Such A Fun Age

Genre: Contemporary

Book Type: Audio

Author: Kiley Reid

Narrator: Nicole Lewis

Pages / Length: 320 pages / 9 hours and 58 minutes

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons (December 31, 2019) / Penguin Audio

Book Description:

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.

Thoughts:

I love Emira. She is an incredibly strong character who, while preceived as the one who had her life together the least, was the most levelheaded person in the entire book. I rooted for her the first time and I loved how she stood up for her desires.

I thought this book touched on race in a very well-rounded manner. The only part that made me so frustrated was Zara came to Emira’s defense at the end of the book on camera, as I felt that was the only time there was a negative energy around the situation that happened and after how hard she worked to avoid that spotlight, I was irritated that she allowed it to happen. Other than that, I found this book to be very well-written and touched on hot issues in an eye opening tone. I genuinely didn’t think Alix was racist, but the way the book brought light to behaviors that can be perceived otherwise was very well done. It made me take a step back and reexamine different aspects I’ve viewed through my own personal life experiences and how I can do better.

This was a great book. I loved the title and found it perfect for where Emira is at in her life, and all of the transitions that happen as she works on growing into her own desires. Loved this one and definitely recommend it!

Favorite Quotes:

📱 "You don't get to tell me where I should and shouldn't work. You literally have a cafeteria in your office. You wear T-shirts to work. And you have a doorman, Kelley, okay? So you can one thousand percent go fuck yourself. […] You will never have to even consider working somewhere that requires a uniform, so you can chill the fuck out about how I choose to make my living.” (Page 191)

📱 Emira and Kelley talked about race very little because it always seemed like they were doing it already. When she really considered a life with him, a real life, a joint-bank-account-emergency-contact both-names-on-the-lease life, Emira almost wanted to roll her eyes and ask, Are we really gonna do this? […] Are you gonna take our son to get his hair done? Who's gonna teach him that it doesn't matter what his friends do, that he can't stand too close to white women when he's on the train or in an elevator? That he should slowly and noticeably put his keys on the roof as soon as he gets pulled over? Or that there are times our daughter should stand up for herself, and times to pretend it was a joke that she didn't quite catch. Or that when white people compliment her ("She's so professional. She's always on time"), it doesn't always feel good, because sometimes people are gonna be surprised by the fact that she showed up, rather than the fact that she had something to say when she did.

"I don't know..." Emira struggled. "Lemme try to say this. You get real fired up when we talk about that night at Market Depot. But I don't need you to be mad that it happened. I need you to be mad that it just like... happens.” (Page 194)

📱 “Alix, don’t be mad at me […] But you’re also saying that he’s the opposite of racist? That he likes black people too much?”

“Alix is saying … that Kelley is one of those white guys who not only goes out of his way to date black women, but only wants to date black women.”

[…] "That's racist."

"It completely fetishizes black people in a terrible way," Tamra went on. "It makes it seem like we're all the same, as if we can't contain multitudes of personalities and traits and differences. And people like that think that it says something good about them, that they're so brave and unique that they would even dare to date black women. Like they're some kind of martyr." (Pages 199-200)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫