“There were many ways to be alienated from someone, few to actually belong.”
The Vanishing Half is a 2020 historical fiction book by Brit Bennett. Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, and a Goodreads Choice Award winner, it is a tantalising and slow-burning exploration of race, class, and identity. Beginning in the 1950s up to the 1990s and from the Deep South to California, readers follow the Vigne sisters, two identical light-skinned Black twins whose lives diverge dramatically after they run away from home at the age of sixteen. A profound dive across American history and the influence the past can have on our identities, join us today at What We Reading as we run through some of the best fiction books like The Vanishing Half for anyone looking for their next beautiful read!
The Mothers – Brit Bennett
First up on our list of books like The Vanishing Half is Brit Bennett’s debut novel, The Mothers. If you loved the complex characters and Bennett’s distinct writing style, you’ll love this 2016 contemporary read. Set within a Black community in Southern California, The Mothers is an exploration of ambition, love, and community.
The book revolves around three young people: Nadia, Luke, and Aubrey. The trio are caught in a messy love triangle and a messy secret that will stay with them for the next decade. Readers follow them as they grow into adulthood, examining the power of secrets, community, and the lingering potency of paths not taken. With entrancing lyrical prose, this is a magical read that shows how the ‘what ifs’ can be more powerful than the experience itself.
Such A Fun Age – Kiley Reid
Another one of the books similar to The Vanishing Half is another striking debut novel about race and privilege, Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid. Alix Chamberlain is a woman who gets what she wants and has carved out a life on the back of her confidence-driven brand teaching other women how to do the same. She is, therefore, shocked when her babysitter, a young Black woman called Emira Tucker, is confronted by a security guard, accused of kidnapping the Chamberlains’ white child.
A crowd forms, films everything, and Emira is left devastated. Outraged, Alix vows to make things right. However, when the video of Emira unearths an individual from Alix’s past, both women are sent hurtling on a crash course that threatens to upend everything they think they know about themselves and each other. Searingly delivered, Such a Fun Age tackles the stickiness of transactional relationships, the complexities of growing up, and what it means to make someone family.
The Revisioners – Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
Another stunning piece of historical fiction like The Vanishing Half, The Revisioners is a 2019 book by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton. In 1925, Josephine was the proud owner of a successful farm. She used her magical power to free herself from slavery and has now struck an uneasy friendship with her neighbour, a white woman named Charlotte. Yet, when Charlotte becomes involved in the Ku Klux Klan, Josephine’s entire family is put at risk.
Fast forward almost a century, and Josephine’s descendant, Ava, moves in with her white grandmother, Martha. Martha’s behaviour quickly turns threatening, however, and Ava soon realizes that she must escape before her and Josephine’s story converge. Similar to The Vanishing Half, The Revisioners is a book that explores powerful and marginalized women and ponders on the bonds of mothers and their children, as well as the imprint left by generational legacies.
Little Fires Everywhere – Celeste Ng
Shaker Heights is an idyllic and progressive suburb in Cleveland, where everything from the winding roads to the colours of the houses is meticulously planned. That is until Mia Warren, an energetic artist and single mother, arrives with her daughter, Pearl. The pair quickly strike up a friendship with the wealthy, well-established, and white Richardson family.
Having spun a web of ambiguous stories about Pearl’s father and their on-the-road lifestyle, the Richardsons encourage Pearl to find out more about Mia’s murky past. And when a custody battle erupts across the neighbourhood, these opposing sides will collide, where obsession comes at a devastating cost. Fans of The Vanishing Half will love the way racial discrimination is explored through elements of mystery and tension in Little Fires Everywhere. Like Stella, Mia is a protagonist who attempts to hide her past and bury her identity, even from her daughter.
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Mrs. Everything – Jennifer Weiner
Growing up in 1950s Detroit, Jo and Bethie Kaufman appeared to be born into a world full of promise. Beth is the pretty feminine good girl who dreams of a traditional life. Whereas Jo is the rebellious tomboy hell-bent on making the world more equal. Mrs. Everything is a 2019 historical fiction book by Jennifer Weiner that follows these two sisters throughout their lives.
As they grow, experiencing everything from Vietnam to Woodstock, their paths diverge in a series of unexpected ways that gradually pull them farther apart. Bethie becomes an adventure-loving advocate for counter-culture, while Jo settles into the role of a young mother, happy to let the world pass by before engaging in it. Mrs Everything is a fascinating look at sisterhood and family, but also an exploration of American history and the changing expectations of women in the workplace and at home. Like The Vanishing Half, it is the perfect book for anyone interested in characters navigating changing social and political climates.
A Long Petal Of The Sea – Isabel Allende
Isabel Allende’s A Long Petal of the Sea is a decade-spanning epic story following two young lovers crossing continents searching for a place to call home. Set in the 1930s, it follows Roser, a pregnant young widow, and Victor, an army doctor and brother of her deceased lover. As General Franco’s Fascists claim victory in the Spanish Civil War, the pair is forced into a marriage neither wants to escape to Chile aboard the SS Winnipeg along with two thousand other refugees.
As Europe erupts into the horrors of the Second World War, the pair’s challenges as exiles only just begin. Yet the hope of returning home to Spain never once leaves them. Gradually, as they watch the continued battle of hope against repression wage on, this stunning work of historical fiction like The Vanishing Half demonstrates how home might have been closer than they thought.
Passing – Nella Larsen
Irene Redfield is a Black woman living an affluent and comfortable existence with her husband and children in Harlem in the 1920s. When she reconnects with her light-skinned childhood friend, Clare Kendry, she discovers that Clare has severed her ties to the past and is posing as a white woman.
Clare soon finds herself drawn to Irene’s security and ease with her Black identity, the feeling of community, and the sense of self she has lost over the years. For her part, Irene is both fascinated and repulsed by Clare and her dangerous secret. Ever since its first publishing in 1929, Nella Larsen’s Passing has become one of the most fascinating explorations of race, identity, and how we attempt to ‘pass’ across society. Having inspired the Netflix film starring Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga, the latest edition of Passing now features an introduction by Brit Bennett.
The House Of Deep Water – Jeni McFarland
River Bend, Michigan, is an idyllic small town most people would never think of leaving. But, for Beth DeWitt, one of the town’s few Black women, it’s a place they couldn’t wait to escape. A mother of two who had fought tooth and nail to raise her children elsewhere, she finds herself returning to town to live under her father’s roof.
It doesn’t take long for the memories of her messy childhood and past relationships to come back and begin haunting her. Jeni McFarland takes readers through all the affairs and secrets bubbling underneath the surface of River Bend in The House of Deep Water. Similarly to The Vanishing Half, it is an emotive piece of literary fiction that delves into family histories, motherhood, trauma, love, loss, and the strange feeling of returning to a home you had hoped to leave behind.
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Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
