The Other Black Girl: A Novel

This book started out really slow for me. I wasn't expecting the turn the book took at around 50% with the chemicals in the hair grease that seems to cause black people to be more socially acceptable or get less upset about the racist things around them. I thought it had an interesting twist of pitting black people against each other. The OBGs seem to be a movement to progress blacks in the business world by helping them ignore pain through the hair grease. However, I do wish it was introduced earlier in the book so it could've been explored more thoroughly. I'm curious what happened to Nella's boyfriend and friend; did she just break all ties with them to move to the new place? And what was Richard Wagner's role in the whole OBGs, like why would he even care?

Unfortunately, I really struggled with The Other Black Girl. The concept and the themes felt important and very relatable — especially the experience of being the only Black woman in a white-dominated workplace. But the execution just didn’t work for me. I listened to the audiobook, which made it even harder to follow the constant back-and-forth between time periods and characters. It felt disjointed, and the pacing was extremely slow. Honestly, I didn’t feel like anything significant happened until the very end, and by then, I was already disconnected. While I appreciate the message the book was trying to convey, I just didn’t enjoy the way it was written. It wasn’t for me.

Favorite character 🎭: Malaika - She was a true friend to Nella What I liked/loved ❤️: I loved the cultural references to TV, music, and fashion. I enjoyed the dialogue between the characters. What I disliked/opportunities for improvement ☹️: Diana and Kendra’s story was underdeveloped. I couldn’t grasp why they were important. I had several questions about why Kendra left Wagoner. It may have been stated, but I missed it. There was a lot of discussion about the hair grease, but I don’t think it was needed. I think Nella could’ve made the same decision without it.

engrossing read, dark and scary. the altering flashbacks were too confusing for me to both keep up with or care about. sometimes felt like the story was doing too much, but enjoyable fast read

This book has some captivating moments! Still, it didn't make up for the countless pages that felt like filler. I made it a little over halfway through the book before putting down for good. I love the core narrative--the book would benefit a lot from focusing solely on that, rather than throwing in unnecessary chapters and side stories that have no immediate connection to the overall theme of the book.