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The Vanishing Half
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Book of the Month -- 2021 > BOTM March 2021 The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

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message 1: by Keli, Keli Snail (new) - added it

Keli | 494 comments Mod
Our clear March winner with three more votes than the runner up is The Vanishing Half. Read along with us and tell us what you think. Just remember to use spoilers when necessary when commenting.

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. 


message 2: by Keli, Keli Snail (new) - added it

Keli | 494 comments Mod
I don't want to buy this, so I'm going to wait until the libraries open back up where I live and, hopefully, borrow a copy. So i defo won't be starting this until at least April or May. I look forward to other's reviews.


Candace (candywilliams) | 491 comments Keli wrote: "I don't want to buy this, so I'm going to wait until the libraries open back up where I live and, hopefully, borrow a copy. So i defo won't be starting this until at least April or May. I look forw..."

It's a truly great read. Hope you can get a copy soon!


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