JUNE 2021 - AudioFile
Isolation and microaggressions are themes throughout this audiobook about the sole Black woman working in the white-collar offices of a major publisher in New York City. Nella, well voiced by Aja Naomi King, suffers the indignities and self-doubts of being an “only.” Then Hazel, also a Black woman, joins the staff. But the good feeling her new co-worker inspires in Nella doesn’t last. Weird things begin to happen, and Nella receives hostile notes. King does an excellent job portraying the conflicted protagonist and is at her strongest delivering dialogue. The other narrators also are very good. This slow-building audiobook is built on psychological tension. Part suspense, part publishing industry takedown, it’s both entertaining and thought-provoking. G.S. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Today Show
This thriller will be one you won't be able to put down.
Electric Literature
"In this deliciously scathing send-up of the blindingly white world of New York City book publishing, a big house hires their second Black editorial assistant, and chaos ensues."
New York Times
A funny, sometimes creepy indictment of the book business."
PHOEBE ROBINSON
The Other Black Girl is unlike anything I've ever read before. Wholly original, powerful, and a gripping page turner. This is the kind of book that turns authors into stars and the readers into rabid fans. I cannot wait to see what Zakiya does next.
Lit Hub
“A brilliant, twisty, and highly relevant thriller...Perfect for fans of Alyssa Cole’s When No One Is Watching, or Amina Akhtar’s #FashionVictim.
Terry McMillan
"Electrifying and ingenious, Zakiya Dalila Harris's The Other Black Girl is essential reading!"
ELISABETH THOMAS
An intimate and specific look at the joys and pains of being a Black woman, especially one working in a majority-white industry... The Other Black Girl is hysterical, intimate, and warm—and bristling with dread. Every page pulls you deeper into the nightmare, coiling tighter and tighter until before you know it, there's no escape.
Essence
"This twisty thriller will resonate with anyone who has struggled to find her voice as the only Black woman in the room."
The New Yorker
[An] incisive debut novel [...] The author, herself a former assistant in publishing, delivers not just a critique of the industry’s lack of diversity but an imaginative commentary on the personal and professional sacrifices that Black women make in order to fit into white-dominated spaces.
New York Times Book Review
Harris succeeds in capturing office machinations with a deftness and grace that brings it all to life... [Her] writing propels you forward through the story. She can deliver paragraphs of back story and inner monologue without leaving her reader feeling overwhelmed or disengaged.
CrimeReads
The thriller of the summer, and quite possibly of the year [...] It’s the smartest book I’ve read in years about the horrors of competition, old-fashioned gaslighting, and being in thrall to a murky past.
Shondaland
Filled with twists and moments that make you think, Zakiya Dalila Harris’ The Other Black Girl is the sharp, compulsive thriller you need this June.
Vogue
[A] brilliant debut ...The novel takes some bold stylistic risks that pay off beautifully, leaving the reader longing for more of Harris's words and unique view on the world.
AMY GENTRY
"I tore through Zakiya Dalila Harris's The Other Black Girl, a hilarious yet spine-chilling send-up of the whiteness of the publishing world, with my jaw on the floor. Its detailed dissection of the complex forces that curtail Black ambition is by turns tender and utterly lacerating, combining the nuance of a Kiley Reid with the twisted gut-punches of Bamboozled. It draws you in with a laugh and a smile, then shoves you into a nightmare you won't be able to shake off. A simply brilliant debut."
BookPage (starred)
Brilliantly positioned at the intersection of satire and social horror, The Other Black Girl incorporates subversively sharp and sly cultural commentary into an addictive and surprisingly dark tale of suspense. Harris displays a distinctive style all her own....a flair for metaphor and a carefully calibrated surrealist perspective. Thoughtful, provocative and viscerally entertaining, The Other Black Girl is a genre-bending creative triumph.”
EMILY ST. JOHN MANDEL
Riveting, fearless, and vividly original. This is an exciting debut.
From the Publisher
Harris succeeds in capturing office machinations with a deftness and grace that brings it all to life.” —New York Times Book Review
Fortune
While the plot takes a darker turn into thriller territory, this read is ideal for anyone who has ever felt manipulated, threatened, or dismissed in the workplace.
Booklist (starred)
"Racist behavior in the workplace, white colleagues’ awkward attempts to pretend it doesn’t exist, and the exhaustion of being Black in white spaces are all encapsulated in a pitch-perfect way by Harris . . . this compelling debut thriller will be in demand; a must for public libraries."
The Rumpus
"A whip-smart and dynamic thriller and sly social commentary . . . will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last twist."
|Los Angeles Times
[A] perceptive exploration of racism in publishing, wrapped up in a whip-smart story of young women at war in the workplace.
Deputy Editor of The New York Times Book Review Tina Jordan on WNYC’s All of It
Very, very sharp social commentary about racial tension and bias...my money’s on it being the ‘it’ book of the summer.
TIME
Filled with twists both unsettling and unexpected . . . such a timely read.
Harper's Bazaar
"A can't-miss title for 2021."
MAURICE CARLOS RUFFIN
The Other Black Girl is a brilliant, witty, thought-provoking book readers will find hard to put down. Full of twists, Harris has delivered a riveting account of the power dynamics Black women must navigate.
Vulture
A debut novel that is the perfect mix of social commentary and fast-paced thriller. Poignant, daring, and darkly funny, The Other Black Girl will have you stressed and exhilarated in equal measure through the very last twist.
PopSugar
A psychological thriller for the modern-day working girl . . . filled with suspenseful twists and turns.
Vox
"A pulpy, joyous thrill ride of a book."
Goodreads
"We’re going to hear a lot about this book for years to come, and I can’t wait."
The Guardian
[A] buzzy debut set in publishing that explores race and class in the workplace.
Refinery 29
Harris is excellent at capturing the way a job can become a person's whole identity, and takes readers on a bracing, whip-smart, piercingly funny trip into a supposedly enlightened industry — and world — where racism, classism, and sexism all conspire to destabilize anyone who isn't willing to play the game.
ATTICA LOCKE
"OMG, as the kids say. This is the funniest, wildest, deepest, most thought-provoking ride of a book. I have been Nella. Every black woman has been Nella. Zakiya Dalila Harris has pulled back the curtain on the publishing industry, but in doing so, she has also perfectly captured a social dynamic that exists in job cultures as varied as tech, finance, academia, even retail and fast food. Oh, beware of the 'OBGs'—Other Black Girls—y’all. As we should all be aware of the psychic cost to black women of making ourselves palatable to institutions that use our cultural cache for their own ends while disregarding any part of our hearts and minds that they either can’t or won’t understand."
Entertainment Weekly
Harris’ genre-bending evisceration of workplace privilege is set to become the debut of the summer.
CAROLINE LEAVITT
“Wise and funny and it does what the best books do—it opens up a whole world of two young Black women in the very white world of publishing, making the narrative both eye-opening social commentary and a delicious thriller. A mega-talented new author who deserves all the buzz building for her now—and every accolade she is surely going to get.
People
Funny and subversive, this debut about the trials of a Black assistant at a mostly white publishing house uses suspense, horror and satire to bring home the toll of workplace racism.
Parade
"[An] edgy, satirical thriller."
BBC
“A sly satire and thriller rolled into one.
Oprah Daily
Harris isn't afraid of taking risks in this book, pushing the plot to thrilling heights. As extraordinary as The Other Black Girl's story becomes, it's rooted in all-too-real social problems.
Washington Post
A thrilling, edgier Devil Wears Prada that explores privilege and racism.
The New Republic
Swerves beyond the conventions of the genre, into territory between psychological thriller and sci-fi [...] Harris reinvents the office novel.
NPR
Wholly earned brilliance. Harris makes her entrance as an author with singular style. Whatever she does next might seem quieter, but watch for it: It will be brilliant.
Wall Street Journal
A satire of the clueless racial politics at a prestigious literary house with, in its second half, a horror-movie twist."
WALTER MOSLEY
Witty, inventive, and smart, The Other Black Girl goes deeper to take on class privilege, race, and gender in a narrative that slyly plays along the edges of convention. Zakiya Dalila Harris’s debut is a brilliant combustion of suspense, horror, and social commentary that leaves no assumption unchallenged and no page unturned.
BookRiot
"This book is the perfect mixture of edge-of-your-seat thrills and biting social commentary that will get readers talking."
Essence
"This twisty thriller will resonate with anyone who has struggled to find her voice as the only Black woman in the room."
Library Journal
01/01/2021
Fed up with being the only Black employee at Wagner Books, editorial assistant Nella Rogers is cheered when another young Black woman is finally hired. Soon, though, Hazel is overshadowing Nella, but even worse are the notes on Nella's desk saying "LEAVE WAGNER. NOW." A big-buzzing, thriller-edged literary debut; with a 150,000-copy first printing.
JUNE 2021 - AudioFile
Isolation and microaggressions are themes throughout this audiobook about the sole Black woman working in the white-collar offices of a major publisher in New York City. Nella, well voiced by Aja Naomi King, suffers the indignities and self-doubts of being an “only.” Then Hazel, also a Black woman, joins the staff. But the good feeling her new co-worker inspires in Nella doesn’t last. Weird things begin to happen, and Nella receives hostile notes. King does an excellent job portraying the conflicted protagonist and is at her strongest delivering dialogue. The other narrators also are very good. This slow-building audiobook is built on psychological tension. Part suspense, part publishing industry takedown, it’s both entertaining and thought-provoking. G.S. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine