The Vanishing Half

This book surprised me. I was prepared to hate Stella, but I didn't. I didn't love her, but I appreciated how complex her character was. This book covers many topics that were controversial not only in the time this book was set in, but that also carry over into present day. The ethical dilemma of white passing, colorism, self above familial responsibility, abuse, Trans operations, and the aids epidemic. The vast difference in race passing versus gender passing became subtext throughout the story with Stella and Reese. My favorite characters to follow were Jude and Reese. I would be lying if I said I didn't love the scenes in Koreatown. I feel like my first ktown apartment was same one as Jude and Reese's. At least in the description of dilapidation. I also loved Desiree and Early's relationship and how Early and Adele grew to love each other over time. I really liked the way this story was laid out and that it continued with each character. I want to read more from this author.

Interesting and diverse, destinies intertwined in so many ways; from Desiree wishing to be a famous actress and having a blacker(?) daughter to her niece becoming the actress she never was and being the bridge to putting the white(r?) part of the family together. Prejudice in your own skin and city and family is also real. And deeper than being battered or falling for a transexual? So many layers od discovery.

This was SO GOOD. Read it. Read it now! The characters are brilliantly drawn and frustrating and beautiful. I love a good story that stretches over decades and flip-flops the POV voice. This was like nothing I've read before, and it was great.

“Stella's mouth curved, like she was going to smile or cry, her face, somehow, caught in between. Like a sun shower. The devil beating his wife, her mother used to say, and Jude imagined it every time she heard her father rage. The devil could love the woman he beat; the sun could burst through a rainstorm. Nothing was as simple as you wanted it to be.”

This was a superbly written, fully engrossing novel. I love stories where the protagonist and antagonist aren't clear, and that's the case with this. This book is too complex, has too many moving parts to be defined that way.

The story starts out small and confined, but the way Brit Bennett methodically expands the world, adding characters and using time jumps is brilliantly done. She subtly made me invested in every character, even when they infuriated me.

To me, this is ultimately a story about not fitting in where you belong, and fitting in where you don't belong. The navigating that comes with that made for a truly interesting read. Highly recommend.

I can see what all the buzz is about this book. It will stay with me a while for sure. Themes of race and identity, sexuality and identity, family and identity, secrets and identity - see a pattern here? Desiree and Stella are black twins born in a town in the south that values light-colored skin above all. They leave and each lead separate lives. The reader is left to wonder, which was a better life? Which was worse? How do you measure such things? This is a really well-written, deep story with many layers. Would be great book club choice to discuss.

4.5 stars. Compelling and beautifully written with characters that will stay with me for a long time. I thought the ending could have been tighter but maybe I just wanted to spend more time with these women (and bring them up to the start of the 21st century). Deserves all of the accolades it is receiving.

a poignant, hopeful, and thought-provoking story of twin sisters that chose to live very different lives.

We follow Stella and Desiree's stories along with their daughters. I loved that their daughters' perspectives were included because it shows us how each sister's decisions affected the upbringing of their children and eventually, their children's lives as adults.

There are a lot of heavy topics in this book and sometimes it felt too much and the focus was shifting from racial identity, but it did make the book feel more realistic as one doesn't ever go through life dealing with just one thing.

This book follows the lives of two twins born black, but exceptionally light-skinned; one twin lives her life as a black woman, marrying a black man and having a “blue-black” child; the other lives passing as a white woman, marrying into WASP-y aristocracy and having a white child. The book unfolds as a fascinating meditation on identity, the social construct of race in America, and the inescapable bonds of family and history. Bennett paints a clear picture of the catch-22 black women face in America: to live life unencumbered by racism – to be truly free – a black woman must conform to whiteness; but in “playing” white, she is shackled by denying her identity, her culture, and her history, such that she will never truly be free.

I enjoyed this book both for the concept and the way it was executed; it was hard to put down. The writing is clean and while not lyrical, I found myself struck by the imagery and simile. I love that the cast of characters includes a trans man; not enough trans people are given this kind of real estate in fiction. In that same vein, I love that this book celebrates different, non-traditional loves: the love between a black woman and white trans man; the love of a man and woman together long-term, but never truly cohabiting or marrying; the love between sisters and daughters and mothers; the love for friends and protectors; and the love we feel purely out of transference. All in all, this is a quality work of fiction in all senses – plot, character development, concept, writing – and I would definitely recommend it, with a heavy side dose of thought and reflection on traditional thinking of race & relationships in America.

Damn. RTC.

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.