The Vanishing Half

 The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, 343 pages.

Mallard, Louisiana is a black town obsessed with light skin. The Vignes twins feel crushed by the town, but after they run away from home the identical twins separate and begin leading lives that would be unrecognizable to each other. Desiree goes ends up in Washington DC, where she marries an abusive husband. She eventually runs back to Mallard with her extremely dark-skinned daughter, and learns to survive the life she once fled from. Stella takes a path that is simultaneously safer and more dangerous, passing as white to completely that her own husband and daughter don't know her secret. Many years later, the cousins come back together, and everyone has to reckon with the strange shapes their lives took. 

This book was very interesting, and I can see why it got so much attention when it came out a few years ago. The four perspectives across 40 years allows for a very nuanced examination of race in America. That being said, I do think the first half of this book is stronger than the second. It starts very strong, but then feels as if it just sort of fades out until the book ends. Still, I do think this is worth reading.