The Vignes Sisters – Identical twins live in a small black community. At age 16, they run away and ultimately choose to live in two very different worlds: one black and one white. The Vanishing Half tells the story of how the lives of the twins, though separated by distance and lies remain intertwined.
You can escape a town but you cannot escape blood
I loved the setting of the book, from the 1950s to the 1990s. This book gave me historical fiction that focuses on race, colourism, identity, family, sexuality, abuse, love and motherhood. These are themes I have grown to love in recent times.
You don't love that dark man. You're only marrying him out of rebellion
Desiree, the strong-willed and stubborn twin returns to the small black community with her black daughter after a brief marriage with a dark man. She fits right in and falls in love with Early, a bounty hunter. The only problem she encounters is trying to hide from her abusive husband and raising a “dark” child in a community that believes strongly in whitening the race and generation.
I just liked who I was with him… Free
Stella on the other hand marries a white man and choose to live a life of lies with her husband and daughter. The daughters meet and the life of lies Stella has carefully built comes crashing down. The reunion gave me a better understanding of why Stella chose to pass as white. It was her escape – the path to privilege and opportunities. Becoming white offered her a world of freedom from her childhood struggles and trauma.
That was the problem: you could never love two people the exact same way.
Bennet does a good job at telling the story of each twin and the path they chose as well as focusing on the consequences of their choice to their generation.
Divided into 6 parts, this book is a slow burn but the middle catches and grips your attention. The first part was confusing and slow as the author tried to tell so many stories and different backgrounds in that part. By the time I got to part 3, I was so in love with the characters - Reese and Jude & Desiree and Early. I also loved Barry and Loretta. Such lovely characters.
Another thing I loved about the book was the writing. The sentences were beautifully written, heavy with emotions and carried and conveyed so much wisdom.
As the story kept unfolding, the book reminded me of Yaa Gyasi’s “Homegoing” and Nella Larson’s “Passing”. The story felt somewhat familiar and I could tell the end right from the beginning. There was no major plot twist or breath taking moments in this book. And quite honestly, there were too many coincidences in this book.
When I picked this book up, I honestly thought the book will focus on the twins, however, I was disappointed because the plot focused on several other things but that.
I was hoping that the book would explore the scarred relationship between the twins - something about two halves living in different worlds but that didn't happen.
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