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A review by zara93
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
3.0
2.5
I finished a book in a week?! Who am i?!!
I’m afraid if I say i’m finally out of my reading slump i’ll jinx myself so...
Anyways, The Vanishing Half, not gonna lie i’m a bit disappointed. Okay, maybe more than just a bit. Maybe it’s because I had really high expectations since everyone kept raging about it last year.
But let’s start with the positives:
- The writing was really good for the most part, i was immediately invested in the story. The way the writer introduced characters was brilliant. I liked some more than others but i liked the fact that i could understand where they were coming from and why they went down a specific path.
- I saw some people saying that they didn’t like the time jumps, but i really liked that writing style! The way she would jump from the present to the past to the future and then to another point in the past and finally back to the present.. ok i know it sounds confusing but it was seamless and i never lost track.
- The way she talked about race. I liked how she gave us different perspectives, it was quite interesting. I also had to google if Mallard was a real place!
Okay, moving on to the negatives:
- I was so invested in the twins story i was really let down when the book moved along to other “storylines”? What drew me to the book was the complexity of a twin relationship and also the mother-daughter relationship, therefore i kinda lost interest when there was a romantic relationship going on.
- My biggest issue with this book was the way the writer dealt with the most important moments in the story!!! She kept building to a certain character appearance and when it finally happened, it was so underwhelming. You read this book and you are expecting a certain scene to happen, you are waiting for it because it’s inevitable and the whole book was building towards it.. and again it was underwhelming i was so disappointed! And it happened more than one time.. all the climaxes were meh.. i was looking forward for some important conversations but they happened behind the scenes!!! I just needed more!
- The ending was disappointing as well.. the first half of the book was so intriguing and so much was happening but then it painfully slowed down at points till it came to the most underwhelming halt. It just.. nothing felt resolved. And maybe she intended for it to be like this, but it didn’t work for me at all.
I finished a book in a week?! Who am i?!!
I’m afraid if I say i’m finally out of my reading slump i’ll jinx myself so...
Anyways, The Vanishing Half, not gonna lie i’m a bit disappointed. Okay, maybe more than just a bit. Maybe it’s because I had really high expectations since everyone kept raging about it last year.
But let’s start with the positives:
- The writing was really good for the most part, i was immediately invested in the story. The way the writer introduced characters was brilliant. I liked some more than others but i liked the fact that i could understand where they were coming from and why they went down a specific path.
- I saw some people saying that they didn’t like the time jumps, but i really liked that writing style! The way she would jump from the present to the past to the future and then to another point in the past and finally back to the present.. ok i know it sounds confusing but it was seamless and i never lost track.
- The way she talked about race. I liked how she gave us different perspectives, it was quite interesting. I also had to google if Mallard was a real place!
Okay, moving on to the negatives:
- I was so invested in the twins story i was really let down when the book moved along to other “storylines”? What drew me to the book was the complexity of a twin relationship and also the mother-daughter relationship, therefore i kinda lost interest when there was a romantic relationship going on.
- My biggest issue with this book was the way the writer dealt with the most important moments in the story!!! She kept building to a certain character appearance and when it finally happened, it was so underwhelming. You read this book and you are expecting a certain scene to happen, you are waiting for it because it’s inevitable and the whole book was building towards it.. and again it was underwhelming i was so disappointed! And it happened more than one time.. all the climaxes were meh.. i was looking forward for some important conversations but they happened behind the scenes!!! I just needed more!
- The ending was disappointing as well.. the first half of the book was so intriguing and so much was happening but then it painfully slowed down at points till it came to the most underwhelming halt. It just.. nothing felt resolved. And maybe she intended for it to be like this, but it didn’t work for me at all.