Her writing is crisp and intelligent, she relies on architecture, Greek mythology and even language to place her relationship in the context of a wider world ... The connections she draws between intimate relationships and twinships, dance and even typography are revealed lyrically. Her writing can sometimes seem disjointed; Dieterich intentionally leaves out the connective tissue that can so often weigh down memoirs, allowing her readers to make their own decisions about the ways in which our worlds are centered around relationships ... Readers might be struck by the raw honesty of Dieterich's ruminations ... Ultimately, the book was better for this technique: Dieterich maintains her searching, inquisitive voice throughout Vanishing Twins.
...[an] ethereal and heady memoir ... Dieterich never explicitly names herself as the narrator, allowing for distance between herself as the author and herself as the woman aroused ... Poignant and extremely hard to shake.
Dieterich outlines the fraught dynamics of a newly open relationship with merciless precision ... In such disintegration lies room for redefinition, and Dieterich describes that messy process with a level of intimacy that often amounts to bravery.
...[an] intimate and passionate memoir ... Like her relationships, the structure and style of the book explores unconventionality. Dietrich writes in short passages that could be read as prose poetry. The narrative, though, is seamless, as she traverses a period of uncertainty and questioning into comfortably claiming her queer identity.
An unconventional literary self-portrait examining the relationships that shaped a writer’s identity ... Essayist Dieterich (thxthxthx: Thank Goodness for Everything, 2011) fully embraces the art of introspection in this unique memoir ... In these poetically written episodes, the author ponders the nature of love, attraction, and identity through literature, pop culture, psychology, femininity, and the delicate nuances of being a 'beautiful and controlled' ballerina ... Graceful snapshots of a life that lyrically coalesce into expressive declarations of identity and intimacy.
