A Best Book of the Year: The Washington Post • Chicago Tribune • NPR • Vogue • Elle • Real Simple • InStyle • Good Housekeeping • Parade • Slate • Vox • Kirkus Reviews • Library Journal • BookPage Longlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize An Instant New York Times BestsellerA Reese’s Book Club Pick “The most provocative page-turner of the year.” –Entertainment Weekly “I urge you to read Such a Fun … Prize
An Instant New York Times Bestseller
A Reese’s Book Club Pick
“The most provocative page-turner of the year.” –Entertainment Weekly
“I urge you to read Such a Fun Age.” —NPR
A striking and surprising debut novel from an exhilarating new voice, Such a Fun Age is a page-turning and big-hearted story about race and privilege, set around a young black babysitter, her well-intentioned employer, and a surprising connection that threatens to undo them both.
Alix Chamberlain is a woman who gets what she wants and has made a living, with her confidence-driven brand, showing other women how to do the same. So she is shocked when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, is confronted while watching the Chamberlains’ toddler one night, walking the aisles of their local high-end supermarket. The store’s security guard, seeing a young black woman out late with a white child, accuses Emira of kidnapping two-year-old Briar. A small crowd gathers, a bystander films everything, and Emira is furious and humiliated. Alix resolves to make things right.
But Emira herself is aimless, broke, and wary of Alix’s desire to help. At twenty-five, she is about to lose her health insurance and has no idea what to do with her life. When the video of Emira unearths someone from Alix’s past, both women find themselves on a crash course that will upend everything they think they know about themselves, and each other.
With empathy and piercing social commentary, Such a Fun Age explores the stickiness of transactional relationships, what it means to make someone “family,” and the complicated reality of being a grown up. It is a searing debut for our times.
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Funny, observant, and character rich. The author dives deep into millennial angst, racism, and motherhood here, and is adept at offering nuanced, differing perspectives of the same event — something I really enjoy. It’s satirical edge might be somewhat harsh, and a little unkind. But Reid’s portrait of Emira and Briar the little girl in her care were true and beautiful and will stay with me.
I enjoyed this one (which sounds weird to me even as I write it, but it’s still true) for all of its awkward tension and thought-provoking consideration of white guilt and exactly which location good intentions pave the way to… It’s an uncomfortable read, but I think we need more of those – how else are we supposed to confront uncomfortable truths, after all – and Reid has a fabulous knack for crafting characters you can’t help but relate to even when they’re nothing like you/your experience of people/places/the world. She’s a very talented storyteller and I’m definitely keeping her on my “to watch” list…
(Incidentally, I found this one tough to categorize – BookBub needs to add “Thought-Provoking” I think!)
Such a great book. The characters made the book – each one of them, from the three year-old Briar, to Peter, Briar’s father. I think it’s masterful how the author takes a complex issue like bigotry and shows us all the shades of it through all of her characters. I was riveted. Highly recommend.
This is not a world of easy answers but one in which intentions don’t match actions and expectations don’t match consequences, where it is possible to mean something partly good and do something mostly bad. The result is both unsparing and compassionate, impossible to read without wincing in recognition — and questioning yourself. Such a Fun Age is nothing short of brilliant, and Kiley Reid is the writer we need now.
Kiley Reid’s propulsive, page-turning book is full of complex characters and even more complex truths. This is a bullseye of a debut.
Such a Fun Age is such a fabulous book — a crisp, wry, and insightful novel about class, race, and relationships. Kiley Reid is a gifted young writer with a generosity that makes her keen social eye that much funnier and sharper.
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid a fair four-star read. I had major hopes for this story, and I enjoyed it, but I didn’t think it was worth all of the hype, most of it sure but not all of it. This is a very modern tale and told even a few years ago it would have missed its mark, but it has come at just the right time. My one negative is Emira, she just seemed like she didn’t have anything defining her and I know that’s how she is supposed to be written, a mid twenties girl not sure where she is going, she was just too believable at times, on the flip side I wanted to throttle Alix at times for her sheer mindedness. Maybe I wasn’t in the best place reading this I don’t know. One thing I am sure of is that this story will be picked up by lots of people.
/ 5
Well I can definitely understand why Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid is a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick! About a quarter of the way in I was thinking it was going to be a solid 4 star read for me, but by the time I read the very last word it had worked its way into my heart and I couldn’t give this book less than a 5.
I’m honestly having a hard time believing Such a Fun Age is a debut novel because it was just that good. Reid’s writing was impeccable, and I loved the way the book was paced. I didn’t want to put it down and it made me laugh more often than I can count on one hand. It’s definitely a very timely novel as well and focuses on race but also so much more. It made me mad, sad, and happy all at the same time.
I also really enjoyed the setup of the last chapter; we get a peek into the future and I really love when an author writes that way. Alix and Emira were both very different characters and while I loved Emira, I didn’t really like Alix all that much. However, they were both very powerful female voices and the message in this book is HUGE. I would definitely recommend to people that want a contemporary novel that makes you think.
Song/s the book brought to mind: Brave Honest Beautiful by Fifth Harmony & Meghan Trainor
Final Thought: I was really blown away by this debut novel. Reid is definitely going to be an author to watch and I will be impatiently waiting to see what she releases next. Such a Fun Age will make for great book club discussions and while it’s a lot of fun, it is also extremely deep and will make you want to talk to everyone about it. I will be thinking about this book for a long time to come and recommending it to all the people!
Thank you to Edelweiss for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.
One of the most powerful books I’ve read in a long time – I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since I closed the covers.
Reid’s debut novel after graduating from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop is the story of Emira, a young black woman who is the babysitter for two-year-old Briar, her white employer Alix Chamberlain’s child. One night, when Emira takes Briar out to a high-end supermarket, the security guard accuses her of kidnapping the child.
Reid said the book was inspired by her own experience working as a babysitter. The book details the relationship between Emira and Alix as it complicates and crashes, exposing everyday insidious instances of racism. “I wanted to explore these instances of racial biases that don’t end in violence as a way of highlighting those moments that we don’t see on the news but still exist every day,” said Reid in an interview to BookPage.
I can’t believe this book was nominated for a Booker Prize, and received so many good reviews—the story is embarrassingly contrived, and the book reads like a soap opera. None of the characters are the least bit likable, except for the three year old, but her dialogue, although charming and funny, is too precocious to be realistic. The book relies too heavily on unlikely coincidences and convenient eavesdropping to propel the story, and the climactic ending is obviously written with “this will be a movie!” in mind. Even the examination of racism is treated in a flippant, silly manner. So disappointing!
This book is about a wealthy white woman and her black nanny. The nanny receives unwanted attention when she gets accused of kidnapping. This creates tension between her and her employer.
WHAT A BOOK. WOW.
I’m a picky reader, so it says something that I made it through to the end of this book. It was easy to follow and enjoyable. I liked that issues of race and injustices were handled well and not in a heavy-handed way. I liked Emira and felt for her mid-twenties crisis of purpose and wanting to adult. I don’t think we’re supposed to like Alix, but at least she wasn’t portrayed in a black-and-white “bad” way.
What bothered me was that something egregious happened years ago and once it’s discovered at the end of the book, it’s never made right. I don’t want to spoil it, but there’s a big wrap up that goes years into the future for the characters. And nothing’s ever made right, no one apologizes, and it seems that the two white people who like to attach themselves to Black people just keep going on that way without any growth. It left me kind of sad, actually, for all the people in the story who lost out because of an incident that should have been handled much differently back in high school…or at least better in the now. I suppose it mirrors real life, with people afraid to make amends or admit they were wrong, but alas, I do like that in my fiction.
For the audio version, the pronunciation of “Aleex” kept pulling me out of the story for some reason. And when someone looked at Emira, I thought they were looking at a mirror several times. I thought the narrator did a great job voicing the adults, but not so much the kids.
All in all, a thought-provoking story about white privilege and characters who could all use some growing up.
The Great White Savior gets their comeuppance! In a very real, non-violent, smart and funny way. What better way to make a point? Well written, well done, and well taken.
This fast paced novel, reminds me of The Help, as many readers notice, is hard to put down. Although Alix is a successful woman, she is always insecure without her knowledge. She is a typical constant validation seeker from her circle of friends and she would not mind by any means in order to accomplish her self-satisfaction. She is described as a selfish person like the world turns according to her. Reid successfully made me dislike Alix’s choices.
Conversely, Amira is a not-successful-yet young adult, seeking to learn how to live her adult life while working as a sitter for Alix’s older daughter Brier. The role of Kelly in this story is significant to organically connect between Alix (Alex) and Emira beyond the boss and the employee. Sadly, Emira becomes a victim of Alix and Kelly’s previous problem.
Alix continues to come back to the humiliation that she has experienced in high school and pity herself, not facing the consequence of her own action. Her true voice finally reveals when Kelly accuses her of how to treat her babysitter. Emira’s relationships with Alix and Kelly would not last in this story, however, she is resilient enough to move on and appreciate new opportunities with her best friend’s presence.
It is a bit disappointing that Emira decided not to take any action when she sees beloved Brier and Kelly in the future time. But that is what she could do the best at that moment. She would keep growing as a person by experiencing things and interacting with diverse people, exchanging views among her best friends. At least that is what I hope. I would love Reid to work on the sequel.
Such a Fun Age is an amazing debut by an exciting new author Kiley Reid. The buzz on this book has been deserved, loud, and of differing opinions. I am not going to summarize the book, it’s done by the publisher, and other reviews. Assuming you’re going into the book knowing something about it, with some expectation (whatever that may be), be prepared for the nuance and subtlety of Reid’s storytelling. The way she builds each character by layers, their connections, changing point of view. It’s quiet but extremely effective. It comes off as a ‘quick, easy, read’. I think the depth of what is conveyed in such a style speaks volumes of Reid’s talents. I find the further I am from finishing the book the more I reflect on it, more fully appreciate something. I highly recommend, 4.5‘s. I’ll be waiting anxiously for what Kiley Reid does next.
I will also add here, if you have the opportunity to listen on audio absolutely do! After reading I listened to the audiobook. It is fantastic. I honestly thought some of this was laugh out loud funny, minutes later I was talking back “Ohhh, he did NOT just say that!”. For me, it really brought home the difference in where each of these characters were coming from. As I mentioned earlier, I believe this is the strength of Reid’s delivery here. Is this a strong message if I’m laughing, if it’s woven subtly? Yes, you bet it is. Frankly, in my opinion that’s the entire point.
Thank you to Netgalley and G.P. Putnam’s Sons for the ARC and the opportunity to review Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid. All opinions are my own.
In this book, Alix Chamberlain, a white upper-middle-class writer and mother of two young girls, develops a fascination with her family’s Black nanny, Emira. Alix’s increased interest in Emira occurs shortly after Emira takes her 3-year-old daughter Briar to the grocery store after midnight, and is accused of kidnapping the child because of her race. The whole incident is captured on video by a stranger who becomes an important figure in the story.
This book provides insights into how Black women feel about existing in a predominantly white world. It also touches on performative allyship, stereotypes, fetishizing Black culture, and white savior complex. However, the book was not as good as I was expecting it to be. The writing, particularly the dialogue, was lacking, leaving the book feeling disconnected. The title choice didn’t make sense to me, even in an ironic way.
The book does provide a lot of good fodder for a book club or reading group discussion.
An engaging and complex book with complicated and layered characters, while also remaining a fast-paced and entertaining read.
The micro and macro aggressions made for moments of discomfort, revelation, and the opportunity to turn expectations on their heads.
Despite the depth, Such a Fun Age, is written with an almost shocking lightness as it explores issues of race, class, friendship, and privilege.
For my full thoughts, watch my Video Book Review at: https://www.charlenecarr.com/book-review-of-such-a-fun-age-by-kiley-reid/
When I first picked up this novel, I thought it would launch right off the bat after the market incident. However, Such A Fun Age deliciously dives into each of the pivotal characters in the story.
I appreciated how Reid layers this book with thoughts and observations. It’s extremely nuanced about relationships, including those of friendships, family, and dating.
A novel that unveils layers of race relations and complex characters and the narratives we make of our lives.