The Vanishing Half

I was completely engrossed in this book from the beginning. Brit Bennett took me on a ride from the 1950s to the 90s, from the Deep South to California, with such an original and thought-provoking plot and fully developed characters. She really made me think about how the past and our histories can shape us and our futures, and can help to explain why people do what they do.

This novel is an immersive read with heaps of empathy for all its characters but especially for the two sisters whose perspectives are at the center of the story: the twin who disappears to live a secret life, passing as white, and the twin left behind.

We don’t get the perspective of Stella, the vanished twin, until 14 years after her disappearance, 150 pages into the book. By then, I was fully absorbed in the grief and unanswered questions of the people she’d abandoned, eager to finally know where she’d been all this time and to understand her complex motivations… show more.

The biracial Vigne twins in this book struggle with the choices before them as to which race they will embrace. I loved the book for its poignancy and honest exploration of the sensitivity involved in having a choice to make, no matter the generation.

This book is similar to the movie Imitation of Life but on a grander scale. The stories moved me and hurt me at the same time. 

This spellbinding book is a multi-generational, fictional account that spans five decades and focuses on identical twins and their daughters. 

I found the novel to be believable and evocative of (1) the challenges that light and dark-skinned African Americans have faced in different eras, and (2) the strength needed in being true to one’s sexuality while surviving the realities of bigotry and persecution. The author deftly interweaves various plots, themes, and subthemes, into a story that immediately draws you in and keeps you reading, long past hours when you should be sleeping. 

You will laugh, lament, and—most importantly—understand the significance… show more.

The Vanishing Half masterfully illustrates that how, when, and to-what-degree we let go of the past are sacred choices that each individual must make for themself.

Brit Bennett’s beautiful writing brings her characters and their worlds to such vivid life that you feel like you’re there. I grew up in a small Texas town, close to the Louisiana border, so the setting spoke dearly to me. But the story is told through a lens that is very different from my own experience. 

One of the elements that can make a story feel amazing is its ability to help us… show more.

I loved this contemporary southern novel about twin sisters from small-town Louisiana. 

Beautifully written and tightly plotted, Bennett explores identity and family bonds through the unraveling mystery of one sister’s disappearance and the new life she assumed. In addition to racial and sexual identity, Bennett tackles the strong pull of the South. Despite characters leaving home and moving thousands of miles away, they can never escape their Southern origin stories.  

Bennet’s style of storytelling warmed my heart from the first paragraph. Her prose tickles the reader’s brain and soul as she explores themes common to humanity, regardless of people’s origins.

This book helped me understand human motivation and how people from the same parentage and household can have such different perspectives about who they are and the world. The book also demonstrates the human need for love and grace.

Absolutely amazing. One of my top reads for 2020 and I was in awe of how rich the characters and plot were in this novel.

The book is based on twins and ultimately about choices and how they can trap you, no matter how promising the outcome may seem in your head. The plot twists were beautifully paced and definitely took the reader on a remarkable journey.

This novel blew me away because it captured the challenges of biracial people so beautifully.

It shows two different strategies that twin daughters employ to cope with the pervasive racism they encounter—one living as Black, one fleeing her family to pass as white—and embody real-life choices that thousands of light-skinned Black people confront.

Beautifully written, the novel furthers the complexities by inserting another tale of passing into the story: a woman passing as male, for greater occupational opportunities.

Brilliant book, rightfully celebrated!

This is one of the most unusual and memorable books about sisters I’ve ever read. It’s the story of Black twins, Desiree and Stella, who are separated in early adulthood in the 1950s, one returning to her hometown in the South after escaping an abusive marriage, the other passing as White in the White world she’s chosen to inhabit. The choices Desiree and Stella make that cause their paths to diverge haunt the sisters, each in her own way. But what never changes is the deep bond that exists between them even in absentia. I loved this book. Read it,… show more.