The Vanishing Half By Brit Bennett

(If you have not read this book, spoilers lie ahead.)

These days I rarely find a book that I don’t love. Maybe it is from taking such a long gap from reading that my mind is just hungry for different stories. Over time, after reading so many stories, it becomes easier and easier to guess what might happen next because we have already read and seen so many different variations of the same story. This story was different. “The Vanishing Half” by Brit Bennett was constructed in such a way to give no clear view of who was the main character. At first, I thought it was going to be Desiree the older twin as she embarks on a quest to find her missing sister, towing her child, battling racism, and evading an abusive husband. Sounds like quite the quest, doesn’t it? However, we have likely already read many stories like this and so has the author, which is maybe why we didn’t follow Desiree on such a quest. At first, I was disappointed because I so much wanted those intense moments of her closing in on Stella, and those terrifying moments of her almost being caught herself by Sam, the husband. However, Desiree’s story is nothing like that. She was supposed to be the wild twin, the one who would never come back to Mallard. Instead, that’s exactly what she did. Mallard is where her story seemed to end, as she got stuck in the same poverty cycle of her upbringing. There is a certain beauty and painfulness behind that as well because she is a story like so many of us. All of us have dreams and hopes that we wish to fulfill. She took her shot and although she couldn’t see it through, she still tired. Which is the same story for many, so we all can relate a little bit to that.

Desiree’s story is barely a blip in the book however as Bennett pulls the story into multiple generations with different points of view. Switching to both twin’s daughters (Jude and Kennedy), and eventually Stella herself. Switching points of view really gives you different perspective and drives for all the characters. My favorite character was Jude, Desiree’s daughter whom I guess you could say I related to the most. Like her I was bullied most of my life and she got away from those people the same way I did- by going across the country. She is smart as I would like to believe I am. More than that she is a quiet girl.

If I am being honest, I really hated Stella’s point of view which might have been a design of Bennett’s. It is hard for us to come to terms or imagine that family could just up and leave their own blood the way Stella did in the way she did. I understand her connection with wanting to be free from the life she was bound to, although I don’t pretend to even try to understand her whole experience as she watched her father die in front of her eyes and was sexually assaulted. I thought that her escape to New Orleans would be escape enough. Then she disappeared on Desiree and that was what was really heart breaking to me. She left her sister, and it didn’t seem to break her as much as it broke me. I am very close to my own sister so maybe that’s why I could never imagine doing the same thing. Even so Stella’s whole life upset me. She got what she wanted and lived richly. She still wasn’t happy because she could never be herself. The rare moments she seemed to start to return to herself or be able to tell the truth were like cliff hangers because she always chose to return to her lie. It makes me sad to think she lived her whole life in a lie, and she only told her daughter thirty years later. Her whole point of view was lonely, and it made me really dislike reading her part.

One thing to note about this book if you didn’t make the connection yourself was the authors contrast between the twins which then transferred to their daughters. Desiree is seen as the loud, wild twin. Stella is the cool, calculating, and maybe the more cutthroat of the two. Then we look at the daughters. Jude is the opposite from her mother and is compared to Stella in the way she keeps to herself and is quiet. She is the smart one, and the one people tell their secrets to. Kennedy is the opposite of Stella and compared to Desiree as being a wild child, she pursues acting, travels the world, and dates guys like she is testing her favorite kind of ice cream. I find this detail very intoxicating, and I clung to it most of the book. The twins each gave birth to the part of them that they had lost, and I find that beautiful.

Overall, I loved the way this book rolled over itself and provided a story unlike many others. I loved the contrast between the twins and their daughters. I really empathized with Desiree, Stella, and Jude. Each story has value and a lesson to learn. It up to you to read it and decifer them yourself.