Look at this book cover. Isn't it captivating? I have being this book all over my Instagram and with all the beautiful colors I was immediately drawn to it. Once I read the synopsis, I knew this was one book I had to add to my list to read. Now, this book was one of the options for Book of the Month for June, (BTW, if you want to save $$ on your first box, CLICK HERE) but I decided to buy this at my local bookstore.
MY RAYING :
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 / 5
I started reading this one almost right away. I said, "Ahhh, those other books on my TBR list for this month can wait." With everything going on in our world today, I wanted to expand my reading library and show love to more black authors, especially women. This is my small contribution to the incredible, historic movement that is going on right now, to highlight more black authors. And I didn't go wrong with picking this one as my first Brit Bennett novel. Fair warning, there will be spoilers throughout the post.
The story is about twins, Stella and Desiree, who disappear from the small black community of Mallard, Louisiana. They are considered "light" . Each generation becoming lighter than the next. The girls are 16 when they disappear and go to New Orleans and live a new life. The twins, very different from one another but identical in appearance crash with a fellow Mallard escapee.
I love how this story flips the points of view between Stella and Desiree, and eventually, Jude and Kennedy, their daughters. We get to know Desiree first. We learn that after many years gone, Desiree marries a very black man, the darkest man she could find and has a daughter with him, Jude. She ends up leaving him after years of him physically emotional abuse and flees back to Mallard, her dark daughter in tow. When she comes back, the whole town of Mallard is shocked to see Desiree, for one, and also that her daughter, Jude is so dark. Like I said earlier, the whole town is obsessed with being light. Desiree eventually starts working and lives back with her mother and settles back into her old life. She works at the local diner and takes care of her mother, since their father passed when the girls were very young.
Now, that's another story in itself. A terrible story that nearly brought me to tears. Their father is attacked by these white men while the girls are in the closet watching. They were out to kill him. Their intentions were to kill him. Miraculously, he survives. While he is in the hospital recovering, the men find out that he survive and go to the hospital and shoot him in the head. Tragic. Like, to think that that sort of thing was allowed is heartbreaking..
Then we later meet Stella. Stella was always the quiet, reserved and sensible twin. She agrees to go to New Orleans with Desiree when she tells us a horrible secret that she has never told anybody. While her and Desiree were working for a white family, the man of the family sexually abused her a few times in the pantry. Stella finds a job were she acts like she's white. She eventually falls for her boss and she leaves town with him and marries him, leaving Desiree behind and never looking back. She starts living her life as a white woman. She eventually has a daughter, Kennedy.
Now, Kennedy and Jude seem to be the same age, neither one knowing about one another. Jude knows she has a Aunt Stella that disappeared, but Kennedy doesn't know anything about her mothers past. Her mother made up her past when she started working for Blake Sanders. She told everyone in her new life as a white woman that she lost all her family in a terrible accident and she was completely alone in the world. No parents, no siblings nothing.
When the girls grow up, Jude comes from nothing. Got a athletic scholarship to a school in LA. Kennedy comes from money as her father is very successful, and he comes from a long line of wealth.
This is when the story starts grabbing me more and more. So, with trying to make ends meet with her trans boyfriend (which is a big deal because this takes place in the late 70's) Jude takes a job working for a catering company. Imagine this dark black girl working at the house of these uppity rich white people. She is doing he job when a woman walks in. She looks up and sees...….STELLA. Her mother has been looking for her for her whole life. She drops a bottle on this expensive rug and immediately gets fired.
But was that Stella. She looked exactly like her mother. How many other woman are walking around looking like her mother? From then, she makes her mission to find out if that was really Stella. She ends up working at a theater that, LO and BEHOLD Kennedy is the star of show. Jude starts befriending her to find out if that really is Stella. Kennedy and Jude become friends. However, she knows nothing about what Jude's intentions are. Throughout the run of the show, the girls start learning more and more about each other and Jude is even more convinced that this is her mother's sister, her aunt. She finally is sure when Kennedy confirms her mothers maiden name. Vignes.
She found her.
Stella doesn't approve of her daughters career because she dropped out of school to pursue acting. Kennedy finally convinces her to come to the closing night. Can you imagine? You have this run as a star in a play and your mother doesn't even show up to support you? That's tough. She goes and Jude sees her. Jude is working as an usher and when intermission comes she makes sure to follow her. She just HAS to talk to her.
She finds her outside and goes up and talks to her and shows her a picture. A picture from her daddy's funeral where her and Desiree are there with their grandmother. Stella starts freaking out. This dark girl can't possibly be who she says she is. She looks nothing like Desiree. Stella leaves in a panic, leaving Jude even more confused than ever.
What now? Does she tell her mother that she found Stella? Does she tell Kennedy the truth about her mother? Will Stella ever come clean to her husband?
So, this read was so inspiring to me that I don't want to put in spoilers like I have in my previous posts. I think everyone should read this one for themselves because its that great of a novel. Ms. Bennett created these characters that I got so deeply invested in that I feel can be true to life characters.
That being said, as I am finishing this post, I saw all over Instagram yesterday (Tuesday, June 30, 2020) that HBO won the bid to create this beautiful story to life!! I am super excited to see how this plays out on screen. I hope it comes sooner rather than later. I absolutely loved this one and encourage everyone to read this. The psychological plot twists will keep you turning the page faster and faster.
Have you read this influential book? Please let me know your thoughts.
I started reading this one almost right away. I said, "Ahhh, those other books on my TBR list for this month can wait." With everything going on in our world today, I wanted to expand my reading library and show love to more black authors, especially women. This is my small contribution to the incredible, historic movement that is going on right now, to highlight more black authors. And I didn't go wrong with picking this one as my first Brit Bennett novel. Fair warning, there will be spoilers throughout the post.
The story is about twins, Stella and Desiree, who disappear from the small black community of Mallard, Louisiana. They are considered "light" . Each generation becoming lighter than the next. The girls are 16 when they disappear and go to New Orleans and live a new life. The twins, very different from one another but identical in appearance crash with a fellow Mallard escapee.
I love how this story flips the points of view between Stella and Desiree, and eventually, Jude and Kennedy, their daughters. We get to know Desiree first. We learn that after many years gone, Desiree marries a very black man, the darkest man she could find and has a daughter with him, Jude. She ends up leaving him after years of him physically emotional abuse and flees back to Mallard, her dark daughter in tow. When she comes back, the whole town of Mallard is shocked to see Desiree, for one, and also that her daughter, Jude is so dark. Like I said earlier, the whole town is obsessed with being light. Desiree eventually starts working and lives back with her mother and settles back into her old life. She works at the local diner and takes care of her mother, since their father passed when the girls were very young.
Now, that's another story in itself. A terrible story that nearly brought me to tears. Their father is attacked by these white men while the girls are in the closet watching. They were out to kill him. Their intentions were to kill him. Miraculously, he survives. While he is in the hospital recovering, the men find out that he survive and go to the hospital and shoot him in the head. Tragic. Like, to think that that sort of thing was allowed is heartbreaking..
Then we later meet Stella. Stella was always the quiet, reserved and sensible twin. She agrees to go to New Orleans with Desiree when she tells us a horrible secret that she has never told anybody. While her and Desiree were working for a white family, the man of the family sexually abused her a few times in the pantry. Stella finds a job were she acts like she's white. She eventually falls for her boss and she leaves town with him and marries him, leaving Desiree behind and never looking back. She starts living her life as a white woman. She eventually has a daughter, Kennedy.
Now, Kennedy and Jude seem to be the same age, neither one knowing about one another. Jude knows she has a Aunt Stella that disappeared, but Kennedy doesn't know anything about her mothers past. Her mother made up her past when she started working for Blake Sanders. She told everyone in her new life as a white woman that she lost all her family in a terrible accident and she was completely alone in the world. No parents, no siblings nothing.
When the girls grow up, Jude comes from nothing. Got a athletic scholarship to a school in LA. Kennedy comes from money as her father is very successful, and he comes from a long line of wealth.
This is when the story starts grabbing me more and more. So, with trying to make ends meet with her trans boyfriend (which is a big deal because this takes place in the late 70's) Jude takes a job working for a catering company. Imagine this dark black girl working at the house of these uppity rich white people. She is doing he job when a woman walks in. She looks up and sees...….STELLA. Her mother has been looking for her for her whole life. She drops a bottle on this expensive rug and immediately gets fired.
But was that Stella. She looked exactly like her mother. How many other woman are walking around looking like her mother? From then, she makes her mission to find out if that was really Stella. She ends up working at a theater that, LO and BEHOLD Kennedy is the star of show. Jude starts befriending her to find out if that really is Stella. Kennedy and Jude become friends. However, she knows nothing about what Jude's intentions are. Throughout the run of the show, the girls start learning more and more about each other and Jude is even more convinced that this is her mother's sister, her aunt. She finally is sure when Kennedy confirms her mothers maiden name. Vignes.
She found her.
Stella doesn't approve of her daughters career because she dropped out of school to pursue acting. Kennedy finally convinces her to come to the closing night. Can you imagine? You have this run as a star in a play and your mother doesn't even show up to support you? That's tough. She goes and Jude sees her. Jude is working as an usher and when intermission comes she makes sure to follow her. She just HAS to talk to her.
She finds her outside and goes up and talks to her and shows her a picture. A picture from her daddy's funeral where her and Desiree are there with their grandmother. Stella starts freaking out. This dark girl can't possibly be who she says she is. She looks nothing like Desiree. Stella leaves in a panic, leaving Jude even more confused than ever.
What now? Does she tell her mother that she found Stella? Does she tell Kennedy the truth about her mother? Will Stella ever come clean to her husband?
So, this read was so inspiring to me that I don't want to put in spoilers like I have in my previous posts. I think everyone should read this one for themselves because its that great of a novel. Ms. Bennett created these characters that I got so deeply invested in that I feel can be true to life characters.
That being said, as I am finishing this post, I saw all over Instagram yesterday (Tuesday, June 30, 2020) that HBO won the bid to create this beautiful story to life!! I am super excited to see how this plays out on screen. I hope it comes sooner rather than later. I absolutely loved this one and encourage everyone to read this. The psychological plot twists will keep you turning the page faster and faster.
Have you read this influential book? Please let me know your thoughts.
Until Next Time......☮
Next Read:
Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
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