Currently Reading: “The Vanishing Half”

Book: “The Vanishing Half” by Brit Bennett

Genre: Fiction

Publication Date: June 2nd, 2020

Synopsis: (From Amazon)

“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.”

This book has been on the bestseller list for over a month and I am finally breaking down and reading it. Books that are hyped worry me. If there is a book that every single person on the planet seems to love, I feel nervous about picking it up. I worry that it may not live up to the high expectations. This impending disappointment dampers the joy that picking up a new book brings.

However, I have a copy in my hands and I am already a couple of chapters in. This book is clearly going to be loaded, emotional and insightful. The book opens with the heavy topic of colorism within the small town of Mallard. Readers are immersed into the town and it’s history. Author Brit Bennett’s prose has a beautiful precision that will leave readers breathless and eagerly reading on.

Needless to say, I am looking forward to reading this novel. I also plan on reading up on the author as well. Even this early in the book, it is clear that this novel is something special. I’m excited to jump in and learn more.

Happy Reading!