An odd book in which everyone will find a different meaning.
Emira Tucker is a part-time babysitter for Briar, the peculiar but lovely toddler of Alix Chamberlain.
The two couldn't be more different and hardly know each other until Emira is confronted by a security guard who accuses her of having kidnapped the child.
While Emira wants to leave it all behind, Alix is determined to change Emira's life for the better. She may have no experience with racism, but she is confident and made it her job to make women as driven as her.

But things don't go as planned, their relationship unearths some stories from Alix' past and Emira doesn't know who to trust anymore - any neither do we.

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid is absolutely unputdownable. Set in Philadelphia it deals with race, class and money in a thought provoking and also incredibly entertaining way. The story is so clever, the characters are great, the dialogue is brilliant and funny. I’m not at all surprised to hear that Lena Waithe has bought the film rights and I can’t wait to recommend this book to everyone.

This is one of the best books I have read this year, and I can't wait to see it fly in 2020. I absolutely raced through it, and resented having to put it down to get on with my life. It's gripping, sharp, illuminating and written with an impressive deftness and sensitivity. I identified with all of the characters and the author handled the competing perspectives really well. I will read anything Kiley Reid writes.

A stunning debut from Kiley Reid, "Such A Fun Age" is a multi-layered novel. I was particularly interested in the notion of how we see ourselves and how we imagine that others perceive us. From both Alix and Emira's point of view, we are able to explore womanhood, feminism and racial stereotypes.I also really loved the way Reid includes the children throughout. Often in novels, children are seen and not heard but our author successfully recreates reality, which often includes random and funny interjections from the small folk at inopportune moments. I couldn't put this book down and can't wait to hear more from this writer.

"Such a fun Age" is a novel that will make you laugh and cringe at the same time. In her hotly anticipated debut, Kiley Reid presents us with some uncomfortable truths and makes us think about our own bias and privilege. If you think it is not your cup of tea – bear with me, it is worth it. In the story we follow two women. Alix Chamberlain is a white, middle class mother of two, who is finding it hard to find her work-life balance in suburban Philadelphia, far away from New York, where her friends are. Emira Tucker is her black baby sitter, trying to figure out what to do with her life, how to get her health insurance sorted and how not to be jealous of her friends successful, adult lives. The book opens with Emira being accused of kidnapping her employer’s daughter – Alix is horrified by this incident and her need to make up for this injustice leads to unforeseen consequences.
I loved the way in which the author presented main characters of the book – all of them fully fleshed and multi-dimensional, each of them with their own agendas, motives and emotions. We get to observe their actions and in questioning them, we are also required to confront our own preconceptions and prejudices. There is so much to unpack here – white privilege, white saviour complex, everyday racism that is still so ingrained into our lives ; there is also space to discuss the meaning of boundaries, meaning well but doing it from completely wrong reasons and so much more. But at the same time, it is a terrific story, nuanced and full of different point of views. We get to decide who is wrong and who is right, and whether there is actually one answer to it.
My only problem with this book was the ending, as I have found it too abrupt, when compared to the pace of the whole story, But even then, I thought it was an excellent read and I would recommend it to everyone.

SPOILERS AHEAD:


I really enjoyed reading this book. It was really well written and it really gripped me, so definitely up to the hype.
However, I’m giving it a 4 star rating because I did not like the ending: everything just happened too fast, and surely if she had had a problem with Kelley before she wouldn’t have just realised it in the last 10 pages of the book, but before? Also, a lot of the characters were pretty flat and stereotypical (think Alix’s friends and her husband). Other than that, it was actually a fantastic book, and I would definitely recommend it

I adored this novel. Smart, fast-paced and incredibly clever, I read it in a rush of excitement and awe. It's hard to write a book that is so entertaining and thought-provoking and also offers something that feels new. Recommend unreservedly!

Thanks to NetGalley and The Publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 stars rounded up

This is a quick and easy read, but I feel the blurb over sells its meaning and message. I found the book very simplistic and I found the behaviour and the situations that the characters found themselves in considering the age they were supposed to be very unrealistic and and essentially unrelatable, making the story feel very unauthentic to me.

This just didn't meet any of my expectation or do anything for me, but I think this could be a great book club read as I think it will be quite divisive and open up discussions about important topics surrounding race and privilege..

A brilliant debut that is so very layered with a richness of commentary on the day to day lives of the main characters but also about power, privilege, code-switching, family, dating, parenting and so much more. It was only about half way through that I started to really appreciate the depth that the story was bringing, analysing the interactions between Emira, her boss,her friends, her boyfriend and most of all the utterly bewitching Briar.
So clever and an addictive read. Different sides of Emira emerged and I loved her character. It reminds me of the authenticity and on point social commentary in Little Fires Everywhere, it is such a thought provoking read

I enjoyed this for what it was, a fun twisty story about a self-obsessed (white) woman who is slightly obnoxious.

However it is definitely NOT a social commentary on race and is very over-hyped in that respect. The much-vaunted incident when the MC is accused of kidnapping a child is disconnected to the rest of the novel and the characters are one-dimensional. If there had been more nuance in the characters, ie Alix wasn't just an obnoxious white self-obsessed Instagrammer or Emira wasn't a flaky kid who didn;t know what she wanted to do, then I think the message would have come across a lot better.

There was a point about halfway through where I thought that it had become nothing more than a he said / she said type movel, where it was all about who had done what in high school. It then suddenly reverted back to the 'race' theme again but then still didn't fulfil its promise.

I'd still recommend to read it, but as a piece of enjoyable fiction, nothing deeper than that.

A really brilliant read that I couldn't put down and says so much about the intersection of race, class and gender, plus transactional relationships, in modern America.

My fully review on my blog at

https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2019/12/20/book-review-kiley-reid-such-a-fun-age/

A brilliantly layered tale with complex, flawed characters going about the grind of day to day life in Philadelphia. I procrastinated the end of this book SO much (my house has never been so clean) because I really didn’t want to leave them all behind!

Really well-written character study, and the shades of grey in both Alix and Kelley were skilfully done.

Such A Fun Age has a great hook: Emira, a black woman in her 20s, is accused of kidnapping her white employer's child at a supermarket in Philadelphia. The whole thing is caught on video.

Although I think Kiley Reid has a very nuanced and interestingly detail-orientated approach to writing about the world around her, it took me a while to get into this story, and it wasn't until I read the final 100 pages in one go that I felt like I was really enjoying it. There's something about her style that put me off, I think - although I do think that her ability to write very busy but very visually imaginative group scenes is definitely something to envy! Emira is a great character, very sympathetic and engaging, and by the end I was really intrigued about Alix too.

It's a very incisive and entertaining look at American society today, particularly in regards to racism and class and privilege. I'm torn between 3.5 and 4 stars.

Despite the cover looking either chick lit or young adult I really enjoyed this book. Emira, the main character, is described from her own perspective, briefly as a daughter and subsequently in more depth as a member of her social circle and as the employee of Mrs Chamberlain. The storyline is original, interesting and pacy. It is essentially a story of relationships intertwined with issues of race,,pseudo liberalism,female friendship and honesty. A good read and a book I would recommend to anyone. It would be good for book groups as you would never stop talking about the characters

Emira, a 25 year old African American babysitter for a“Clinton” supporting, tv presenting/writing, white, wealthy family, who move to Philadelphia, call upon Emira’s services late one night after an egg was thrown and smashed a window in their house following the presenters comment made on tv. As a result of the late night babysitter trip to Market Depot, Emira encounters a situation where the store security guard and another woman think she has taken the child, and refuse to let her leave. The altercation is filmed by a man in the shop and between him and the family she is working for, the highlighting of racial issues, by them, ensue.

A story with a racial bias premise, but what stood out to me more was the character of Emira overall. A young 25-year old woman having her life and decisions about her life made for her, whilst feeling and being a bit stuck and lost in her life direction, unsure of what she wants to do, but loving, caring, looking after a young 3 year old of the family she works for, whilst they don’t really know their own child’s needs. The people around Emira, and who she works for, are making decisions about her life and best interests, without the decision being hers, and she is pulled and caught in the middle of it. Whilst thinking they are doing what is best for Emira, turns out they are doing what is best for themselves, until she stands up for herself.

An interesting read, but feel it needs tidying/cleaning up a bit in places, to help the story flow better.

I loved this book! Such a Fun Age speaks volumes on the subjects of race, class and privilege through witty and astute writing. I genuinely found parts of it enlightening and particularly the character of Emira to be likeable and highly relatable. Would definitely recommend this book.

I struggled with this BUT it does have a great message it can be taken as a laughter all round type of book or sat back and really mulled over and taken in all in all glad I read it !!

On the surface and if read quickly, then this book could be seen as a light hearted read that keeps you entertained until the end. However, when you take the time and look deeper you see that it encompasses race, feminism and privilege.

Emira is a 25 year old college graduate who doesn’t know what to do with her life. Alix Chamberin is a motivational speaker and blogger, whose daughter Emira babysits for. Alix has never paid too much attention to Emira until an incident one evening, where afterwards Alix decides to focus on Emira and take her under her wing.

The book shows the assumptions people can make about those of different ethnicity and economic status. The author manages to do this in a compelling way and by switching between the two characters perspectives, the thoughts and feelings of both are shared well. I really loved Emira as a character and you see her develop and become herself as the story progresses. There’s also something likeable about Alix and despite her privilege, there’s also a naivety about her and the feeling of being in her own little bubble, unaware of the troubles face.
Definitely a good debut read from this author!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

‘Such a Fun Age ‘ by Killy Reid’s a fantastic novel with an important message. I wasn’t sure when I first started reading it but as I got into it I was hooked. The book looks at race from a slightly different angle than usual.