The Other Black Girl: A Novel

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The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris
354 pages

What’s it about?
Nella Rogers is a hard working 26-year-old editorial assistant. She is a young Black woman trying to work her way up in the all-White world of publishing in New York City. Nella is pleasantly surprised to look up one day and see that another black woman has been hired as an editorial assistant. Soon she will wonder if this is a good thing for her career or not...

What did it make me think about?
How much I don't know....

Should I read it?
I don't even know where to start on this book. It seemed to have so many different threads going all at once. Some of the threads were amazing and some of the threads seemed disjointed to me. Having said that- Ms. Harris has written a really interesting and inventive novel. I am really glad I read it and although it didn't all work for me I would highly recommend it. One of my favorite aspects of this novel is the glimpse Ms. Harris gives us into the world of publishing. Lots to think about in this novel!

Quote-
"But there'd been something profound in those moments. Something intangible. This something was in the look that her friends gave her when she told them how many hours she'd spent sitting between her mother's legs watching he 227 marathon the had been on TV One that weekend (then explaining what 227 was); it was in the nature of this elongated physical contact that most non-Black teenagers didn't have with their mothers, but she did. And it was in the little things such contact -however many hours of time she's spent with hands in her hair- taught her about the women in her family. Hair-care regimens, passed down from both sides. Patience, until the fine line of impatience settled over the whole scene like a bad odor. Perfectionism."

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Afterland by Lauren Beukes​
Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Outlawed by Anna North
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

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