The Vanishing Half

The Vanishing Half by @britrbennett

Reviewed by Mimi
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This story is based on a set of identical twins raised in a Southern black community. In their teens the lives diverge in a big way. One has a daughter with an abusive husband running back to her small town community and the other adopts a white identity, marries rich and raises an entitled daughter. Their physical and mental situations are poles apart although genetically they are the same. Their worlds collide as their daughters meet by accident and they are forced to come to terms with how different they are.

I thoroughly loved the conflict between the two women, their parenting styles, their attachment to the community but also the void each has in their lives by the absence of the other.

One aspect that stood out to me was how Stella, the twin who decided to pass as a white woman, so quickly assimilated the prejudices and fears she will have experienced so much as a young woman. In one point of the story, she stops her young daughter from playing with the child of a black family who moved into the neighbourhood using the n-word when justifying her actions. It was truly shocking and a big part of the experience understanding how she had developed.

The Vanishing Half was one of my favourite books of 2020 and I can't recommend it highly enough.