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In celebration of National Read-A-Book Day, I want to share with you one of my new faves The Vanishing Half By Britt Bennett.
The Vanishing Half has been on my ‘books-to-read’ list for a while now and when the New York Times best-selling author was on Good Morning America recently, she spoke about the book being picked up by HBO as a drama series, so I knew I had to order it ASAP.
And after finishing it, I can tell why! This book had so much to unpack! It made me mad, sad, and eager to turn the page. From colorism to identity crisis to mother-daughter issues, the author brought us a captivating story that left me wanting more.
The Vanishing Half reminded me of one of my favorite movies and one of my favorite books, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison and Imitation of Life By Fannie Hurst. Both of which had storylines of racism and colorism that are still prevalent today.
The Vanishing Half is based on the lives of a set of black teen twins, Stella & Desiree Vignes, in a little town in the 1960s. They decided they were going to escape their mother’s house one night and go live in New Orleans. Years later one twin decides she is going to leave her sister and pretend
to be white and marries a rich white man who never discovers she is black. The other sister marries a very dark skin man and they have a very dark child together.
Okay, that’s the gist! Now you can imagine the drama already! Not going to divulge the rest, you’re going to have to read it for yourself. I will say though, the book starts off slow, but then picks up in the middle and then you don’t want to put it down. I’m really hoping the HBO series, takes a deeper dive into this storyline or there is part 2 to the book because I need more!!
Happy Reading!
