The Vanishing Half Summary
Brit Bennett

The Vanishing Half Overview

Brit Bennett's debut novel, The Vanishing Half, follows the complex lives of the Vignes twins, Desiree and Stella. Growing up in a town defined by its prejudices, the teenage sisters flee to New Orleans to start a new life. While there, they find their paths splitting. Both light-skinned African American women, Stella decides to pass as white and abandon her racial identity, while Desiree marries a dark-skinned man. The sisters' starkly different decisions launch them into two opposing cultural realms. Years later, their daughters, Kennedy and Jude, meet. Determined to know the truth of their pasts, the young women put pressure on their mothers to discover who they really are. The novel explores themes of lineage, racial discrimination, and the possibility of reconciliation through openness and awareness.