Akilah's Reviews > The Vanishing Half

Well, this was just awesome. I loved the narrative voice, the seamless transitions from past to present, and the characterization. That Stella is something else, but I think Bennett deftly shows how though her world seems larger, it's actually just as small--if not smaller--than Desiree's. I also appreciated the skewering of moderate racist White people.

All the characters here are sympathetic, and this just further proves my point that fiction can be a better entry point into anti-racist teaching than nonfiction. Also, as always, all Black lives matter and the reminder that "unimportant men were killed to make the point that they were unimportant--that they were not even men" (179) was as true in the 1960s as it is now.

The title works on ~levels~ and I am here for it.