The Vanishing Half
Ratings323
Average rating4.1
15
Ratings323
Average rating4.1
From The New York Times-bestselling author of The Mothers, a stunning new novel about twin sisters, inseparable as children, who ultimately choose to live in two very different worlds, one black and one white.
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 secretly 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.
As with her New York Times-bestselling debut The Mothers, Brit Bennett offers an engrossing page-turner about family and relationships that is immersive and provocative, compassionate and wise.
Reviews with the most likes.
Probably one of the best books I'll read all year. This is literary fiction at its strongest, full of complex internal developments around identity and society.
for most of the book it was a 2 star read for me. I went into the book thinking it was one thing and it it was entirely different than everyone else has told me so i was a bit thrown off. I didn't connect with the characters until the very end.
I bumped it up to a 3 star because i finally connected with the characters and i let the story sink in.
Idk why i didn't like this book as much as i expected, the plot and story of this book is right up my alley but maybe i went in with too high of expectations
3.5 stars. I liked how the book started out but was disappointed by the second half.
When the wine glass dropped, I was like “oh shit!”
Very good book, enjoyed it! Well written and believable dialogue that didn't take me out of the story at all.
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