Reviews with content warning for Bullying - The Vanishing Half

Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

108 reviews

bookedandbusy's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was an absolutely incredible book. I loved it.

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minimicropup's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Enduring, diligent, confident

We follow twin siblings from their childhood through to their teens, where they eventually go their separate ways and live with different racial identities. We later follow their children, unaware of much of the family history as they navigate early adulthood.
🇺🇸 Set in small town Louisiana; Los Angeles, California; New Orleans, Louisiana; and Washington D.C. from the 1940s to the 1980s.

🎙️ Love the narration. Felt like I was watching a movie, it was easy to stay engaged and differentiate the characters. The narration is also expressive and emotive - one of the few audiobooks I didn't need to adjust the speed on for it to sound more natural.

🐺🐕 Growls, Howls, and Tail Wags:
🥹 The writing style is so immersive and empathetic, and I was hooked into the story early on. The twins each have different personalities and are well developed as we follow them over the decades.

👌 The timeline jumping for the first 75% or so of the novel worked well to set the scene and provide context. It is very show, not tell, even when in-real-life horrors are unfolding.
🤔 However, the last 25% was harder to follow. I sometimes got confused about what timeline we were in for the later chapters and I felt like the character development for Kennedy and Jude was lacking a bit. It almost felt like the kids we followed earlier were not the adults we follow now. It just didn't relate back to the past if that makes sense? It felt more like we were being reminded of what happened in their childhoods instead of seeing how those events impacted them now.

Mood Reading Match Up:

Historical fiction with small town 1950s vibes up to gritty 1980s city life
Multigenerational story showing the impact of each generation on the next ones
Character studies exploring privilege, bias (conscious and unconscious), race, prejudice, presumptions, and identity

Content Heads-Up: Racism (slurs, character opinions, themes, prejudice, persecution). Physical abuse (relationship). Transgender rep (good to excellent?). Death of a parent. Dementia.

Format: Library Audio via Libby

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elanilanella's review against another edition

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challenging dark hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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marshmallow333's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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gabrielastbr's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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dnvrdnvr's review against another edition

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reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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michaelion's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Trying to find reasons not to give this 5 stars is very, very hard. I'm biased because immediately it reminded me of Toni Morrison's Paradise. Whether or not that was intentional, I'm not gonna look it up, but I love it even more for that.

Passing is a thing that happened and I'm sure there are still many, many quadroons and hexadecaroons walking around without a clue. I've always felt sympathy for the people who passed, and this book definitely gave me a new / another understanding. (I mean, who can be mad at you for wanting better for your life and your family?) To be moved so much by a book show just how good it is. That being said though I do not feel sympathy for Stella!

After what she did to Loretta and Reg?!

This one's definitely staying on my bookshelf.

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