The Vanishing Half
The Vanishing Half
By: Brit Bennett
[Fulfilled ‘A book about an escape’ or ‘A book about twins’ prompt as part of Shelf Reflection’s 2024 Reading Challenge]
“She had been acting her entire life, which meant she was the best liar that she knew. Well, second best.”
“You can escape town, but you cannot escape blood. Somehow, the Vignes twins believed themselves capable of both.”
This book wasn’t really what I was expecting when I saw the title. I thought (because I didn’t read the summary and just knew the book was about twins) that one of a set of twins goes missing. They make it seem like that for about the first few sentences of the book but nope. The twins just skipped town.
So The Vanishing Half is not a thriller but a long drawn out look at twin sisters who move away from their hometown in search of a different life. They go their own ways, have daughters, and we see how their choices then in turn impact their daughters’ lives.
This book started out fine and I felt interested in how these sisters’ relationship was going to change and grow and how they would reconcile. But then it just felt like it was taking forever and then the sisters take a backseat as we spend a lot of time on the daughters. Every time you think you’re getting somewhere with one character, surprise! the next chapter is someone completely different.
When you read a thriller you kinda know where the story is going and when it’s about to be done. In this story, I just felt like I had no idea where it was going or when it was going to stop. And not in a mysterious way, just a… what are we even doing here? kind of way.
I agree with a lot of other reviewers that I would have preferred more focus on the sisters than the cousins and that they would have had more interaction and character development with each other. But we don’t really see them together until the last few pages and a few snippets here and there.
It did just feel like this book tried to do too much and so instead of doing one thing really well it did a lot of things but not so great.
The writing style was also pretty hard to follow at times. Lots of jumping around chronologically and adding backstories in the middle of present-day stories. For example, within a single paragraph she talks about what the character is doing, what the character is going to do in a year, and then backs up to a year prior to the present to share a little backstory. All in like 4-5 sentences! It’s just chronological whiplash and I don’t enjoy that style of writing.
There were also some poorly worded segues into new thoughts that the author wanted to include but apparently didn’t know how else to incorporate them into the story.
For example, one new paragraph started: “Here’s something she hadn’t thought about in forever:” And then she told a story about the past. It just didn’t feel creative or cogent.
Bennett would also start new sections or chapters without using names, only pronouns, so you had to figure out who this was about. But then she uses the name within a paragraph or two so it’s not like it was really supposed to be hidden, but now you have to go back and reread the ambiguous stuff once you got the name so you know what you were supposed to be getting from it all.
One other major disappointment: I liked Early’s character and that he was going to help Desiree find her sister, but he ended up being pretty inconsequential. He tried to find her, and then, he just couldn’t. Oh well.
Plus if Desiree’s husband really wanted to find her, he knew she was from Mallard. Even if he thought she would never go back, if you’ve looked everywhere else why wouldn’t you at least check? It would be super easy to pop on over to this super small town and see if she’s there. No bail bondsman required. But apparently checking the only other town she knows well was beyond him. Doesn’t make any sense.
Again, not super important to the unfolding of the plot since this wasn’t a thriller, but feels like a plot hole that was just ignored.
Popular Themes
The most talked about themes of this book are the ideas of race, colorism, and passing.
The twins are light-skinned blacks living a whole little town of similarly colored people who look down on dark-colored blacks.
When the twins leave town, one ends up marrying a really dark-skinned man and the other one ends up moving to California and passing as a white woman.
The twin who comes back, Desiree, is fleeing an abusive husband and returns to town with her dark-skinned daughter, Jude. They have to face the discrimination in town for all of Jude’s childhood. But we don’t get much of that because Jude’s part of the story jumps ahead to when she goes away to college.
The twin in California, Stella, had realized that she had more access to things and opportunities if people thought she was white. (A lot of this story takes place during the 60s and 70s.) There was segregation and discrimination against black people and so she saw a way to live the life she wanted. But it required her to ‘act white.’ She realizes that befriending black people would blow her cover so we see the cost of her lie in many ways. Her daughter, Kennedy, grows up in this privileged, wealthy environment without any knowledge of where her mother came from which has caused a big rift in their relationship.
‘Colorism’ is defined as: prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, typically among people of the same ethnic or racial group.
‘Passing’ (in the context of this book) is defined as: the ability of a person to be regarded as a member of an identity group or category, such as racial identity, ethnicity, caste, social class, sexual orientation, gender, religion, age or disability status, that is often different from their own.
I had never read a book with these two concepts portrayed so vividly.
It just fleshes out more of the complexities of the idea of race. It just made me wonder: what does it mean to be white? to be black? what is black culture? what is white culture?
Race is a social construct. People have differing melanin levels. How does one really classify themselves when our skin shades vary so much. Unfortunately there is historical significance to what race means. But that’s not how God intended it.
We are all part of the same race. We all share a common ancestor.
The apostle Paul taught the Greeks in Athens: “he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God…” (Acts 17:26)
It’s sad whenever we read in history of people discriminating and hating groups of people. It has happened in every generation and as long as sinful man lives, it will most likely continue, because at the heart of racism or prejudice of any kind, is sin.
It’s always tricky to talk about race in a way that acknowledges the realities of the past without perpetuating a concept that is divisive. As I was reflecting on these things in anticipation of writing this review I was listening to THIS podcast and appreciated their insights on differentiating between race, culture, and ethnicity and how ethnicity is important but it should never be our primary identity. I see today where many people have turned their race or ethnicity almost into this idol they worship, whether that’s white, black, Latino, Asian, etc.
When our primary identity is in Christ and who HE says we are, we are able to find unity and reconciliation in the blood of Christ. We are able to live as one family, sinners who have been rescued by our Savior and Creator who adopted us to new life, new creations living in peace and love by the power of the Spirit.
When I read a book like this I grieve the experiences of dark-skinned blacks who were treated egregiously simply because they looked different. I grieve the experiences of light-skinned blacks who had to make impossible choices that may protect them from some things but cause pain in other ways.
Sometimes it’s hard to know what to do with these feelings, especially in a world today where there is cultural tension surrounding race. I remember these helpful words from Isaac Adams in his book Talking About Race:
“We can rest in this truth: our job is not to completely eradicate the world of racism; it is to faithfully follow the One who will. And vengeance and perfect justice belong to him.”
Two Ways to Live
The theme I most noticed, though, was the idea of living split lives.
“She’d always known that it was possible to be two different people in one lifetime.”
We have twins splitting from their ‘conjoined’ existence into choosing their own path. We have Stella living as a white woman when she’s really black. We have Reese, previously known as Theresa, living as a man even though her biology reveals she is a woman. We have Barry, a man who gets two days a month to dress up in drag and be Bianca.
I actually thought it was interesting that Bennett decided to juxtapose the race-specific double life with the gender-specific double lives.
Some reviewers weren’t thrilled with the character of Reese because Reese’s significance in the story seemed more like checking the ‘diversity’ box without actually exploring the whole LGBTQ storyline. Others were uncomfortable with the comparison to Jude because it didn’t feel right to say they are similar.
In the story Jude, who has experienced the prejudice of her hometown, tells her ‘boyfriend’ Reese that she wishes she had lighter skin. Reese says she shouldn’t think that, that her skin is beautiful the way it is. Meanwhile Reese is saving up money to get breast removal surgery. Why is it wrong to want to change your skin color but not to want to change your gender? Especially when race is not coded into every cell of your body but gender is?
There are several comments throughout the book about ‘acting’, ‘lying', and ‘pretending.’ Barry says of being in drag: “It was fun because everyone knew that it was not real.” Reese thinks, “How real was a person if you could shed her in a thousand miles?”
Living our ‘true selves’ is a priority in the world today. But if we want to be our true selves, we need to know truth. It is important to know what is real.
I know I am in the minority when I say that I don’t ascribe to LGBTQ ideology. I know that puts me at risk for backlash. But in a book that sets these things next to one another, I can’t pass the opportunity to communicate that it is true: our bodies do matter and what we do with our bodies matter.
I love this quote from the excellent book, What God Says About Our Bodies by Sam Allberry:
“Your body––my body––is not just there, happening to exist. It means something to God. He knows it. He made it. He cares about it. And all that Christ has done in his death and resurrection is not in order for us one day to escape our body, but for him one day to redeem it.”
God created each one of us on purpose. When he made Adam he started with fashioning his body and then breathed life into him. The bodies he gave us were intended for us. That doesn’t mean we don’t face challenges in the bodies we have. We have various limitations and struggles with our bodies.
Even though our bodies are not ultimate, it’s popular to believe that our true selves have nothing to do with our bodies— just something deep inside us; thus, changing our bodies to ‘match’ our insides is the noble and right thing.
“Theologian Tom Wright puts it this way: The great controlling myth of our time has been the belief that within each one of us there is a real, inner, private “self,” long buried beneath layers of socialization and attempted cultural and religious control, and needing to be rediscovered if we are to live authentic lives.”
but
“‘who I really am’ can’t be considered without reference to my body.”
This book presents multiple ways where people live a split life: appearing one way but feeling different inside, wanting to be someone different, or trying to express on the outside what they feel on the inside but not quite feeling a unified self.
I think this is a really good theme to consider. When we live outside of our design we do feel that split, that something is not the way it’s supposed to be. We are not meant to live double lives.
Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” (Matt 6:24)
I know Bennett was not presenting this case in the way she wrote the book, but we can still learn from these characters in their struggles. We should seek to live a unified life. The Bible tells of two ways to live: either Jesus is King of your life or he isn’t.
Paul wrote in his letter to the Corinthian church, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” (1 Cor 6:19-20)
What we do with our bodies or believe about our bodies reveals who our master is: our Creator who designed our bodies to be used a certain way? or our own desires? Do we do whatever feels right at any given moment? Or do we sacrifice what we want in order to follow God’s commands? We can’t have it both ways.
Allberry explains this verse in Corinthians this way:
“In any other context, hearing that we are not our own, that we have been bought with a price, would be devastating. It would indicate a lack of freedom, dignity, and worth. But when applied to Jesus, the opposite is the case. Belonging to him is the only way to true freedom. Nothing could be more dignifying. And nothing shows our worth more than Jesus shedding his own blood for us. To belong to him is the highest and greatest blessing we could ever hope for.”
True freedom can’t be found in altering our bodies. Whether that means changing our skin color or removing our private parts. Freedom is found in embracing Christ and his way.
Our cry should be like the psalm writer who says, “Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.” (Ps 86:11)
And so when I read this book, I also grieve for those who, like Barry or Reese, feel at odds with their bodies. It’s a struggle I don’t know, but I can imagine it’s really hard and lonely. I grieve that people like them have also experienced discrimination, hate, and harm.
Even if I have a different ideology than the LBTQ community, we are all image bearers of God and should be treated with compassion and dignity. Our worth is not tied to our skin color or our gender or any other characteristic of who we think we are. Our worth is inherent because we were all created by God.
When we live in rebellion to God’s design for us, we feel the strife and the discontinuity, but if we align ourselves with Christ, our identity is no longer in our skin color, our gender, our sexuality, our ethnicity, our feelings. Our identity is now: ‘redeemed’. Our hope is no longer in fixing our bodies to align with our feelings, it’s in knowing that perfect bodies await us when Jesus returns to take away our pain, discomfort, and dysphoria. We endure because life on earth is short and eternity is long.
One of the characters in the book “was always inventing her life.” We think it’s up to us to write our own stories and make something of ourselves. But I love what Rachel Jankovic says in her excellent book You Who?: Why You Matter and How to Deal with It:
“the more we try to build up an identity apart from God and apart from His Word, the less truly “us“ we become. It doesn’t matter how long or thoughtful or detailed the story you were writing is. If it is written by a character in the story rather than the Author of the story, it can only ever be tiny; it will always be minuscule by comparison. You cannot, as a character, out-write the Author of you.”
There are a lot of fiction books that explore what it means for characters to find ‘freedom’ from whatever is plaguing them. We write about that dilemma because that is our dilemma in real life. We all feel chained by something.
It’s the right thing to reflect on. Seek for answers. I don’t think The Vanishing Half will necessarily lead you into the path of truth, but I know God can show up anywhere for anyone. My hope and prayer is that all will find freedom from their chains!
Recommendation
This book wasn’t for me. And the primary reason is that it dragged and didn’t feel like it had any major conflict. The story was spread too thin across the four women and I didn’t feel invested in their relationships when their connections were so minimal and fleeting.
I also didn’t feel like there was much redemption in this story.
Combine all that with the annoying chronological whiplash, and it wasn’t one that’s going to stick with me.
However, I think this is one I’m not going to say ‘don’t read.’ I think a lot of people can enjoy this book. I think my review will probably tell you enough to know if it’s something you want to get into or not.
[Content Advisory: 7 f-words, 18 s-words, 2 b-words, and using the Lord’s name in vain quite a bit- probably half of the swearing came just from Kennedy’s character; some sexual content- including a few graphic but brief scenes; details about a girl’s story in becoming a man (Theresa/Reese); describes briefly a lynching]
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