The Other Black Girl
The bestselling book behind the major 2023 TV series
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3.0 • 20 Ratings
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
**NOW A MAJOR HULU ORIGINAL SERIES, AVAILABLE TO STREAM ON DISNEY+**
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOLLINGER EVERYMAN WODEHOUSE PRIZE FOR COMIC FICTION
'One of the biggest reads of the summer, and for good reason' INDEPENDENT
'Enormously fun . . . A joyous thrill ride of a book' VOX
'Candice Carty-Williams' Queenie crossed with Jordan Peele's Get Out . . . Slick and addictive' METRO
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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.
Dark, funny and furiously entertaining, The Other Black Girl will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last twist.
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THE BOOK EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT:
'One of the books of the year . . . Will blow your mind' STYLIST
'Super-smart, dryly funny' RED
'Page-turning, toe-curling, thrilling. You won't put this one down' BLACK GIRLS BOOK CLUB FOR REFINERY29
'Sharp, satirical and fun' DAILY MAIL
'Bright and funny . . . You will turn page after page in your eagerness to unravel this novel' OYINKAN BRAITHWAITE, NEW YORK TIMES
'The funniest, wildest, deepest, most thought-provoking ride of a book' ATTICA LOCKE
'The year's most buzzed-about debut more than lives up to the hype' i
'Very, very funny and acutely observed' ELIZABETH DAY
'It should be at the top of your summer reading list' WASHINGTON POST
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Harris debuts with a dazzling, darkly humorous story about the publishing industry and the challenges faced by a Black employee. Nella Rogers, an overworked editorial assistant, navigates white privilege and microaggressions as the only Black person in her department at New York City trade publisher Wagner Books. That is until the arrival of chic Hazel-May McCall. Nella withstands being mistaken for Hazel, "the Other Black Girl," and reviewing a problematic manuscript written by a bestselling white author with horribly one-dimensional depictions of a Black single mom. Many of the company's higher-ups have the trappings of material success (Ivy League pedigrees, renovated summer homes), and their attempts to cultivate diversity fall flat, notably with the publisher's "Diversity Town Halls" and its sheepish attempts to deal with racism ("the elephant in the room," Harris writes, "No one really knew what the elephant was. Or where the elephant was"). When Nella receives an anonymous note reading "Leave Wagner. Now," her hopes for a career at the company begin to crumble. Meanwhile, Hazel, seemingly undeterred by office politics, is not the ally she appears to be. While the novel overflows with witty dialogue and skillfully drawn characters, its biggest strength lies in its penetrating critique of gatekeeping in the publishing industry and the deleterious effects it can have on Black editors. This insightful, spellbinding book packs a heavy punch.
Customer Reviews
I didn’t get it
This is the much anticipated debut novel by an African-American female author with an MFA from the New School who lives in Brooklyn.
In brief
Nella is a 26-year-old editorial assistant at a fictional NY publisher (Wagner), and the only POC (person of color) in the office. (The Asian girl left a while ago.) Nella has been there for two years, and is good at her job, but office politics and microagressions make her pessimistic about her prospects for advancement, a state of affairs she laments after hours with her friend. She’s excited when a new black girl Hazel is hired, although apprehensive that the new girl has better black “cred” (grew up in Harlem, has “natural” hair, has a BF of color not a white one, has parents who were Panthers or something similar). Events soon conspire against Nella, and Hazel goes from new girl to office favourite while Nella tanks. Then anonymous messages start appearing on Nella’s desk, telling her to resign. Meanwhile, there are flashbacks to 30 years earlier when a black female writer-editor duo combined to give Wagner a major hit. More stuff happens, although not much apart from office politics until the last 40 pages or so when an unexpected (by me at least) supernatural element is introduced. WTAF?
Writing
Ms H’s prose fizzes off the page at times, other times not so much, but until the above mentioned final pages, the plot moves fairly slowly regardless of underlying fizziness. There were numerous references to contemporary black sensibility, the vagaries of the publishing industry, and being young and living in NYC that, of necessity, went right over my head for the obvious reason that I do not check, nor have I ever checked, any of those boxes. I tried googling some of them but quickly tired of doing so.
Bottom line
The blurb describes this as a cross between 2017 horror film Get Out and The Stepford Wives, or The Devil Wears Prada, or possibly all three. I wouldn’t know. As alluded to above, I am so far outside what I presume is the target audience for this book that it is little wonder I didn’t get it.
RUBBISH!
Just awfully written- sentences didn’t flow the writing was painfully amateur and she kept writing teeth sucked … just awful.