AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A REESE'S BOOK CLUB x HELLO SUNSHINE BOOK PICK 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.

Item Information Item Information

Format: TradePaperback
Author: Reid, Kiley
ISBN: 9780525541912
Condition: Used
Dimensions: 8.20 x 0.70
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Year: 2021

Customer Reviews

Rating Snapshot

5 ★ 63%

4 ★ 38%

3 ★ 0%

2 ★ 0%

1 ★ 0%

4.6

8 Ratings

0 Recommendations

Review Images

A Lesson In 2019

Kyleigh W. - 4 years 11 months ago

Years from now, I feel this book will be studied as a lesson in what life felt like pre COVID, but in this era. I loved it. #SpringPicks
Young and Fun with Twists and Turns

Natalie H. - 4 years 11 months ago

4 and a half stars, but I still greatly couldn't put down this book! There were some instances that the dialog between young 20-something year olds didn't flow with me, (because I am a 20-something-year-old) but the entire story kept me hooked! And unexpected ending that kept me thinking #SpringPicks
Timely & Realistic Page-Turner

Kathleen K. - 5 years 6 months ago

Four to four and a half stars. Reid's debut novel is a compelling page-turner, and one of the most interesting novels I've read in a long time. The characters are complex and have realistic and complicated interpersonal relationships. Despite reading like a light novel, Such a Fun Age deals in the subtleties of racism and class-ism. Reid never becomes sanctimonious nor does she employ heightened drama or villainous characters to drive home any of her themes. Instead, the main characters who are white are not overtly racist or classist; these characters are often thoughtful with good intentions, and it is this insidious racism that drives the plot of the book. Reid's pacing is stellar and the plot is littered with amusing anecdotes and quirky behaviors - recognizable features throughout that make the book feel comfortable and familiar. The only thing that stopped me from giving the novel five stars is the ending, while it is realistic and fitting, I felt a lack of "closure" with the characters that made me reread the last few pages again, looking for something that wasn't there. This is a brilliant debut and I can't wait to read Reid's next novel. #BannedBook
Good read. Review contains spoilers.

Lisa J. - 5 years 10 months ago

**spoiler alert** I wavered back and forth a bit on how much I liked this book as I was reading. I struggled with the sometimes unrealistic dialogue, some of the characterizations, and the wild coincidence of Kelley and Emira dating. Ultimately, it made me think deeply enough that I found the book to hold a lot of value. I loved Emira, and my heart went out to her. I was very saddened by everyone's desire, and particularly methods, to "fix" or "help" her, ranging from truly well-intentioned to nearly sinister. She had such a good heart and mind, that Alix's desire to administer aid to Emira, particularly considering her own deficient state of humanity, was laughable. As Alix proceeded to obsess over Emira, hunger for her attentions, fixate on "protecting" her, and invade her privacy in an attempt to get to know her, her failure to respect Emira, speak and listen to her, and treat her like a human, hit me like a firehose. It also struck me that the entire basis of Alix's successful business was asking for things for free, a parallel to her approach to developing a relationship. She's not much interested in earning things. She hid pretentious books and cut off expensive tags to disguise these aspects of herself from Emira, instead of addressing the fact that if those things appear ridiculous and excessive to a person she aspires to be close to, maybe they are, and maybe the right idea is to examine and actually change her own behavior, rather than camouflage it. When Alix encountered Kelley, it was clear that she was jealous about both Emira's interest in Kelley and Kelley's interest in Emira, and was not actually concerned about Emira's well-being. She continued to focus on how cute he was and what he thought of her during their conversations; it was sort of disgusting. While I feel that Kelley was a better person than Alix, he harbored his own issues with race and sorting people by their skin tone. His intentions toward Emira were at least somewhat honorable, but he still failed to fully respect her. And, the reveal at the end about Alix's letters to Kelley reveal Alix as a truly dysfunctional human, possibly skewing toward mental illness. As some others have said, the book ended abruptly and left me less than pleased about the outcome. The separation of Emira and Briar was heartbreaking, and I really wanted to Alix to learn that Emira knew she betrayed her. Alix's very name tells the story and the characters of Alix and Emira in a microcosm. Once she was Alex, and changed her name to one of her own design, employing not just an unusual spelling but also practically inventing a new pronunciation. Emira, in turn, remained unable to fathom, retain, or pronounce something so fabricated, forever relegating her boss to the title of Mrs. Chamberlain
Engaging, starts important conversations

Karlie S. - 5 years 10 months ago

Such A Fun Age is one of those books that you can't put down. Time just flew by while I was reading it. I can't exactly put my finger on what exactly about the writing caused this. Maybe it was the characters, the setting, the plot, I don't really know but either way I definitely enjoyed it. I think I will genuinely miss both Emira and Briar. Being a nanny myself for a number of years, I was able to relate extremely well to their relationship. My charges are all grown up now, but I will love them forever as if they were my own children. While the book was fun, there's also some important conversation on race relations here that are extremely relevant to our current times. I see why Reese Witherspoon chose this book by Kiley Reid for her January 2020 Hello Sunshine book club. I recommend it to everyone, but women in particular. #SummerReading

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Such a Fun Age

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A Lesson In 2019

Young and Fun with Twists and Turns

Timely & Realistic Page-Turner

Good read. Review contains spoilers.

Engaging, starts important conversations