#brit bennett

[rubypomegranates]

“It was strange learning the contours of another’s loneliness. You could never know it all at once; like stepping inside a dark cave, you felt along the walls, bumped into jagged edges.”

Brit Bennett “The Mothers”

[aseaofquotes]

Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half

[smokefalls]

It was strange, learning the contours of another’s loneliness. You could never know it all at once; like stepping inside a dark cave, you felt along the walls, bumped into jagged edges.

Brit Bennett, The Mothers

[askyea-poesy]

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

Brit Bennett

[queereads-bracket]

Queer Historical Fiction Book Bracket: Round 2A

Choose a book:

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

The Last of the Wine by Mary Renault

Voting ended onJun 28, 2025

Book summaries and submitted endorsements below:

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

Endorsement from submitter: "significant secondary character is a trans man"

The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters' storylines intersect?

Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person's decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.

Setting: significant stretch of US, 1950–1990+

Historical fiction, literary fiction, adult

The Last of the Wine by Mary Renault

Endorsement from submitter: "Alexias and Lysis's relationship is great and also a really interesting look at ancient Greek sexual dynamics in general. Also, Alcibiades is there!"

In The Last of the Wine, two young Athenians, Alexias and Lysis, compete in the palaestra, journey to the Olympic games, fight in the wars against Sparta, and study under Socrates. As their relationship develops, Renault expertly conveys Greek culture, showing the impact of this supreme philosopher whose influence spans epochs.

Setting: Ancient Greece, 5th century BC(E)

Historical fiction, philosophical novel, politics, coming of age, Ancient Greece, adult

[sleepandblog]

i just finished my 9th book of 2025: the vanishing half by brit bennett

i absolutely loved it, 10/10, five stars, standing ovation, etc etc.

also i own the book so i can add it to my 2025 book stack yayayyyyy

[specificpollsaboutbooks]

Wrecking Quotes

Round 1 Part 5

Quote 63 VS Quote 66

Quote 63

Quote 66

Show results

Voting ended onDec 29, 2025

Quotes under the cut

Quote 63 :

You could drown in two inches of water. Maybe grief was the same.

– The Vanishing Half, Brit Bennett

Quote 66 :

You can go home again, so long as you understand that home is a place where you have never been.

– The Dispossessed, Ursula K. Le Guin

[haveyoureadthisbook-poll]

Have you read The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (2020)?

yes

no

I didn't finish it

I've never heard of it

Voting ended onFeb 9, 2025