This book floored me. I read it in one sitting, and I'm still thinking about it. It was highly-anticipated and rightfully so. Bennett had created a masterpiece with her second novel, "The Vanishing Half," and it comes at a very pertinent time. This books weaves in the story of Desiree and Stella Vignes, twin sisters from a small town in Louisiana unique for its light-skinned residents. Through that premise, Bennett weaves in a story about what it means to "pass" and how that can alter perceptions.

This book was so intricate, beautifully-written and purely dazzling. It is one of the strongest books I've read in the last ten years, and I am anxiously awaiting Bennett's next novel!

This is a pretty amazing book. There is everything enjoyable about this generational novel--the writing, the plot, the characters (Jude is my favorite!), and most of all, the genius way Bennett crafted the different points of view to converge into one complex, connected, satisfying story. There is sadness in this story, touching lightly on abuse and sexual identity, and heavily on race in the Jim Crow south. But there is also happiness in finding love, redemption, forgiveness, and self discovery. The Vanishing Half kept me thinking during reading and after, about how racism can be so casual and common, and privilege makes some of us not even see these biases, however unconscious. Change is overdue, and this book hits just right for these times.

This was such a wonderful novel by Brit Bennett. Beautifully written and really made me think. Highly recommend.

What might you be willing to sacrifice to live your life on your terms? The Vanishing Half, the enthralling narrative of Stella and Desiree Vignes’s journey to define themselves on their own terms, not those imposed by their family or Mallard, vividly and accurately presents the costs of choosing to live on their own terms. The dynamic characters and their authentic conflicts and relationships make the story relatable and captivating. These characters are people you would actually befriend.

I read this in one sitting. I could not put it down. I liked "The Mothers," but this book I loved. I did cry at times, as Bennett captures relationships so well.

I started this book before the before the death of George Floyd and finished it on day 12 of the protests. If anything, the current moment just adds more depth and more understanding to the question of why someone would risk giving up everything to live a life that requires looking over their shoulder in order to not have to live it as a black person. I could not even being to touch on all of the themes in this story but what strikes me most are the decisions made by each sister and their off-spring; each living completely different lives. You have Desiree, the outspoken and head strong sister who chooses to live a simple life as a black woman in a small town that is not accepting of diversity. She doesn't ask for much and she doesn't take much. Her twin sister Stella, vanishes and chooses to pass as a white woman and live a life that requires her to hide in plain view and turn on those that she she identifies with the most. She is provided with every opportunity but readers might question whether she has sacrificed more than she has received. Desiree's daughter Jude is so dark she can recite a list of things that people have said to her over the years to make it known just how they dark they see her.. Some might say that she, the darkest character, is living life the most freely making choices and pursuing dreams and answering to nobody. And finally, Kennedy, daughter of Stella who has no idea that she has even a trace of black in her and lives freely and with privilege completely unaware of her background and the sacrifices that have been made for her live freely. And despite every privilege lives a life where through her own lack of identity she squanders the opportunities that are hers to seize. Through storytelling, the author had me empathizing with each character and understanding just what a privilege it is to be born into circumstances, whether it is race, gender or sexuality, where you don't have to choose how covertly or how freely to live your life based on how much you are willing to endure from society. And that is just the tip of the iceberg in this complex and emotional story. .

I really liked Brit Bennett's debut The Mothers when I read it several years ago and eagerly anticipated The Vanishing Half, and it was absolutely worth the wait. This story is a family saga that also explores issues of race and perception in a plot that was truly riveting. There are lots of side plot points that are equally as engaging and well examined within this story. One of the most memorable books I've read yet this year.

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett is one of the books I've been most looking forward to reading this summer. Identical twin sisters from the South living completely different lives in two different societies. Race relations is the major theme of this book. Two very similar sisters who go on to lead two very different lives makes for an intriguing and riveting plot. Read and enjoy!

This is an incredible book from start to finish. It is one of the select few titles that I feel like I can hand to anyone, to everyone who asks me for "something really good. It is the kind of book that grips readers and doesn't let go even after the final page is read.
It is simultaneously a beautifully written story about family as well as a thoughtful exploration of race and racism in America.

I don't really know how I can even review Brit Bennett's The Vanishing Half, except to say it's a masterpiece.

I could write 27 PhD dissertations on this book, and I don't think I'd ever finish talking about it. Wow. How Bennett packed so much into 352 pages, I'll never know. And quite frankly, I think it's one of few books that could use even more hype than it's already gotten. It's just that good.

The Vanishing Half is a million love stories rolled up into one, a complicated and ever-expanding family drama, a critique on race and racism and colorism and class in America, and so much more. I could've read a million more pages of this utterly beautiful and complex and heartbreaking novel.

Again, I don't really think my words could do it justice. You'll just have to go seek it out for yourself.

One of the best books of 2020 for me. The story of Stella, Desiree and Jude is one of self preservation, self discovery and tolerance. The Vanishing Half examines the last, the future and how society helps define. Brit Bennett creates characters I loved. Through the story’s of each woman I fully escaped and “climbed into their skin” so much to talk about with this book and it will stay with me for a very long time

Can you be what you're not? In this beautifully written book Brit Bennett tells the story of twin sisters and their daughters, both light skinned enough to pass for white. Desiree marries a dark-skinned man who treats her badly and, having both run away together from their backwater place - not even a town - returns home to live with her widowed mother and raise her dark-skinned daughter. Stella abandons Desiree , half-inadvertently passes for white, marries a wealthy white man and moves to California, where she raises her daughter, telling neither her husband nor her daughter of her lineage. All the women struggle, in various ways, to find their identities. But Stella, who tried to live her life pretending to be what she wasn't, has the most difficult struggle of all. Bennett's book illustrates the huge disparities that are all so timely. Highly recommended.

Thank you to Netgalley and publishers for the review copy.

The Vanishing Half tells the story of twins, Desiree and Stella who grow up to become estranged, living completely different lives. An inter-generational story, The Vanishing Half, takes a close look inside race, gender and family. Bennett is a wonderful writer who knows how to draw you in. I highly recommend this title for those interested in family dynamics and coming of age.

I really enjoyed this book, so much so that I wish there were more of each character. I wish that there were less time jumps and we got more story about each character. It felt like every time I was really getting into the story and setting with each character there was a time jump. Overall though I liked it a lot.

✨THE VANISHING HALF✨
What an incredible book. Spanning multiple decades, the vanishing half follows the Vignes sisters, Stella and Desiree. They grew up in a small Louisiana town and in their teens moved to New Orleans. One day Stella disappears and we later find out that she married a white man and is living a new life passing as a white woman. Desiree has a child with a black man and moves back to their home town. •
The twins live drastically different lives, Stella living in an upper class neighborhood in California with a rich white husband and Desiree working in a diner in Louisiana, caring for her mother. •
The book discusses race, privilege, shame, deceit and more. I absolutely loved how this book was written with the alternating timelines and points of view. I feel like I can’t do this book justice with any sort of review so definitely order a copy & read it!! I’ll definitely be picking up a physical copy for my bookshelf! 5/5⭐️
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Thank you @riverheadbooks for my review copy💛

Brit Bennett is a gifted writer who handles an interesting subject with graceful prose. This novel deals with so many realistic characters and events. The story is fascinating - touching on racism, privilege, life choices, sexual identity, loneliness and family - I could not put it down. What would happen if different choices had been made in life? What gives a person his/her identity? What is family? All of these questions are brought to light both by the twin sisters and by their daughters. I think it would be interesting to discuss the book with a person of color - the whole idea of covering/hiding one's race is hard to imagine.

The Vanishing Half
A Novel
by Brit Bennett
Read an Excerpt
PENGUIN GROUP Riverhead
Riverhead Books
Literary Fiction | Women's Fiction
Pub Date 02 Jun 2020 | Archive Date 02 Aug 2020

What a great book about twins and the struggles they go through. You may want to put this one on the top of your TBR list. Thanks to Net Galley and Penguin Group Riverhead for the ARC.
5 star

Two twin sisters who grow up in a small Louisianna town make the personal decision to live apart. One twin lives her life as a wealthy white woman and one twin stays in her small Louisiana town as a black woman. What a wonderful novel and so important to read in today's world.

Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half follows a premise that could feel familiar, (twins disappear from their small town), but she layers it with race, class, and family dynamics that make this novel stand on its own. Bennett’s narration style is so fluid and unique, moving through time and through narrators seamlessly within each chapter. She is able to examine the phenomenon of passing, (and how it affects the interactions of a small Black community), with both a historical and modern lens. But most stunningly, this novel captures explores the complexities of love and family—how we recreate or shift our expectations of love when what is in the immediate is not enough. Bennett deepens the understanding of what a challenging love looks like, and how it triumphs or spoils when we defy social expectations.

In The Vanishing Half, Mallard, Louisiana is a town where the people are “Negroes” and yet look as white as the white people who both loathe and are perplexed by them. And in Mallard, the Vignes girls are twins, and minor celebrities as descendants of the town’s founder, a man who created the place as a refuge for those Negroes who looked white and could, if they so chose, “pass over” and live their lives as white. But that is the puzzle of Mallard and of colorist in general — most of these folks don’t want to be white, they don’t however want to be Black-Black either. The two Vignes girls, Stella and Desiree, at the age of sixteen run off to New Orleans escaping the stifling expectations of Mallard and their mother’s declining fortunes which has her cleaning the houses of white women just to get by after her husband’s death.

One sister, Desiree, chooses to live her life as the Black woman she is, the other vanishes without warning into life as a white woman, leaving her Blackness and her twin sister behind. The effect and consequences of this, both emotionally and intergenerationally are the crux of this novel. I found it a painful read, because of the portrayal of what Black people lost and the compromises they made to gain the benefits that came from proximity to whiteness. I especially liked reading about Jude, Desiree’s “blue-black” daughter who suffers when her mother returns with her to Mallard, enduring the casual cruelties of her almost-white peers, and the confusing aggression from boys who both desire her but are taught to hate her and themselves for doing so. They victimize Jude but are themselves victims of a society that values whiteness and closeness to it. Jude’s experience as a dark-skinned girl and then woman is the flip side of her mother’s experience with Jude’s father, a man much darker than her who both loved and loathed his wife’s lightness.

I waited and was eager for Brit Bennet’s sophomore novel because something about ‘The Mothers’ moved me, though I’m still not sure what. I can only imagine that it was the way she writes about identity, and not just racial identity though this book is definitely about that. She also writes in this novel, as she did in her first, stirringly about motherhood, and about notions of home and the urge to return, even when home may have been a place that caused you pain. But central to this novel, I think, may be the idea of loss. Maybe that’s why Brit Bennett’s work leaves me so moody. Moody, but never feeling incomplete. I recommend.