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Alison B's 2020 Fantastical/Mystical 101+ Challenge
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What Members Thought
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May 12, 2021
Noel
rated it
really liked it
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2021
"In Mallard, nobody married dark,"
Brit Bennett’s mother told her once that there were places in the South where people would selectively marry in order to have children with lighter skin. And so the story of The Vanishing Half starts. The book is not an education on race nor racial issues but does touch on topics of race, family ties, bigotry,identity, sisterhood. Desiree and Stella, identical twins, black by race, but very light skinned choose to leave their narrow-minded town and go to a big c ...more
The premise of The Vanishing Half is fascinating. The novel opens in a small southern town of people who are all descendants of slaves and their masters. They inter-marry and are consequently very light skinned. Twin girls whose mother holds them to high standards, loses her husband to violence and has to take on the role of wage earner. Eventually these twins are forced to help with her job in order to make ends meet. They escape to a big city and eventually take different paths.
I found this b ...more
I found this b ...more
A beautifully written tale of a complicated generational family history molded by colorism in the United States. I had so many feelings while reading this novel that I don't think I can adequately convey all the things that made it one of the best things I've read in a very long time. The author very deftly switched multiple points of view and through different timelines to give me a view of the inner workings of two "halves" of the same family (I keep thinking of Robert Frost - two roads diverg
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Dec 09, 2020
Adam Daniels
marked it as to-read
Dec 10, 2020
Sarah Lewis
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Dec 13, 2020
Ojen
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Dec 20, 2020
Lynette
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Dec 27, 2020
Sarah Heery
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Jan 01, 2021
Angela Jones
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Feb 14, 2021
Vjones3
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May 06, 2021
Bridget
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Aug 09, 2021
JennyMango
marked it as to-read
