While the premise of this book is rather intriguing, the story itself as written, left me feeling like a rock skipping across the top of water.

There is quite a lot going on in this novel; colorism, racism, classism, deceit, identity crisis, LGBTQI, Alzheimer’s, the role of women in society, domestic abuse, and that's just off the top of my head. These are all big topics by themselves, unfortunately, none of them really gets explored or discussed. Hence the feeling of skipping along.

The book covers a thirty year time span - 1950’s through the 1980’s. There’s a load of historical events that occur during this time span and, again, they are mere mentions or blips on the timeline. The characters barely react or acknowledge any of these events. I think this book could have been much more interesting if set in a single decade. The portion that takes place during the 50's - 60's was probably the best - in my opinion anyway.

While the story is OK, the writing, at times, can be somewhat clunky. There were a few times where it wasn’t immediately apparent as to which character’s point of view I was reading or what time period I was in or even what location I was at.

I really don’t like to dissuade anyone from reading a book, but for me, this one was a bit disappointing. The concept of identical twin sisters separating and living completely different lives, with one twin "passing over" to live as a white woman seemed very interesting. Unfortunately, the story went in too many directions without giving the characters enough definition. I felt as though there was so much build up for a major crescendo that never materialized. The ending felt rushed to me and fell flat of what I was hoping for.

“The Vanishing Half” isn’t awful. This is great book for anyone looking for that airport/beach read.