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My thoughts on: The vanishing half by Brit Bennett

book review, Uncategorized

⭐️ 4.5/5

This book has been long listed for the women’s prize 2021 and is a goodreads choice 2020 winner. I’d heard so many good things about the vanishing half that I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it and read it for myself.

It is a story about twin girls from a small town in New Orleans called Mallard, spanning from the 1950s to the 1990s. Mallard is a southern black community that Stella and Desiree Vignes, at the age of 16, decide they need to run from to start a new life. They run away together until they go their separate ways, one living as a white woman and the other living as a black woman. They both experience very different lives but they are ultimately led back to each other. One of the twins ends up returning to the town they had escaped from with her black daughter after escaping her husband/daughters father while the other passes as white, living with her white husband in their expensive estate home. Her husband knows nothing of her past and doesn’t have suspicions of her being anything other than what he knows. However when their daughters’ lives intersect they find they will always be intertwined with each other. The story spans many decades following the twins and their daughters over the years. The Vanishing Half is a beautifully written story about racism, social classes, family and love.

When I started reading this I was trying to get to grips with the characters and where the story was going to go, although I had seen good things about the vanishing half I wasn’t fully aware of the storyline. Once I got reading I found myself really enjoying the book and I am glad I initially pushed through the beginning. Once characters had been established and the story started to open up I found the story was beautifully written and was a really important look into racism and complicated family relationships giving a voice to these women to discuss hardships experienced trying to make a better life where racism is still rife, how black and white are ultimately just that.

“She felt queasy at how simple it was. All there was to being white was acting like you were.”

I did like the book and I would recommend it, I liked the characters and the storyline and the different view points that the story was told from. The story follows the Vignes twins, their daughters and their mother and explores how race affects lives and how although they lead very different lives they ultimately intersect with each other.

All the characters have fears and they are all very real fears to have. Fear of being alone that you lie to keep your life, even if you don’t feel like it’s your own.

‘She hadn’t realized how long it takes to become somebody else, or how lonely it can be living in a world not meant for you.’

Fears of not belonging

‘There were many ways to be alienated from someone, few to actually belong’

and Fears of not being accepted as you are and therefore denying yourself the chance to be happy

‘Well, maybe that’s your problem,” Kennedy said, “You tell yourself no before anyone even says it to you’

Although we can make judgements based on the characters actions and maybe think that we would do differently, I can’t imagine what it must be like to be in their position and how I would live my life in their shoes. The characters are likeable and you find yourself routing for them and hoping they find their way and are happy and through it all I don’t think we will know but ultimately they have made their choices and they have grown from them and have had some good things and bad things happen but they are strong and just trying to be good people and good to their families.

There are so many beautiful quotes in this novel and I could quote them all day so please give this book a read and let me know what you think. Yes there are some questions unanswered but I think that’s part of it and it is so well written that you will not forget this book anytime soon.

My thoughts on Writers and Lovers by Lily King

book review, Uncategorized

4/5 stars ⭐️

I love romance and I love comedy and literally cannot get enough, ever. Writers and Lovers filled that void I felt, perfectly. When I wasn’t reading it I was pining after it, all I wanted to do was sit and read this book.

Writers and Lovers is set in 1997 about Casey Peabody who is 31 years old and waitressing tables while in her spare time writing a novel that she has agonised over for 6 years of her life. This story has it all, love, loss and loans. Casey is struggling to get by on her waitress wage, living in a rented potting shed, trying to get her novel published while still paying back thousands of dollars worth of student loans and dealing with the cost and worries of health.

It is as much a story about finding your way in life and accomplishment as it is a story about relationships and the different kinds of relationships you will experience in life.

Casey as a character I find likeable as well as relatable. She doesn’t have her life at all together but she is trying to work towards discovering what she wants and what makes her happy. I like that Casey isn’t afraid to feel things and is able to articulate those feelings and make decisions despite all her unknowns. We learn a lot from Casey about her past and her relationships with family and love interests. Casey is dealing with the sudden loss of her mother, which is spoken about throughout the book with some heartbreaking moments. One part where she momentarily forgets the loss of her mother and feels excited to talk to her mum and then reality sets in, that she can no longer do this. For me family is important and it’s often my parents I want to tell any exciting news, to not be able to do this is a devastating thought, not being able to talk to the people closest to you for any reason. Although Casey grew up with her father it was often difficult and is still strained as an adult which we find out about throughout the story which also adds to her feelings of failure and her need to be successful.

I’m not always a big fan of a love triangle however I feel the way it played out in the book was better than others I have read before. Although there is stereotyping I didn’t feel like it was too cheesy and I still liked the male counterparts. Oscar has dimension which I felt through his relationship with his young children who he is the sole carer for that gives him a softer side, he had also lost his wife to illness which gives him a different outlook on relationships and life. He is older, knowledgable and kind. Oscar is not afraid of telling Casey how he feels which feels refreshing. Silas is young, in a similar situation to Casey, struggling with trials and tribulations of what it is to be an author and dealing with grief too. He wears a leather jacket which is described often, emphasising an air of coolness. Silas seems more impulsive and exciting trying to discover who he is and also who he is as a writer. All the characters have flaws but I like that the flaws are not exaggerated or overly referred to, they are subtle which adds to the realness of the story and the characters.

Writers and lovers is a feel good book and a great read in my opinion. Although there is sadness there are lovely moments of happiness in this story. The characters are realistic and the relationships are positive as opposed to being exaggerated and creating unrealistic expectations. I loved the friendships Casey had at work, the support that she had from people in her life and her positivity and endurance to carry on and succeed even when things are not going right. Casey is able to overcome her fears and get to a better place. I knew the ending would be happy and uplifting and that’s exactly what I was looking for as typical with Rom-coms. The book will be one that I will definitely remember with a smile and would recommend to anyone wanting a feel good story and for anyone who loves books or has or had dreams of being an author.

Next I will be reading Normal People by Sally Rooney which I loved on tv so I am very excited.