award finalist known for their books Burn Down, Rise Up (2022), We Don't Swim Here (2023), and We Came to Welcome You (2024). You Should Have Been Nicer to My Mom (2026) is their sophomore adult novel. When they’re not writing new spine-chilling horrors, they can be found making another pot of coffee and harassing their cat, Bugsy.
At CrimeReads Tirado tagged "five Big Apple horror novels to get a taste of what expansive terrors you can find in just one city." One title on the list:
Zakiya Dalila Harris, The Other Black GirlRead about another entry on the list.
There are a number of high-end industries that New York City is so well-known for, there are endless stories about trying to “make it” in any particular one. The Devil Wears Prada deals with fashion, the Wolf of Wall Street is about finance. One specific industry that doesn’t quite get a lot of attention (in my opinion) is the publishing industry. Maybe that’s because it’s not quite as flashy as fashion or finance, but that doesn’t give it any less of a potential for drama.
Or horror.
In The Other Black Girl, we follow Nella, the only Black employee–and editorial assistant at Wagner Books, a publishing company in New York City. Thisis no small feat, as any publishing professional can tell you, and yet Nella is consistently overlooked and under-appreciated at her job.
She fields microaggressions daily and walks on eggshells so as not to rock the boat among her less-melanated coworkers. When white authors create racially-offensive archetypes within their stories, she tries to gently steer them away, only to be accosted for offending them.
So imagine how overjoyed Nella becomes when the company finally hires Hazel, another Black woman. It’s a chance for her to feel less alone in a homogenous office, a chance to find some camaraderie. At the very least, it’s a chance to have backup when it comes to white authors who take offense at the slightest criticism.
And yet…there’s something very off about Hazel. The stories she tells Nella doesn’t add up, her relationship with the founder of Wagner books is suspect at best and worst of all, Hazel begins to sabotage Nella professionally.
This horror satire paints a startling picture of what it means when not all skinfolk are kinfolk.
The Other Black Girl is among L.S. Stratton's five mysteries and thrillers set in the workplace, Christina Dotson's five top books that feature toxic friendships, Mary Keliikoa's eight top workplace thrillers, Tania Malik's five unconventional office novels, Stephanie Feldman's seven novels featuring ambitious women, Caitlin Barasch’s seven novels set in the literary world, and Ashley Winstead's seven titles that explore collective guilt & individual complicity.
--Marshal Zeringue
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