BOOK REVIEW: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

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, their lives splitting like their shared egg.

This time lapsed family saga is written with such truth and beauty you feel like you are part of the events as they happen. The echo of the twins similarities and differences can be seen as we move into the futures of their own daughters and the intersection of their lives again.

Desiree finds herself married to the darkest man she could find, in an abusive relationship and worried for the safety of herself and her daughter, finding herself back home with an old life, old love and subjecting her daughter to a far worse fate than she ever experienced while growing up their due to the colour of her skin.

Stella chose the path less travelled, after meeting her husband at work she begins a life with him which has no exposure to the past. Of course the risk is always there however, with some strategic moves she manages to avoid Desiree in her attempts later in life to find her, until she can no longer avoid the past and must face her truth.

Jude has darker skin than the rest of her family and all of the intelligence of her long lost auntie but her story takes it's own path. A secretive romance with someone ashamed to be with her, an opportunity to be more than what people thought she could and a poignant and heart warming relationship with her partner Reese and a desire to be true to herself and her family. When her life intersects with her cousin Kennedy, her polar opposite in so many ways Jude begins to wonder what her missing family may be like and through their at times faultering friendship will they both finally get the answers they seek?

I would like to thank NetGalley and Dialogue Books for the opportunity to read this title for a true and honest review, I cannot shout about this title enough. Stunning writing involving absorbing characters and relatable issues of old and new intertwined Brit Bennett is now an author I will continue to read through the duration of her career. With the current climate, this voice is essential reading and pure pleasure from start to finish.

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