Book Review: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

The Vanishing Half: a novel by Brit Bennett

Genre: Historical Fiction

This book has: multiple viewpoints, mentions of graphic domestic and racial violence, racism LGBTQ+ themes

Page Count: 343 (Penguin Random House Hardcover Edition)

My rating: 4/5

Synopsis: The Vignes twins, Stella and Desiree, grew up in a small town called Mallard, a town of light-skinned African Americans. At the age of sixteen, the two girls run away together to the great city of New Orleans. Working harder than they ever have before, they try to make a life for themselves until one day Stella just vanishes in the night. With no note and no trace of her, Desiree has no choice but to move on without the sister that had always been by her side. Desiree goes on to study fingerprinting and meets Sam, a true gentlemen and a man with skin darker than midnight. They marry and have a gorgeous daughter, Jude. But after a violent outburst from Sam, Desiree flees with her young daughter and heads back home, a place where she swore she would never return.

Stella has made herself a nice life in California with her husband Blake, a white man, and their beautiful blonde haired and blue eyed daughter, Kennedy. For years now, ever since becoming Blake's secretary back in Louisiana, she's been passing for white and it is her best kept secret. Living with the constant paranoia that someone will uncover her past, she erases any ties to her family and hometown.

A story that runs over the course of several decades, you follow the struggle and pain of the two sisters. Filled with hope and longing and a journey of self-discovery, The Vanishing Half will entangle you in the complexities of race and identity and what it truly means to belong.

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As a mixed woman myself (half-white/half-black) I was intrigued by the prospect that a novel had main characters who were just like me and also spend their lives trying to discover their place and where they fit in. I am not as light-skinned as the Vignes twins in Bennet's novel, but I have struggled with finding which side I'm "supposed to belong too." I'm too dark for white people (I've even been told I have a lovely exotic color) and I'm too white for black people (I was raised with very "white" traditions and vernacular). So when I read that this story had one sister that stuck with her roots, almost throwing it back in her families face by marrying a black man and the other sister chose a white life with a white family, I was enthralled.

The Vanishing Half was a new take on a old story and extremely well written. Bennet does a phenomenal job with showing the struggles of color and how it is looked upon in society. The book may take place during the 1950s-1990s but most of the ideals can still be applied to today's culture. She shows how one can be "rejected" by their "own people" as seen with Jude, a girl with blacker than black skin, trying to grow up in Mallard where trying to be as light as possible is the trend. She also demonstrates exceedingly well the aspects of white privilege through Kennedy's poor life choices (i.e. there is a passage where it's mentioned that she totals her Camaro and her dad buys her a new one).

Despite the entire novel revolving around color, it doesn't come off too heavy or unbearable. The racial aspects are used more as a literary device to give the characters backstory as well as part of their identity (i.e. Stella and Desiree watch a group of white supremacists drag their father from the house and beat him within an inch of his life) . The Vanishing Half focuses on these woman's drives and how they just want to find themselves and their place and what they're willing to do to accomplish their goals.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a good read with strong characters and a dynamic story with plot twists and turns, never knowing where you are going to follow these characters to next.