The Vanishing Half: A Novel

This book is about choices and circumstance. It tells the story of twin girls growing up in the segregated South. They live in a town that is colorstruck inhabited by light skinned black people. Both sisters, in their own way, rebel against the strictures of the town They run away as teenagers and wind up rebelling in very different fashions. One sister marries an extremely dark skinned man and has a dark skinned daughter. The other sister passes for white and lives a privileged life. Their stories...and the backstories of their forebears is told over a span of almost forty years, beginning in the 1950s. The novel has an arresting narrative and focuses on the choices people make, the secrets they hold and the consequences that unfold from this dynamic.

This is clearly a case off false advertising. I expected the book to convey a story on the dynamics identical twins raised in the racist south. THIS WAS NOT THE CORE OF THE BOOK. Instead it focused on the dynamics of the LGBTQ community. I have absolutely no interest in such matters. Thoroughly disappointed.

The premise of the story about the twins lives got lost in many pages of LGBTQ trans issues. It was like there was not enough going on with the sisters lives, the author felt it necessary to throw this red herring into the story. And I don’t say plot because it was not part of the plot. I was very intrigued about the lives of the sisters, but I got no satisfaction of what made them what they were. They just moved from one day to the next like they could not take charge of their lives. They each suffered a malaise that was similarly experienced but the author was too lazy to explore it. Ending was unsatisfying and abrupt.

I agree with reviews I have read. This is a must read. I couldn’t put it down. I hope there are many more books to follow. What a talented writer. I have to go take a nap. I missed a whole night of sleep. I highly recommend this book.

Absolutely wonderful exploration of race, identity, lies, and familial love. Desiree and Stella were born in the town of Mallard- a town where everyone is part black and the whiter they are the better. Desiree is restless, though, and persuades Stella to run away with her when they are 16, not realizing what she has set in motion. She returns with her very dark daughter Jude while Stella vanishes into a new life where she passes for white, so much so that no one, not her husband, not her very blonde daughter Kennedy know until.....It's the story of Jude and Kennedy and also of Early and Reese (and his friends), the very good men in these women's lives. And their father, who is seen only in vignette but whose death Stella dreams about over and over. Ranging through the years and across the US, it's told from third person perspective of each woman and her daughter. I was captivated by this, not only because of the characters, but also because of the writing. There are some gorgeous passages that make you see the touch of Desiree's hand on Early's neck or the pool where Stella sips gin in the morning. Thanks to edelweiss for the ARC. One of the best of the year and well deserving of the praise it has received. Highly recommend.

Excellent read. Being light and darn near white myself I related to the story and enjoyed being a captured audience. Ms Bennett holds the reader and makes you eager to find out what will happen next. Her characters are complex, interesting and very real.One can see that she researched the material right down to the family and town names that were used.Thank you for an entertaining and well written story.

The premise of this book is both very timely and fascinating: How do both blacks and whites perceive shades of black? The story begins in Mallard, Louisiana, a town founded by a light-skinned black man for light skinned blacks. The expectation is that as these light-skinned blacks live together and breed together, their offspring would become lighter and lighter in skin tone with each ensuing generation. This is certainly true of the founders great-great granddaughters, identical twins Stella and Desiree Vignes. After seeing the brutal murder of their father, the girls run away to New Orleans at the age of sixteen. The girls separate. One marries a coal-black man and has a dark-skinned daughter. She leaves her abusive husband and returns to Mallard where her daughter is marginalized due to her skin color. The other sister passes herself off as white, marries her white boss and they produce a blond, blue-eyed daughter.The complications of race and color are muddied as the author introduces interactions of the second generation of daughters. Suddenly LGBTQ issues and characters enter into the plot. From here the storyline deteriorates. Does the author really feel she needs to tackle all the hot, trendy issues? The plot and dialogues become predictable and uninteresting. What would have been a fascinating study of race and interracial tensions, dissipates. How disappointing!

The premise was supposed to be about two sisters who led different lives based upon the color of skin that they presented them selves as to communities they lived in, but it goes astray with stories of their offspring. I don't think that the five star reviewers read all the way through to get enough insight. I'm sorry I didn't read the 1 and 2 star reviews before buying the book, I would have saved my money for better stories.

I moved work meetings around to read this book, I truly could not put it down.Every great novel should force you out of your comfort zone, introduce you to new worlds and make you pause to think and assess. The Vanishing Half manages this, it feels, with ease. Brit Bennett achieved this with The Mothers too (which I also loved and is a MUST-read), but here the cast, the setting and the timeline are even more expansive. Thus the skill on display, even more impressive.This is a novel that weaves the themes of history, memory and identity. It encourages us to put aside simplified notions of racial dynamics, and as a mixed-race woman, I found myself deeply interrogating my own thoughts, beliefs and experiences. This is not, though, only a novel about race and it would be disingenuous to believe so. This is a journey through family ties, belonging and loss; of individuals, couples, communities. Seamlessly bringing together these myriad threads is the sign of a masterful writer.Brit writes with unpretentious flair, in a way that envelopes you softly, almost as though you're hearing your mum telling you the story as her mum told it to her. No word is wasted, no sentence is filler, no dialogue is superfluous. Everything serves its purpose exquisitely and is imbibed with feeling.This novel spans the full emotional spectrum, it brought me moments of sadness, anger, and tender delight, all of which I am truly grateful for. I needed this novel right now - and I believe many of us do. Please, do not hesitate to purchase this book.

4.75*What an amazing journey I’ve been on. Not sightseeing, more like “eye opening” moments.The Vanishing Half will not only enthrall you it will enlighten you.Twins. One skin colour lighter than the the other. Living in a small village named Mallard.Based around 1950’s and spanning down to 1990’s.Just why did these identical twins get split up when running away?What made them run?How did one twins life take a course so far in type to their peer?One sister living a totally black persons life while the other “passing” for white and whites privilegies.There is racism, there is hate.The sisters had their school life halted due to a difference in everyday life, they’re mama needed them to work, to bring in money.Running took the sisters on totally different paths.One having different relationships and experiences.The other marrying a white man who thought he had married a white woman.Both these sisters went on to have a daughter of their own.There are lots and lots of moments in this story I’d like to share, but, I’d prefer you to experience them whilst reading this book yourself.I remember the times when cemeteries were split. Deceased white people on one part of the land and black diseased on the other. The upkeep of the graves were done on the white side, but not the black.It touches on history here.But the reunion of the sisters I would have loved more emotional, and to see what happened if here husband learnt of the truth or not that she was indeed black.I’d love a book 2 on this. Following through the next generation.I’ve not read The Mothers by this author but I’m looking straight at it on my bookshelf so I’m definitely going to be reading that before 2020 has ended.

The first three quarters of the book are excellent. They tell of the lives of twin sisters, Desiree and Stella, who were born in the fictional Louisiana town of Mallard, where the population of African-Americans were all light-skinned and looked down on dark skinned people.This had not prevented whites from a neighbouring town from lynching their father for an imagined racial transgression.In 1964 Desiree and Stella ran way to St Louis. But they soon went their separate ways. Stella, traumatized by having seen her father lynched, had decided to pass as white. She had taken a job in St Louis. Her employer, a wealthy white banker called Blake Sanders had taken a liking to her, and she to him; and when he was moved to Boston and asked her to go with him, she had agreed, and had simply walked out on Desiree without telling her where she had gone. There she married him and bore him a white daughter, Kennedy. Neither Blake nor Kennedy knew that she was not white. Later they moved to Los Angeles.For years Stella had no contact with Desiree. She was always terrified that she would be found out, and avoided any contact with black people. The exception was her friendship for a while with Loretta Walker, a black woman who lived in the house opposite hers; but this ended when Kennedy, playing with Loretta’s daughter Cindy, made a racist comment to Cindy.Desiree had gone to Washington D.C, and married a black man, Sam Winston, and bore him a black daughter, Jude. But Sam was violent towards Desiree, and she and Jude left him and returned to Mallard in 1968.In 1982 Jude was living in Los Angeles with Reese Carter, a transgender man with whom, sharing his bed, she has an affaire of sorts, and with Barry, who performs as a drag queen twice a month. Reese and Barry, like Stella, were passing for something they were not.One day, Jude thought she had seen Stella, the lookalike of her mother; and she also met Kennedy.Kennedy had become a rebel, had dropped out school, and against her mother’s wishes, had taken up acting in a crummy play in a crummy theatre. Jude took a job as a dogsbody at the theatre in order to see more of her cousin and in the hope of meeting Stella. On the last night of the show she did meet Stella, and introduced herself to her as Desiree’s daughter. Stella froze, then walked away. Angrily, Jude told Kennedy that their mothers were twins, and that Stella had been lying to Kennedy all her life.The secret was out: Stella knew she had been rumbled, and Kennedy knew the truth.I found the remaining quarter of the book, dealing in part with the consequences of this situation, very confusing. Hence only three stars, when so much of the book deserves five.

Mallard is a strange town 'more idea than place'. This is reinforced as a place so small that it can't be found on an atlas though characters might try. The concept of Mallard was created as a place for people 'who would never be accepted as white but refused to be treated like Negroes.' This alternate third pathway extends the concept that Nella Larsen considers in her novella, Passing. ⁣⁣The real tests of the world come after Stella and Desiree Vignes run away at 16. New Orleans serves as the crossroads of the twins choosing different paths-Stella to a white world and Desiree doubling down by finding an even darker partner. ⁣⁣The next generation is where the impacts of race, colorism, and identity are really explored. The consequences of the twins' actions are lived out over the coming years; the story touches to Mallard, Los Angeles, and New York weaving the race reality all across the US. ⁣The characters truly shine amongst this seeming sociological experiment regarding the effect race can have on lifestyle. Bennett has crafted all these women to be truly imperfect, nuanced characters that you become invested in especially for me, the subsequent generation. ⁣⁣This novel is timely and as instructive as any non-fiction both on the power of race regards and colorism but also identity and how we socially construct that. This should be required reading for any young adult up through the elder stages of life.⁣⁣I will undoubtedly be revisiting this book time and time again. I already adore and am going to be pushing everyone I know and love to buy it, borrow from the library and share it.

This book is deceptive in its calming voice. It starts out a slow tale, expertly told. Then slowly it evolves into a gripping page turner. In the end your left limp, wrung dry, but longing for the story to go on.The underlying description of race relations/ conflicts...what it is/was like to be Black in America are stunningly well crafted. The same goes for the author's way of portraying gender, love, family...This woman can WRITE. I will wait impatiently for her next.