I am so glad I joined the Ladies of Horror Fiction readalong group. I feel like I've really enjoyed every book they've chosen, and there have been a lot of books that I either wasn't aware of or wouldn't have chosen myself . Plus I've finally figured out the timing, so this is the second month in a row where I've actually gotten to engage in some of the discussion. So I was pretty excited going into this.
Nella Rogers is the only Black employee at the Wagner Publishing House, and's she's sick of it. The micro-aggressions, the "othering", the deafening silence in response to her diversity concerns, it's wearing her down. So when Harlem born and bred Hazel starts at Wagner, Nella is delighted. Just when she thinks she might finally have someone in her corner, a series of unfortunate and frustrating events leaves Hazel the employee of the month and Nella out in the cold. Then the notes start appearing. "LEAVE WAGNER. NOW". Could it be Hazel trying to edge her out? Nella doesn't want to believe it, but the more she digs, the more sinister things become and Nella soon realises that there's a lot more at stake than just her job.
This is going to be very difficult to write about without giving everything away, but I'll do my best.
This is certainly a slow burner. There's nothing wrong with a slow burn, it can give you time to get to know the characters, get attached to them, and way of thinking. It also gives time for the tension to build, and there is certainly a lot a tension here, it's pretty compelling. A slow burn isn't for everyone though, so I can see why there might be mixed reviews. Most of the drama happens after page 300 - in a 342 page novel. However, is the pay-off enough for all that build up? Hmmmm. Tough question. Let's dissect.
The best part of this novel for me was easily the characters, but I just wanted more. I felt invested in Nella and her confusion, her fear and her stress. I wanted her to win, as it were. Overcome the OBGs and stand up for herself. I wanted to know more about best friend Malaika. I wanted to know more about the resistance, about Kendra Rae Phillips, and her disappearance, and oh man I wanted so much more about the key plot line - there was so much at the end that was rushed and wasn't expanded on. As spoiler free as possible - how did they come up with the idea? How did the process work? How was the resistance formed? What happened to the side characters?? So many unanswered questions that just left me dangling, I don't feel like the payoff did the build up justice at all. Don't get me wrong, sometimes an ending that leaves things to your imagination can work fantastically, but only if there's story built up to leave those ends hanging off. There wasn't quite enough story here unfortunately - not enough explained to leave things to your imagination, more like just leaving you wondering what on earth was going on. I could have happily read another 100-200 pages if the mystery had been explored more.
There were so many POVs here I had difficulty keeping track - and this comes back to the point earlier about the mystery not being explored far enough. Although they worked to tease the story out, they felt messy and overly complicated in places, and in one case so confusing I had to reread the whole chapter about three times to try and grasp what was going on. The dialogue- often a weak spot in debut novels - is great and the conversations feel very real, though I could have done without the repeated twitter references. For some reason references to social media in books always pull me out of the story a bit. Maybe because one of the reasons I read so much is to get away from social media? I don't know.
There was a lot of social commentary going on here - it deals with micro-aggressions and racism in the workplace, tokenism code-switching and not feeling "Black enough", these themes are handled well, and are certainly necessary conversations to be addressing - it worked very well as an illustration of how damaging and exhausting it can be to be a Black woman constantly having to navigate white environments. As well as that, this is a book that is completely and utterly centred around Black culture, which I really enjoyed. I admit, there were a few references that I had to google, but I liked that it's assumed that the reader knew all of these references already, and refused to condescend. I felt like I learned a lot, while still enjoying the story.
I'm not sure what to classify this as though. I wouldn't call it a horror, the slow burn didn't have enough of a spark for a thriller... Sci-fi maybe? I'm not sure. Why don't you give it a read and decide for yourself? It might not be your book of the year, but I'd say it's worth your time.
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