Marketed as “The Devil Wears Prada meets Get Out,” Zakiya Dalila Harris’ new thriller novel, The Other Black Girl, has been one of the publishing industry’s most talked-about and buzziest releases of 2021. Harris, who quit her job as an editorial assistant at the revered PRH imprint Knopf to write this book, has endeavored to address the racist history of book publishing through the Jordan Peele-inspired social commentary horror approach. The novel begins with Nella, an editorial assistant at Wagner (a fictional publisher resembling Knopf), whose days are full of dealing with microagressions committed by her privileged white colleagues and trying to revive her efforts at promoting companywide diversity town halls. Nella got into publishing because of her passion for amplifying black storytelling, which was in part inspired by her hero, Kendra Rae Phillips, a black female editor and half of one of the first black female editor-writer duos to release a bestseller together. But Nella has begun to feel dismayed in her second year as an assistant, and wonders if her lack of a promotion is due to racial bias, as her dreams of following in Kendra Rae’s footsteps feel further and further away.
But everything changes when Hazel-May McCall enters, as a new editorial assistant and Nella’s first black colleague. Nella is overjoyed, and she and Hazel immediately bond over the shared struggles of black girls navigating a predominantly white industry: they laugh at the gaffs of their coworkers, share hair product tips, and discuss their desire to make space for black literary voices and empower black storytellers. But things quickly take a turn, and Nella grows suspicious of Hazel, whose codeswitching and shady efforts to ingratiate herself with their white colleagues begin to undermine Nella in various and escalating ways. Something sinister is clearly going on, which is only confirmed when Nella receives a mysterious note on her desk that reads: “LEAVE WAGNER NOW.” Then commences a series of flashbacks that prove to be related to Nella and Hazel, involving an underground resistance combatting an antagonistic syndicate of black women who preach assimilation with questionable methods. Kendra Rae Phillips turns out to be involved, as the thriller plot grows in importance but not exactly in clarity. And yes, it goes all the way to the top! I’ll avoid spoilers, but the mystery plot took quite a long time to unravel and had very little payoff, relying on precarious plot devices and very loose threads that end up leaving the reader a bit confused (Especially surrounding the Kendra Rae character).
For me, this novel was a case of a really strong message and setup, that was lost a bit in the narrative and disrupted by messy plotlines. The novel’s commentary on wannabe woke workplaces full of white people who are willing to give lip service to addressing/combatting racism within their industry without actually doing any work rang very true. The publishing industry often pats itself on the back for diversity efforts while maintaining offices with very little non-white representation and feigning ignorance when it comes to the real work of combatting racial injustice and violence. Harris’ critiques of the industry feel very sharp and incisive, and I love how she put the reader in that mindset and forced us to sit in Nella’s uncomfortability in the workplace. Part of the clarity of these sections is definitely owed to Harris’ first-hard experience as a black person in the publishing industry, but also emphasized by her strong observational skills and incisive prose.
The scenes in which Nella experienced microagressions at the hands of her casually racist colleagues, especially the fallout of her objection to one of Wagner’s bestselling author’s portrayal of a black character in his new novel was quite compelling. When Nella delicately brings her objection to her boss and the author, the author predictably throws a tantrum and accuses Nella of calling him a racist, which angers her boss, who then asks Nella to apologize to this man who has written a clearly racist character for his assumption that she has called him a racist. Similar scenes provided fascinating and propulsive tension to the narrative, and Harris’ unflinching portrayal of workplace racism in the publishing industry was sharply rendered and deeply thought provoking.
The Other Black Girl, as one of 2021’s biggest releases, has provoked some fascinating conversations surrounding racism in the publishing industry, which came to the forefront last summer following the murder of George Floyd and the disturbing revelations of the “Publishing Paid Me” hashtag, in which established black authors revealed that they had been receiving far lower advances on their books than their white counterparts. This novel is the inevitable result of those revelations, as the novel is an excellent forum for creative entry into this discussion. Harris brings real world experience to this novel, which she infuses with Jordan Peele-esque genre elements. Overall, this novel would have been much more successful if Harris’ plot didn’t undermine her message in the last pages of the novel, and the somewhat underwritten thriller elements didn’t distract from the novel’s strong raison d’être. There is definitely a lot of promising material here, but better editing (topical!) could have been a lot of help to the narrative.
Further Reading: I feel like Raven Leilani’s Luster and Kiley Reid’s Such a Fun Age hit on some similar discussions but with more nuance and attention to character development, so I would maybe start with those as entry points.