genre: historical/contemporary family fiction
As identical twins, Stella and Desiree look exactly alike. In their tiny southern community, it's not the only thing to know about them, but it's a big one. When they both run away from home at age 16, there can be only supposition in town about what happened to them - until Desiree comes back, with a child in tow, and Stella doesn't. This story of two paths diverging, of family and community, of race and identity, takes three generations of women and imagines what would happen if one sister chooses to lean into her race while another rejects it and lives a "passing" life. Can there be peace and happiness whichever path you choose?
This was a beautifully performed audiobook, the voices all different enough that they became familiar and comforting. So much of it was fascinating to me, the incredible amount of effort it would take to choose to leave your family behind and live as a person of a different race. I felt like, although the beginning was slow, it got intriguing for me quickly and I was super invested in these women and their children. One character in particular was pretty annoying and while I understood why, she still was harder to care about and another character could've been fleshed out way more (as I was very intrigued by him as a trans man). Even though there were two different coincidences that were too much to be believable, I still DID let myself believe because it made the story so interesting and because I wanted to know how everyone would handle it. I'm glad I finally got to this book because it really did keep my attention and gave me insight into lives different than my own. I can't imagine having to make some of these choices - or having certain choices made for me purely because of how I look. I know that's my privilege talking and I appreciate that books like this make me truly stop and think and put myself in someone else's shoes while entertaining me at the same time.
PLUS twins. I love twin stories.
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