Book Blog #378: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

 

Title: The Vanishing Half

Author: Brit Bennett

# of Pages: 346 (ebook)

Genre: Adult, Historical Fiction

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Synopsis: The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters' storylines intersect? Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person's decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.

Review: Borderline 4 stars.

This book focuses on the Vignes family across multi-generations in a way that reminded me of Pachinko (which I loved!).

While this book is told in 3rd person, there's a LOT of time skipping (not just the big time skips between chapters) back and forth that really disrupts the flow. Every time there was a time skip, I would put the book down, which slowed down my reading pace in a major way.

The main issue was how much time skipping there was that made the story feel too unfocused. I would have connected with the characters more if at least the chapters were told more linearly (so I could learn about these characters as they grow) and/or if the story focused in on one of the generations (so each character can have deeper character development). 

The ending almost made me give this story 4 stars; it wasn't until the ending 20% that I felt more invested in the characters. I also applaud the author tackling interesting topics: 

- complex family relationships: twins are inherently close in ways that siblings who aren't can't fathom. Yet the Vignes twins sudden go down different paths and deal with their familial relationships very differently. 

- acceptance/rejection of identity: one twin leans into their blackness, the other rejects this identity. Their daughters (who are the more interesting and likable characters in this story) are the physical manifestations of their respective choices. The story covers how their differences affect their relationships with those around them and each other (and the surprising ways it doesn't affect them). 

Overall an interesting read, just very slow for over half of the book. I recently read The God of the Woods which had time skipping and was also a slow start, but I actually like the writing style better than the style used in The Vanishing Half. I'd only recommend this book if it already sounds interesting to you!