The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

I binge read Brit Bennet’s new book, The Vanishing Half over one and a half days as I got sucked into the world of the twin protagonists spanning two generations.

Desiree and Stella were born in a town founded by their ancenstor for light skinned black people. The story follows the twins as they move from inseparable and running away together to far apart as one of them decides to run again, this time from her sister and her life as a black woman.

The theme of vanishing continues throughout the book in the many versions of vanishing: permanent and temporary, the vanishing of sex, the vanishing of poverty, truth and lies.

Brit Bennett captures her characters’ personalities with empathy and patience. I enjoyed the hereditary elements in the daughters of the main characters. Each daughter was more like her aunt rather than her mother and even though the characters are fictional I felt sorry for them. It can be comforting and grounding to be around family who understand your personality.

This is the first book that I read by Brit Bennett and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was pleased to hear it will be adapted for screen by HBO as it seems a perfect fit.

I have read criticisms of the co-incidences in the book but I don’t mind them. Comments are open so please let me know if you disagree. My criticism would be the depiction of the very dark skinned husband/father and how he was exactly as the mother in the book predicted and the negative experience that unfolded. I don’t want to spoil the book for those of you who haven’t read it but I will add a comment below kicking off a discussion on possible conclusions to be drawn from the experience of the twins.

Enjoy!