16 Thought-Provoking The Vanishing Half Book Club Questions

Looking for The Vanishing Half book club questions for your next reading group meeting? Here are 15 thought-provoking discussion questions to get you guys going!

The Vanishing Half, the 2020 novel by author Brit Bennett, is a beautiful story about twin sisters, Stella and Desiree, growing up in a small black community in Louisiana.

When the twins run away, they become separated and end up leading wildly different lives: Stella, back in her hometown, dealing with colorism towards her dark-skinned child, and Desiree, passing as white, living a privileged life.

Despite losing contact, Desiree and Stella’s lives are inescapably intertwined.

It’s a powerful story about family, class, and colorism, and it’s an excellent choice for a book club, with many interesting themes to discuss. I

If you’re looking for book club questions for The Vanishing Half to get the conversation flowing, you’ve come to the right place!

The Vanishing Half Book Club Questions

The book’s title, The Vanishing Half, is intriguing.

What do you think of the title? Did it give you an idea of what the story would be about?

Mallard, Louisiana is a strange place: it doesn’t appear on maps, it’s small and insular, and it has an obsession with skin colour that stems from Mallard’s founding members. Desiree describes the town as ‘colorstruck’.

What did you think about the setting of Mallard and the local’s obsession with light skin?

Growing up in Mallard has a huge impact on the main characters of the story, twin girls Desiree and Stella. It’s clear from the start that Desiree can’t wait to leave: ‘She didn’t hate Mallard as much as she felt trapped by its smallness.’ (p.9)

What impact do you think Mallard had on the two sisters? What do you think about the fact that Desiree was the one to come back, even though it was her idea to leave?

The twins ran away at a young age, sneaking away as teenagers despite Stella’s misgivings about leaving their mother behind. This started a chain of events that eventually led to the twin’s separation.

Did you agree with the twin’s decision to leave? What did you think about the fact that they left their mother, Adele, alone?

The twins’ father, Leon, was butchered by a group of white men when the girls were children. This, of course, has a devastating impact on his family.

How do you think Leon’s death influenced the twins and the decisions they made later in life?

Stella is determined to carve her own path, and does so by pretending to be white. Later, when reflecting on her daughter’s choices in life, she reflects on this: ‘You didn’t just find a self out there waiting – you had to make one. You had to create who you wanted to be.’ (p.325)

What do you think of Stella’s character? Do you think she ever felt relaxed or settled in her new life?

Desiree, meanwhile, returns home, despite being the one to decide to leave in the first place. She raises her daughter, Jude, in Mallard, which isn’t easy on either of them.

Why did Desiree decide to stay in Mallard for so long?

Jude is subjected to a lot of racial abuse during her childhood. Growing up with dark skin in Mallard is tough on her.

How did these childhood experiences shape Jude as a person?

Meanwhile, Stella’s daughter Kennedy has a completely different upbringing. She is raised with privilege and finds herself, as an adult, simultaneously overly confident and unsure of herself.

How do you think Kennedy’s upbringing impacted her as a person? What did you think of her decisions over the course of the book?

Desiree and Stella settled down with very different people. Desiree escapes an abusive marriage, which triggers her return to Mallard.

She ends up dating Early, a man initially hired by her ex-husband to follow her. Meanwhile, Stella marries Blake, her wealthy white boss.

What did you think of both sisters’ relationships?

When a black family moves into Stella’s neighborhood, she leads the charge against them, vocally campaigning against their inclusion. When they arrive, she ends up making friends with the wife, Loretta Walker, although their friendship ends in disaster.

What do you think about Stella’s behaviour in this section of the book? What was driving her choices?

Jude quickly bonds with Reese, and the pair fall in love, sticking together even in difficult financial circumstances.

What did you think of Jude and Reese’s relationship, especially towards the end of the book?

We’re entering into spoiler territory now, so steer clear from now on if you haven’t finished the book yet!

Near the end of the story, Desiree and Stella finally reunite in an emotional scene, witnessed only by a drunk local, Marvin, a moment he thinks of as ‘Desiree Vignes wrapped around herself’ (p.339)

What did you think of this moment? Did it play out the way you imagined it would?

Keeping secrets is a common theme in The Vanishing Half, and both daughters keep secrets from their mothers. Jude won’t tell her mother the real reason why she and Reese won’t be able to get married yet, and Kennedy doesn’t tell her mother when Adele passes away at the end of the book.

What do you think would have happened if Jude and Kennedy hadn’t kept this information from their respective mothers?

In the book’s final scene, we see Jude and Reese sneaking away to swim in the river.

What do you think of this moment? How do you picture their future?

Desiree finally leaves Mallard with Early, twenty years after she comes home. She gets a job in an office and begins a new chapter of her life. The last time we see Stella, she’s sitting in a car with Kennedy, steeling herself to explain everything.

Were you happy with these closing moments for Desiree and Stella? How do you imagine their lives will turn out in the future and do you think they will see each other again?

Hopefully, these discussion questions for The Vanishing Half will help to facilitate your book club’s conversation!

Megan Bidmead

Guest writer

Megan is a freelance writer based in Somerset, England. When she’s not writing about books, video games, and pop culture, she’s running around after her two kids and trying to squeeze in the occasional walk in the countryside.