Such a Fun Age: Reese's Book Club
Books | Fiction / Literary
3.8
Kiley Reid
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 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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Author
Kiley Reid
Pages
368
Publisher
Penguin
Published Date
2021-04-20
ISBN
0525541918 9780525541912
Community ReviewsSee all
"Wow, just wow! This book really blew me away, more than I was really expecting it too. I first heard about this on a lot of online lists of the best upcoming books of the year and other articles along those lines. I thought I would check it out from my library and I’m glad I did. <br/><br/>We are first introduced to Emira Tucker, a 25 almost 26 year old recent college graduate who randomly gets a part time babysitting job for the Chamberlains. She’s a bit aimless career wise (who isn’t at that age though) and is asked in the middle of the night to take her charge Briar out of the house while the police come to sort out a vandalism. Emira obliges and goes to a local grocery store with her friend Zara tagged along for the quite eventful ride that’s about to happen. A security guard for the grocery store stops and accuses Emira of stealing little Briar and a video is recorded by Kelley Copeland (trust me, we’ll get to him later!). <br/><br/>After that, we are introduced to Alex/“Alix” Chamberlain who is the very epitome of white suburban upper class insufferable working mommy that I can think of. She definitely gives off the vibe quite immediately that she thinks she is very “woke” and with it so to speak. She completely reminds me of a mixture between Ivanka Trump and Blake Lively or Amber Heard. After the grocery store incident, “Alix” becomes more and more obsessed with Emira, when it seems like she didn’t give two shits about Emira before. She becomes aggressively possessive to almost single white female levels if I’m honest. <br/><br/>Then there comes Kelley again into the picture, where Emira runs into him again on the train and they start seeing each other and the chemistry from that scene alone was"
Erin Smith
"i read this for my english class, i was very happy and it’s really relatable for your mid-twenties "
tessa
"Throughout the novel I kept feeling like Alix and Kelley were two white and unyielding parentheses around Emira… negating her meaning and her voice. It was glaring at me throughout the novel, and unfortunately Emira often got drowned out by it — although I suppose that’s entirely the point. Let Emira speak for herself, choose for herself, determine the course of her own life. <br/><br/>It’s a haunting book because I’m not sure entirely what I’m meant to gather or conclude from the book, there are quite a few things, to whit - don’t be a parentheses. But I suppose puzzling around the storyline and the stakes is part of the point. And you want a book that makes you wonder “and what now?”"
A S
Abigail Spradlin
"So…I’ll start out by saying that the concept of this book is important and should be discussed- it highlighted white privilege, prejudice, and the white savior complex. However, I didn’t really love the execution, the ending (with Alex) was annoying, and the characters were insufferable…but I guess that was sort of the point. <br/><br/>Regardless, here’s my mini character breakdown:<br/><br/>Alix- everything about her screamed privilege. Homegirl was chaotic and unhinged. Her POV chapters simultaneously stressed me out and made me cringe <br/><br/>Kelley- bro was a walking major ick. He called Emira “miss” all the time (1. Ew, and 2. why???) and he was so performative in everything he did <br/><br/>Emira- she really grew on me towards the end and her ending arc was great (go Emira!!) but for most of the book I did think she was bland. It was like when everyone was obsessed with Bella Swan in Twilight<br/><br/>Briar- no notes, stay adorable. Never change and keep saying weird things, you strange little child <br/><br/><br/>Also, so much of the dialogue ended? in? question? marks? Like, I get it. But it was overdone."
Ana Marquina
