The Vanishing Half

June 6, 2020 |  No Comments

The Vanishing Half

by Brit Bennett

Date Published: June 2, 2020
Published By: Riverhead Books
Page Count: 343


Publisher’s Description:

The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it’s not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it’s everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters’ storylines intersect?

Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person’s decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.


My Star Rating:

4 of 5 stars

My Review:

The Vanishing HalfThe Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This would be an excellent book club read. There’s a lot to unpack and a lot to analyze from this truly interesting and entertaining story. Multiple POV but the two main characters are Stella and Desiree, twins born into a black family in the Deep South. The two have their fair share of differences, though, even if they look alike, and when one sister discovers she can pass for white, her life takes a drastic turn that separates them both mentally and physically. I found myself having conflicted emotions on the choices made and the consequences of certain characters’ actions… and the responses to those consequences. How much of it is justified and how much is just pure selfishness? Would anyone blame her for making the decisions she made?

Lots to think about, but overall, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to fans of diverse women’s fiction.

View all my reviews


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