Author: Brit Bennett
Release Date: June 2020
Genre: Historical Fiction, Family Saga

Twin girls inseparable since birth suddenly find their lives split in two. Growing up in a small black community in Louisiana, Stella and Desiree Vignes run away at sixteen to escape the suffocating rules of their world. Neither could have predicted their sudden separation. Two halves to a whole abruptly severed, forever trying to fill in the empty space. Now, one is back in that same southern town they swore never to return to with a blue-black daughter in tow while the other passes as white in a wealthy community in Los Angeles with her family. As the twin’s lives reconnect through their daughters, Bennett expertly weaves a tale through the changing times of the 50s through the 90s. Readers can immerse themselves in the lives of generations as each individual faces challenges, both new and surprisingly old.

In today’s rapidly changing world, Bennet touches on topics of race, sexuality, family, and love as four women search for something they’ve lost within themselves. While our world now writhes in a tempest on many of these topics, the story of racial passing is a form seen in American literature as early as the 19th-century. William Wells Brown’s 1860s novel: Clotel; or, The President’s Daughter is considered one of the earliest novels on the topic of passing (a novel in which a black character passes as white). Like Bennet, Brown weaves a tale of intersecting plot lines, where the main protagonists of the story experience the injustices of race in America during their respective times.

Bennet poses questions which Brown and many others didn’t consider. In The Vanishing Half readers see “passing” without the characters being found out. Even when the Vignes sister’s daughters uncover truth of their mother’s past they never divulge that story. It makes one think about “the grass is only greener” metaphor. Both Vignes sisters sought more than they had, abandoning their mother, heritage, and in Stella’s case, her sister only to lose one another. The decisions they made at 16 effect their adult daughters as well, who will never be invited to each other’s family Christmases or birthday parties.

On a personally note, I loved Desiree’s arch the most. she seemed to have ended up with the happiest of endings and aren’t we all a sucker for that? While her journey was rife with hardships and loss, her conclusion was much more satisfying than her sister’s or her daughter’s. On the flip side, I felt there was something missing from all the characters. Throughout the narrative I kept waiting to slip into a greater depth of character. I wanted more feeling rather than the explication Bennet favored. Despite this, she did leave neat little cliffhangers that had you turning each page to see which direction the plot would take.

The Vanishing Half is our newest tale on the story of passing but holds many more modern ideals and struggles that I’m sure will resonate with readers today. One in particular is Jude’s boyfriend who is trans. Together, the couple struggle to save up money for surgery all the while learning what each of them need physically and emotionally from the other. Bennet also describes family dramas that fracture and merge across generations, an absent father, an abusive husband, a lost sister, an estranged daughter.

While somewhat lacking in depth, Bennet does weave an intimate tale which speaks much about the world we live in today.

~ Steph

Support your local book stores! Order The Vanishing Half from Bookshop.org