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trutxgrl 's review for:
The Vanishing Half
by Brit Bennett
I’m not sure how I feel about this book overall. It has received so many accolades that maybe I am missing something.
The writing is lyrical, poetic, beautiful.
“Her death hit in waves. Not a flood, but water lapping steadily at her ankles. You could drown in two inches of water. Maybe grief was the same.”
The book is so obviously about identity and how people try to choose that identity and how some can and some cannot.
A black woman changed her identity to a white woman.
A woman changed her identity to a man.
A woman wanted to be identified as an actress.
Another chose not be identified as a victim and did what she had to do for her and her child to survive, even if it meant coming home shrouded in scandal.
It was a meandering story of twin sisters brought back together by their daughters. The book took a deep dive into their lives past a present, as well as their daughter’s lives. There weren’t any drastic moments, no huge mystery uncovered, no climax even per say.
Just a meditation on identity. Some would only see the surface and think it is about race, but it’s not.
Identity is bigger than race and this book meditates on it all.
I enjoyed the book, I wasn’t bowled over by it and it took me a good bit of time to finish it. I hopped to other books and came back and read a little and then went back to other books.
A page-turner, in my opinion, it is not. It felt more like a series than a movie.
I do feel like I have read something important, something that has a depth that I did not fully reach, perhaps?
The writing is lyrical, poetic, beautiful.
“Her death hit in waves. Not a flood, but water lapping steadily at her ankles. You could drown in two inches of water. Maybe grief was the same.”
The book is so obviously about identity and how people try to choose that identity and how some can and some cannot.
A black woman changed her identity to a white woman.
A woman changed her identity to a man.
A woman wanted to be identified as an actress.
Another chose not be identified as a victim and did what she had to do for her and her child to survive, even if it meant coming home shrouded in scandal.
It was a meandering story of twin sisters brought back together by their daughters. The book took a deep dive into their lives past a present, as well as their daughter’s lives. There weren’t any drastic moments, no huge mystery uncovered, no climax even per say.
Just a meditation on identity. Some would only see the surface and think it is about race, but it’s not.
Identity is bigger than race and this book meditates on it all.
I enjoyed the book, I wasn’t bowled over by it and it took me a good bit of time to finish it. I hopped to other books and came back and read a little and then went back to other books.
A page-turner, in my opinion, it is not. It felt more like a series than a movie.
I do feel like I have read something important, something that has a depth that I did not fully reach, perhaps?