Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion
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The Vanishing Half
Buddy Reads: Current & Upcoming
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Bennett, Brit-- The Vanishing Half informal buddy read starts June 12, 2020
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Ready to start when I get home, or in the morning!
Looking forward to it!
Have you started yet? I started listening to the audiobook last night and am now in Chapter 6. I wasn't sure at the start but I am really enjoying it. The characters are so complex, hurt in different ways . I love Early and I'm liking the Jude story. I saw a snippet of a chapter about Stella and am really curious. I read her first book, The Mothers, and liked it but I find this one so much better.
I'm so glad it sounds good!I am starting after I get back from the grocery store later today.
I am about a third in. This is an interesting book. I always wondered what it would be like to have a twin. My sister is two years older than me, and we are close, but not twin close, I would guess. I like Early too. A lot of the characters are very interesting, and definitely complex. I want to keep going today, but I have to do other things, darn it. I am off to listen to something else while doing chores. My cats refuse to do housework, the little jerks.
I finished today. Wow. I loved it. Have to process before I say more. Stella was so interesting. I kind of get it, but not really. So sad.
I will probably finish tomorrow. Process away, and we will talk!
Ok, and don't laught at me. But it took me forever to understand Reese. Maybe if I had the book and would have seen his original name but the way the narrator pronounced it didn't hit me.
I have written to Audible to include a "character and settings" pdf to their downloads. The person who wrote me back thought it was a good idea, but I have not seen anything done about it.
I really liked the book. I listened to it. I really liked the character of Early. He's a real stand up dude. Hey Stacey, don't feel bad - it took me a while to understand what was going on with Reese as well.
I finished last night- well early this morning. Wow. That was a powerful character study. I felt really bad for Stella, as she never really stopped running from her past, but not because she hated her past. I guess she thought the path she chose would be the easier one. Maybe, except she had to keep looking over her shoulder her whole life. I don't think she ever felt safe and comfortable.The Reese introduction made sense in print form, which makes me wonder what the narrator did.
Very glad you suggested this book!
Jenny, glad you liked it. With Reese, they talked about his changing his life and there were some things that made me wonder. His original name sounded more like Terence without the n, so I almost wondered if he was hiding from an abusing family. Honestly, once I figured it out it all fell in place. Maybe I didn't pay enough attention.I do think Stella was one of my favorite characters. Not because I agree with her or necessarily liked her but for the reasons you mention. She was so scared about being found out that she couldn't appreciate anything, even scared about having a child.
What did you think about the author making Jude and Kennedy so different? One very black and one very blonde with blue eyes?
I also felt really bad for Desiree at the end when her mother seemed to only remember Stella.
I felt bad for Desiree as well, but was so glad that she and Early got to go somewhere together in the end. The huge contrast in appearance between the two children was maybe a bit contrived for the story, but I thought it worked pretty well. The fact that they recognized each other without (at least on Kennedy's part) knowing why to begin with was interesting. I like the fact that they forged a relationship with each other. I get the impression that they will have more contact in the future.
I thought it was very poignant that Desiree thought that Reese would make a good father. (Desiree said that, right?)
I kind of want to know what happens to this extended family in the future. That doesn't always happen, so well done, Brit Bennett.
I just started this last night!
Oh! Enjoy it. It is a good read.
Beth, I loved it. Hope you do too. Feel free to post here if you want to talk about it!
Nothing But Reading Challenges
Books mentioned in this topic
The Mothers (other topics)The Vanishing Half (other topics)
Synopsis
From The New York Times -bestselling author of The Mothers , a stunning new novel about twin sisters, inseparable as children, who ultimately choose to live in two very different worlds, one black and one white.
The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Ten years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters' storylines intersect?
Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person's decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.
As with her New York Times-bestselling debut The Mothers, Brit Bennett offers an engrossing page-turner about family and relationships that is immersive and provocative, compassionate and wise.