THE VANISHING HALF: Brit Bennett

THE VANISHING HALF

by Brit Bennett

Brit Bennet knows what she’s doing! I fell headfirst into the world of the Vinges twins and didn’t come up for air until the end. I was totally immersed in this story!

Stella and Daphne grow up in Mallard in the 1950s, a small black southern community where the ‘lightness’ of the population’s skin is a matter of pride. At sixteen they runaway together to New Orleans, but the twins’ paths diverge when Stella ‘passes’ to get a job and decides to live as a white woman. Despite the different paths their lives take, neither twin forgets the other, or the legacy of where they came from and their story carries on into the next generation.

This is beautiful and moving read, told with vivid detail that really takes you to another time and place, while the themes of colourism, identity, family legacies, secrets and lies resonate with issues that are very much alive today.

- Reviewed by Kat

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