The Other Black Girl
Nella Rogers is the only Black editorial assistant at the prestigious Manhattan publishing house Wagner Books and has spent two long years biting her tongue, offering measured feedback on a manuscript with a tone-deaf Black character, and waiting to be promoted. When Hazel-May McCall starts at the desk across from hers, Nella is delighted to finally have a Black colleague. Then odd things start happening: cryptic notes left at her cubicle, an accolade Nella was promised quietly redirected to Hazel, and a growing sense that her new friend is reshaping the office around her with smiling efficiency. Cutting between Nella's Manhattan and several mysterious encounters in 1980s New York and rural North Carolina, Zakiya Dalila Harris's 2021 debut is a sharp, propulsive novel that twists from workplace satire into something stranger, asking what it costs Black women to be the only one in the room and what it might cost to no longer be.
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Nella Rogers is the only Black editorial assistant at the venerable Manhattan publisher Wagner Books. When Hazel-May McCall is hired into the cubicle next to hers, Nella is delighted, until anonymous notes telling her to leave Wagner start showing up on her desk.
Yes. Hulu released a 10-episode adaptation of The Other Black Girl in 2023, starring Sinclair Daniel and Ashleigh Murray. The show was cancelled after one season.
The Other Black Girl blends literary fiction, satire, and horror. The first half plays as workplace satire about race and publishing; the second half tips into thriller-horror territory. The genre shift is intentional.
The Other Black Girl was written by Zakiya Dalila Harris, published in 2021 by Atria Books.
The Other Black Girl is 368 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Other Black Girl takes most readers 6 to 8 hours to finish.
The Other Black Girl is a standalone novel by Zakiya Dalila Harris, not part of a series.
The Other Black Girl is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
