse, sexual harassment , cancer.

Overall, I appreciated so much about this book, and would like to thank @netgalley for the opportunity to read this as an eARC …but ultimately it left me wanting.

I'm not even sure how to review this beautiful, succinct, incisive book which despite being compact, packed an emotional punch.

It is one of those books which needs a re-read, to fully appreciate and understand the themes being addressed. I loved the narrative style of a stream of consciousness and thought it a powerful and important novel,

Assembly is a short book but packs a punch, dealing with issues of race, inherited wealth, class, power inequality and illness in just over 110 pages. It makes you stop and think about what might have always been assumed but never said, challenging some powerful unconscious biases

In “Assembly” we follow a Black protagonist as she is getting ready for her boyfriend’s family gathering in his parent’s house. As she is grappling with recent personal news, she re-assess her life. Her work, the pursuit of achievements, the reality of her existence as a Black woman, her relationship with her boyfriend… In this short novella so much is covered that no word is wasted. Each short chapter gives readers a glimpse into her life, and each of them is soaked in ever present racism. From everyday microaggressions, through success at work seen as brought by need for diversity rather than hard work, to her relationship in which she feels she needs to perform instead of being herself. “Assembly” is a story of reassembling your life and realising that it was built on false fundaments.

Oh my! This is brilliant. It does what every good book should do - makes you think. I finished it and was kept awake by the whole class/race ethics running through my head, Whilst enjoyment is not a word that relates to the topics raised, it is powerful, thought provoking, and will have a massive impact on how you think about race and class.

what has stayed with me is the word"dread"used in relation to her workplace, and the whole slave trade issue. The sense of exhaustion and the constant fight that she has to engage to face each day at work is powerfully portrayed. It goes to show that the stream of consciousness behind the facade is well hidden from her colleagues, she comes across as a professional and successful young lady.

This book will stay with me for a long time. the generational wealth in the book, the issues of race, and class make this a punchy thought provoking read. DO NOT MISS THIS.

Follows the train of thought of a young Black woman as she prepares to meet her wealthy boyfriend’s family and ponders her own career success in banking, the compromises and challenges she faced to get there and a cancer diagnosis she is keeping private.
This is a short, but punchy and powerful read that used amazingly sparse prose to convey so much about our character’s motivations, her difficult rise to the top of her profession and accumulation of wealth but now she is at the point of questioning the validity and status of all she has achieved. It only provides a snapshot of her privileged life and how unstable it all feels to her, and the challenges she faces daily. By the end big themes about race, British Empire and prejudice are tackled in a more general sense which maybe feel a tiny bit shoehorned in, but it’s hugely engaging and thought provoking and the character is one you are desperate to know more about, as we just get a glimpse here. Great read.

Assembly is short. It has an unusual structure. It's punchy. And moving. It's important. Uncomfortable at times? Without a doubt. It confronts issues some would rather ignore. It doesn't waste a single word. A book to be discussed. A book to make you think and question. A book that captures so much in so few words, which takes immense skill. Sure to divide readers, it will certainly spark debate and promote discussion. Which can only be a good thing surely.

This is an excellent novella that gives you lots to think and talk about. Race and class are the main topics, and this would make a great book club pick. Great one!
Thanks a lot for this copy.