Such a Fun Age brings up important conversations beginning with the very first chapter. I fell in love with Emira and Briar. 5 well deserved stars!

Such a fun Age was a quick easy read. I thought it was okay. I didn’t feel connected to characters like I hoped I would. But I know I’m in the minority on my feelings. Just wasn’t for me. Thank you for an advanced copy and wish nothing but the best for a successful release.

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Emira is a 25 year old black woman who is a babysitter for Alice and her upper class white family. One night while at a grocery store with little Briar, she is accused of kidnapping the child. This happens at the very beginning of the story and the book proceeds to follow the characters connections with each other and so many questions about race, class and privilege.
•
What I loved:
➡️ Lets start with the cover. Because it is gorgeous and I’m so glad I bought it in hardcover as well.
➡️ Emira and little Briars relationship. Broke my heart that her mother didn’t treat her like she should have. And Emira was so sweet with her! There were definitely some similarities to The Help here.
➡️ Loved to hate Alix (and her friends). Ugh. Fat talk. Desperate to be liked. Trying so hard not to appear privileged. Yuck. But I think that was the idea. She was honestly a bit of a sad character.
➡️ The way this author made me question myself. 💗💙
Excellent read that I highly recommend.

Such a fun age- Kiley Reid
I am torn on what to say. This wasn’t one of my favorites. I had a hard time getting into it. I thought Kiley did a very good job writing it but it just wasn’t for me. I listened to it on audio and I did love how the narrator told the story.
#betterwhenbooked #readwithsarah #bookstagram #suchafunage #kileyreid

I loved the characters in this book! The plot.was timely and addressed racism in a new, interesting way.

I think I began this book with high expectations based on the current buzz. The book didn't wow me. I thought it had potential that it didn't quite get to given the impact of the topic.

I read this book pretty quickly, I found it compelling and through provoking. I actually have a lot of feelings about it that I won’t put in this review because I don’t want to give any spoilers but overall I think it’s an important read. It puts the dynamics of race, class, entitlement, and even mothering out there on the table to be discussed. The characters and the character development is great, some characters are likeable, some lovable (like Briar obviously), some relatable, and some perfectly hate-able.

So basically, run out and get this book. Read it with a friend/book club. It’s worth it.

I really enjoyed this book!! Had no idea about plot beforehand, so had no expectations. But I legit didn't want to put it down! The story was good, the characters were interesting and I especially loved the subtle and nuanced ways the author got me to think about bigger issues. It was fun to read a book that's been getting so much hype this month and I thank Netgalley for the opportunity to read it. I would definitely read books from this author again and I've already been recommending this book to friends and coworkers.

This was a phenomenal and thought-provoking debut novel. The story and characters pulled us in, and addressed difficult topics with a funny, light approach. It lived up to all of the great reviews we have been reading. Looking forward to reading Kiley Reid’s next novel!

This book was a great story with really well developed characters. It is a really good lens to look at how racial relations can impact us in ways that we don't always realize. It is an especially searing view on white people who see themselves as "woke." It's an especially prescient look at how our culture currently deals with racial issues without always taking into consideration the people who are more directly impacted. I really recommend this book.

This book was well written and dealt with some important issues, but it just wasn’t for me, I didn’t feel too invested in the characters and their stories.

I think Such a Fun Age is a worthwhile, readable, and relevant debut. It’s a book that’s really important for the themes and topics it touches on and gives light to. Specifically here we have a story that deals with race, privilege, entitlement, white saviorism, and class. For that I’m grateful for this book and the heart/intention the author clearly poured into it. I hope it’s one that lands in people’s hands and gets read and talked about, makes us pause, think, and act. I’m excited to think of the wonderful discussions this book will generate.

Now, here’s where my controversial two cents comes in. To put it bluntly, I thought that the writing and story itself fell short and I couldn’t handle the dialogue, which unfortunately caused me to not be totally invested in what was in front of me. Overall it was just missing that “pull” I had hoped for. There was also a whole lot of strong language that I didn’t find necessary, which just happens to be a personal pet peeve of mine. On the other hand, something I truly did appreciate was the cast of characters we get to meet. They were so real and flawed, and each contributed a unique perspective throughout that kept me holding on.

I can absolutely see why this book is so hyped and everywhere right now. Am I glad I read it? In several ways, yes I am. But am I going to sing about it from the rooftops? Probably not. Yet I do believe that no matter where you land on the loved it/hated it scale by the end, you can definitely find things to take and walk away with from this book as I did.

Thank you NetGalley and Putnam Books for the complimentary copy.

This book reads like the perfect combination of a timely examination of crucial issues like race, class, and feminism, and the sort of juicy soap opera drama that keeps you hooked week after week (or in this case page after page). Such a Fun Age is so smart, so multi-layered, and so deftly written --the way Reid has developed her characters is so true, and her method of lending them all sympathy without letting any of their actions go without being scrutinized is whip-smart. This is the kind of book you sink your teeth into, but get even more out of upon discussing with others (makes sense that Reese snapped this one up for her book club) and upon re-reading. A surefire standout of 2020.

This story follows two women who are at varying stages of their lives: Emira, a college graduate, still trying to find her purpose in the world and Alix, confident and career-driven, yet still stuck in the past. Emira babysits Alix’s daughter, Briar and when she is accused of kidnapping Briar, they are faced with the harsh reality of racism and classism.⁣
While the story overall was lighthearted, it very much deals with real life situations. As much as Alix tries to bridge the gap between social classes, it comes off as forced and as if she is trying too hard to do the right thing. This book has such wonderful character development, giving each person their own meaning. Even Briar was given her own cute personality. I thoroughly enjoyed this story! Thank you Netgalley and Putnam Books for the ARC.

I really enjoyed this book. I was excited to read it when it became the book of the month. I liked the characters and found most of them very relatable. I was not a fan of some of the language.

I enjoyed this book so much! I cant really explain exactly what I liked the most. It was just different. Throughout the entire book Im like am I a Alix fan? or a Kelley fan? or neither? or both? I was just liking each of the characters. The story absorbed me. I was feeling all the feels for Emira and loving her relationship with each of the characters! I highly recommend this book! It was an interesting take on many issues. Loved it!

This is a fantastic and very timely novel. Reid has created three interesting, complex, often infuriating characters. The fascinating drama that builds between them feels completely earned, and Reid skilfully examines how class and race intersect to create privilege.

I was nervous about reading Such A Fun Age for fear of another Little Fires Everywhere Situation...A book that was almost universally beloved that I HATED and that had a similar level of hype and, I believe, a similar intended demographic.

So. Phew! Such a Fun Age was a MUCH better book. Worth the hype, fascinating, and—in the current sociopolitical landscape—important.

In some ways this feels like a “little” story. There is no great, epic tragedy. No one of note dies, let alone gets murdered. But while the story feels hyperpersonal to the characters, it has broader implications for us all, and I would argue that the microcosm approach Reid takes to the issue at hand almost makes it MORE powerful.

This isn’t happening to the masses in the story, or to a larger-than-life figure. The characters are just everyday people, which I think makes the impact of what occurs that much more meaningful for the rest of us average humans.

I also think Reid has given us an exceptionally unique and important take on racism and racial relations that is different than what we typically see. What happens to Emira in the early pages of the story is horrifying, but it’s the smaller, interpersonal issues that precipitate from that event which give this book such an original perspective.

It helps too that (aside perhaps from the bigoted security guard and tattletale customer in the grocery store scene), no one in the story—whatever their faults—is a truly KKK-style racist monster. This is everyday stuff, and I would stress that every white person in America ought to read this to understand that racism and other types of bigotry are an everyday occurrence for marginalized populations.

Though overt hate crimes, hate speech and the like are obviously a scarier, more egregious, and more threatening form of racism, there are many smaller, more nuanced components to the issue that get glossed over or ignored by those who have the luxury to do so.

And did I mention that it’s just a darn good story? Reid delivers through her fascinating characters as well. Emira is of course likable and easy to root for, but she’s far from a one-dimensional heroine. And while I wouldn’t class either as exactly likable, Alix and Kelley are riveting characters as well.

So excited to see what Reid gives us next.

This debut novel was so compulsively readable and hard to put down. However, while the premise was timely and important, I felt as though the book wasn’t fully fleshed out at times. Some of the characters felt more like... caricatures rather than actual people. And I so wanted to shake 25-year-old Emira and wake her up - she seemed to almost be numbed to her life and to what was happening around her. I can’t really say more about this here without adding spoilers, unfortunately. ⁣
⁣
Despite my personal feelings and complaints, Such a Fun Age is such an easy read, and involves a topic that is so relevant to today’s political climate, that you must pick it up. It will provoke thought, and hopefully conversation, and that is what we need to continue the move toward change. ⁣
⁣
Much thanks to NetGalley and Putnam Books for the advance copy for review.

I loved this book, but definitely went in without much of an idea what to expect. The part mentioned in the blurb – where Emira is stopped by police while at the grocery store with the young (white) girl who she babysits – is a catalyst for the action, but is not a major part of the book itself. At its base, this novel is a compulsively readable commentary on the well-meaning white savior who wants to “help” and “protect” and “advise” the (in their minds) poor, misguided black character.

For a book that is about something so deep and multi-layered, it was an extremely fast and enjoyable read; in fact, I flew through this novel in an afternoon. I loved and hated all the characters in turns — they were extremely well-written, layered characters. Some parts were so incredibly awkward I had to put the book down for a few minutes to take some deep breaths. The plot was simple enough to get into, but the underlying messages about racism and privilege and feminism were so nuanced that I find myself still thinking about them for days after reading the novel.

The one criticism I have is that I think this book would be even more effective if Alix was a little more sympathetic. I think that we tend to have this picture of racist people as “other” and think “oh, I would *never* be like that”. Alix here is a girl who has grown up rich and is honestly a snob. She develops a weird obsession with Emira and proving how good she is through helping her. We learn a lot about her childhood and family life, and not much of it was something I could connect with. At times she is even portrayed as a bad mother, which I think hurt the narrative in the long run. It could have been even stronger if Alix had been able to engender a bit more compassion from the reader rather than so clearly being a pretty terrible person, at least in my view.

Overall, this was a great read and I absolutely recommend it!