#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEARNAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2020 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES * THE WASHINGTON POST NPR * PEOPLE * TIME MAGAZINE VANITY FAIR * GLAMOUR 2021 WOMEN’S PRIZE FINALIST“Bennett’s tone and style recalls James Baldwin and Jacqueline Woodson, but it’s especially reminiscent of Toni Morrison’s 1970 debut novel, The Bluest Eye.” —Kiley Reid, … Woodson, but it’s especially reminiscent of Toni Morrison’s 1970 debut novel, The Bluest Eye.” —Kiley Reid, Wall Street Journal
“A story of absolute, universal timelessness …For any era, it’s an accomplished, affecting novel. For this moment, it’s piercing, subtly wending its way toward questions about who we are and who we want to be….” – Entertainment Weekly
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.more
This was such an original, beautifully written book that made me think long after the last page was read. The two sisters’ very different paths led in directions that was both inspiring and heartbreaking.
Such a well written novel about sisters and race and family and mothers and daughters. It’s amazing how much the author wrapped in to the story without overloading it. Everything seemed essential to the story. Highly recommend
Wow! This book was a fascinating read. The writing was outstanding and thought-provoking. I can’t wait to discuss this one with my book club. The author takes the reader on a journey that is a little scattered, jumping back and forth along the timeline frequently, sometimes multiple times within a chapter. Some readers may get frustrated with this. Also, the ending was very abrupt and not as satisfying as many readers would probably want, hence the four stars and not five. But IMO, it fits the tone of the book perfectly.
I can not say enough about the Vanishing Half. The writing is exceptional on every level. The storyline and characters are still with me long after I’ve finished the book. It’s a must summer read.
This is not just a story about racial passing. This is a beautiful, confounding, heartbreaking and totally addictive inter-generational saga about love, loss and identity. I thought I was ready, but the racism and almost unrelenting colorism struck hard. But then again it’s no harder than reality. This book kicked my ass all over the place. And I still want to go back and start over again. I’ll be thinking and reading and talking about this for a while.
The detail and the feeling showcased in every sentence Brit Bennett writes is breath taking. The Vanishing Half is a novel that shows just how human emotion, uncertainty and longing can be captured and put on paper.
The Vanishing Half should mark the induction of Brit Bennett into the small group of likely successors to Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston, and Nella Larsen.
This was an engaging and endearing portrait of identity across multiple generations and decades – as some reviewers have noted, this story is not just about the twins, though that is a core thread. It is also largely about their daughters and the way conflicts of identity translate to younger generations. Race is a key theme, but so is sexual orientation and expressions of gender identity. While I was disappointed not to have a whole book about Desiree returning home and reuniting with Early (the first 4 chapters were my favorite of the entire book), I did enjoy the jumps through history and various perspectives Bennett explored. I agree with other reviewers that the ending was the weakest part of the book, but I was captured enough by the many tangled threads of the twins’ lives to recommend this to other readers.
I’m still reeling a bit from this story–an epic family drama steeped in social issues. It poses so many questions–not just about race, but about the choices we all make as we discover who we are and what matters most to us. I still can’t decide if I like the fact that, for me, the “resolution” between the sisters is not what I had hoped for (don’t want to say what happens and spoil it for anyone), but I think it is probably the right ending for these sisters and the lives they’ve made for themselves. I probably should’ve waited a while to try to write a review, as I believe it will take more time for me to truly assess how this novel has changed me. The good thing is that this is one of those books that will change you (for the better).
Really excellent writing! The way Bennett tells traces the story through the different women’s perspectives worked so well for me. I also found it to be a real page-turner, which I wasn’t necessarily expecting but loved. Highly recommend. I’m adding The Mothers to my reading list!
Compelling story and so engaging–I didn’t want to put it down!
Identical twins, Desiree and Stella grow up in a southern black community. What’s different about this community is that everyone is light-skinned including the twins. When they turn sixteen, they run away. Soon after, Stella leaves her sister and submerges herself into a white world where she marries and lives as a white woman. She carries her secret, lying about her origins to her husband and only daughter, Kennedy. Desiree is heart-broken when Stella disappears and forges a life without her. She marries a black man and has a daughter, Jude who looks like her father. The marriage breaks down and Desiree goes back to her mother and the community with Jude.
This is a fascinating premise and the themes of race, class and identity are beautifully explored. There were other themes too such as transgender and domestic violence. There are several timelines beginning in 1968, when Desiree returns. Then it ends in 1986 when the two daughters, Kennedy and Jude cross paths with interesting consequences.
This is a big story and could have easily been made into a series. The author takes us through the twin’s childhood, and their initial estrangement from their mother. And although ten years later, Desiree returns to her mother, there’s a gap about Stella and her mother’s relationship. How could Stella disappear without a trace? What guilt did she carry and how did she live with that? By the time we get to Stella’s point of view we are given answers, yet I found I wanted more. And herein lies the dilemma of hiding deep family secrets as well as Stella’s own childhood trauma. Her white husband appears to be totally clueless yet Stella’s fear of being found out might surely have had a toll.
The relationship between Jude and her boyfriend Reece, a trans-man was tender but again, this was another book in itself as was Kennedy’s story. Well, done to the author for trying to contain all of these stories of what is essentially an epic family story.
Yet, perhaps because it is such a big story, I found it hard to engage with the characters as much as I would have liked. I think I might have enjoyed it more if it was told in first person rather than omniscient as it felt a little removed for my taste.
Otherwise, it’s definitely a well-written story worth reading and appreciating given the themes.
I’d heard so many people rave about this book, and it still lived up to the hype. Really touching and intense story about identity, family, race, home, and belonging.
I’m so glad I read this book. I couldn’t put it down–a powerful story of love, the love between sisters, between mothers and daughters, between women and men–a story that spans generations and history.
Two sisters are born in Mallard, Louisiana, a place so odd and tiny it’s not on any maps. Desiree and Stella are twins, separating to follow different paths. One will pass as white, one will remain true to her roots, but they’re twins and cannot separate from each other forever.
I loved the good men in this book, one who loved one twin, the other who loved that twin’s child. I don’t want to say more because of spoilers, but the characters were so well drawn and so complete that you felt like you knew them, or wanted to.
I’ll be looking for the other books by this talented author, and more fabulous reading from her in the future.
A very moving read. This is a complex story of light-skinned twin sisters who choose very different paths in life: one passing as white, while the other marries the darkest man she meets. It’s a story about family, about loss, about identity, heritage, racism and love. The writing is beautiful and although the story moves back and forth in time and between the twins and their two daughters’ stories, it’s relentlessly engaging.
I was aware of the general premise of this book before I began it, however the structure was unexpected and delightful. I really loved the multi generational component of this novel, the idea that decisions travel forward and backwards, and that lying is a form of loving. I liked the relationship between the cousins, and their repairing the chasm in the end. Bennett writes with beautiful language and imagery, especially in the scenes set in Louisiana.
Wonderful! I read The Vanishing Half for Barnes & Noble book club and it was terrific. It’s the tale of twins who take drastically different paths in life. A story of identity: how we shape it. How we can’t always control it (because at times, it controls us). How family always calls us back. I loved the characters.
Well written and engaging. Really enjoyed the audiobook narrator.
When I saw Brit Bennett had a new book out I knew I had to have it. I loved The Mothers, and I have to say that Bennett honed her craft even more with The Vanishing Half. This book makes you feel all the feels and her ability to tell a story just blows me away.
The Vanishing Half is broken up into sections by different years and different points of view which made the book really fly by for me. The best part is that I decided to do the audio and the narrator, Shayna Small, is seriously a genius. I absolutely LOVED her, and I will definitely be searching out more books that she voices. I would highly recommend the audio because it really brought the book and characters to life for me by listening to Small read it.
The hardest POV for me was Stella, and I was so angry with her for so much of the book. I think The Vanishing Half would make for a stellar book club choice as there is definitely a lot to talk about within its pages. It was a very timely and important novel that touches on too many subjects to count. Although I didn’t cry, it was definitely an emotional book and I’m sure it would make some people teary.
I cannot recommend The Vanishing Half enough, and it is for sure going on my top 10 list of books for the year. The plot and characters are incredibly complex, and I hope Bennett will continue to write for many years as I just cannot get enough of her writing. This was a stunning second novel, and if you like literary fiction with a lot of people and moving parts perfectly intertwined then this is the book for you!
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett is an excellent fictional tale that weaves over decades between two identical twins that couldn’t be more different. Two halves of a whole, two souls that as experiencing the world, separate, branch out, and take on different lives. Desiree and Stella are both fascinating characters together, but more so apart.
This book drew me in with its historical fiction aspect (the South during the 40s-50s and as the decades pass by to edge us closer to current day). It continued to keep my interest reading the few, quick decisions that were made with each women respectively that completely changes their own lives permanently. How girls that could be from the same womb could end up so different is surprising. The choices they made, the ways it affected their own daughters (Jude and Kennedy) and how all these women weaved in and out of each other’s lives thereafter made for an excellent story
I do not want to give any more details about the plot as I do not want to divulge some of the surprises and twists placed within the book, but I do want to say that I was mesmerized by this story from the first page to the last (and the last page came much too soon I might add). This is the type of book that makes one question everything in life, a book that will resonate with me for years to come. I feel like this is going to be one of my favorite books this year.
Excellent. 5/5 stars.