Reviews with content warning for Sexism - The Vanishing Half

Even though The Vanishing Half is a work of fiction, a lot of the subject matter can overlap into issues many of us still face today: racism/colorism/featurism, identity issues, the overwhelming desire to become someone other than yourself, etc. This book covers in all in just under 400 pages.

Some of the things I loved include the insertion of a trans man in a time period where they didn't really exist, nor are they mentioned often in historical fiction (Reese quickly became one of my favorite characters in the story; he and Jude's love story was a beautiful thing to watch unfold), how colorism and racism can lead to such big consequences amongst the black community, and the nonlinear writing structure; a style that left me staying up, just to see what would happen next.

Some things I would've liked to know more about include Stella, Kennedy, and Blake's fates. Did Stella and Kennedy

go to Adele's funeral? I know that Jude was the one to call Kennedy and tell her that she died, but she wasn't mentioned ever again.

As for Stella,

she is last seen leaving Mallard after placing her wedding ring into Early's palm and telling him to "take care of her Mama." There is a part afterwards that shows Blake brushing off Stella's missing ring and telling her that he's going to replace it, but, that's all. Did they choose not to call Stella, or did Stella simply go back to make herself feel a little better for leaving her family, relished in their grief, only to disappear again and cut off all contact like before?

Lastly, Blake:

Did Stella ever come clean about her past, or did she come home and act as though nothing had happened? She couldn't leave behind the life that she had built for herself—the money, the marriage, the privilege—for a family she had known much longer than Blake. No, ma'am.

All in all, this book was one that was very hard to put down. All I can really say is wow. Brit Bennet is a marvelous writer, and I'm looking forward to reading more of her work.

Content Warnings

brassmonkey's review against another edition

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emotional reflective tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.75

Content Warnings

innastholiel's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad slow-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

4.0

Content Warnings

vasha's review against another edition

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mysterious relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book started out not bad; the first few chapters are a depiction of the 1950s/1960s in Mallard, a very small Louisiana town inhabited by Black people who are obsessed with light skin; they introduce Desiree and Stella, twin sisters whose identities are tangled up in each other. The writing style is pleasant and unobtrusive and the story keeps moving forward. Desiree is the protagonist of the first section, and she makes for a pretty passive one. I wish we'd seen more of her interactions with her daughter Jude (she shocked Mallard by bringing home a very dark child); that would've been about the most interesting thing about her. Her boyfriend, a traveling bounty hunter, is possibly my favorite character in the book, though, and there are some nice bits about their cautious relationship and Jude's ambiguity about accepting him. Stella, who decides to become white and hide her origins, comes to the fore later in the book; she's very unpleasant, but at least compelling to read about!

As the book went on, I liked it less and less. It's not much of a work of historical fiction: the author only evokes the most obvious, familiar cultural touchstones in the journey from the 1950s to the 1980s. And some things struck me as anachronistic. For example, some young people in the 1980s are shown unselfconsciously using the word "Negro." They were born about the same time as me; the author's twenty years younger, so let me correct her: that word was already antediluvian in the 80s. The cast of supporting characters, too, is stock, as are details of the life of a bored housewife or of a college student (frankly, the latter is completely unbelievable).

Now, the one thing that bugged the holy hell out of me: the depiction of Jude's boyfriend Reese, who's a trans man. There is practically not one page he appears on, where him being trans, and things about his transition, aren't mentioned, and everything he's depicted doing is in relation to that. I eventually started a "drinking game": oh, Jude's going to apartment-hunt with Reese, or talk to him about her mother, or whatever; will the author bring up Reese's surgeries, scars, etc.? Yup.... This is objectivization, maybe fetishization, whatever, not good.

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