Reviews with content warning for Racism - The Vanishing Half

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

846 reviews

bmpicc's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

One decision and... everything changes. This book is marketed to us as a novel about "passing". I read a novel about "identity". Identity of self. Identity of family. My 3.5 star rating is because too many stories were happening and they each felt a bit incomplete.

Is it about Desiree & Stella? Stella & Kennedy? Kennedy & Jude? Jude & Reese? And what about Desiree & Early? Let us not forget the family matriarch and her battle with Alzheimer's. The twins were lost in the background.

I appreciate the important issues the author presented to the reader and you know I love a generational family saga, but I wish it had been shared through the twins perspectives and not their children. I wanted to know more about the twins and how they felt. About each other, their relationship, their daughters and their daughters choices.

“The only difference between lying and acting was whether your audience was in on it, but it was all a performance just the same.”

"At least Peg stood for something, fought for something. She went to war with the university over everything: paid maternity leave, sexist faculty hiring, and exploitation of adjunct labor. She argued about these things even though she had no children and had already secured tenure - she argued even though her advocating wouldn't benefit her at all. It baffled Stella, protesting out of a sense of duty, or maybe even amusement."

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carly_the_librarian's review against another edition

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Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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mepereyra6's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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lavaly_1's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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20sidedbi's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

micaylabean's review against another edition

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challenging emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Very well written story, couldn't stop listening.

Really felt for each of the characters. I think it's interesting to think of how we each have parts of ourselves we probably would like to leave behind sometimes. It's in the way we hide in the grocery store when we see someone from high school. Always feeling like parts of our past are secrets we have to try and hide or just don't want to confront. Not a perfect comparison as we're probably not hiding such big secrets. There's also the reminder that there are people who still want and love us even for the parts we would like to discard.

I did feel there was some disjointed story telling towards the end in regard to Jude's relationship. Some of the timeline presented felt contradictory.

Also, I've been really into books with strong themes of family. Good families, bad families, estranged families, close families... this has a little bit of all of that.

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