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.

4 stars. This book was highly entertaining and really held my attention. Not only thought provoking, it looks at various issues such as race and class. Entertaining at time, it was a great weekend read. Highly recommend. 

Thanks kindly to Netgalley, author and publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

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.

I struggled with this one a little bit, it just didn't hold my attention. The concept was interesting, and I think it had an important message but I didn't connect with the characters. It almost felt like it was written from the head instead of the heart.

This book made me uncomfortable - in a good way - and yet I couldn't put it down. Reid perfectly skewers white saviours in a way that only a black author could. She also touches on issues of race, class, money, ambition, growing up and feminism while her prose remains so readable that you want to devour the entire book in one go. I was slightly disappointed by the ending and the reveal about one of the characters, but it didn't dim my enjoyment of the novel as a whole. Reid is one to watch.

This is a great read. The writing is punchy and it's easy to keep turning the pages. There is more going on with Emira than just the video that kicks the story off and she's given a chance to show different sides to the reader. 

I wish that we didn't lose some of the nuance with how some things are revealed at the end but I also know that some readers will like the clarity that they're given. While it's not exactly subtle for a lot of it, there is actually still room for a reader to interpret lots of things and to consider aspects of the characters and their lives that aren't addressed in the book but surely shape them as people - like, if Emira wrote letters asking for things I'm pretty sure they wouldn't arrive at her doorstep no questions asked.

Such a great book, its an engaging story that draws you in from the start, as we follow Emira a young African American woman as she almost gets arrested for kidnapping the white child she babysits. Thereby sparking some major white guilt in her employer and eventually changing her own life. The characters are really well formed and believable, I loved Emira and the relationship between her and Briar the really sweet girl she looks after. Elmira has really great friends, the only one who doesn't come out well is Alix, Briar's mum, although she's interesting and complex.

Such a Fun Age is one of those books that makes you think and question every character the whole way through. It would make a perfect book group title as it will definitely provoke discussion. The plot centres around Emira and Alix Chamberlain. Emira is employed as a babysitter, and when called upon to look after three year old Briar one evening, she is accused by a security guard of a possible kidnapping. Briar is white and Emira is black and her boss Alix is horrified at her treatment. Another customer, Kelley Copeland, filmed the incident and after another chance meeting on a train, him and Emira begin dating. He is also white and when her boss discovers he is her ex-boyfriend from high school, the plot takes a disturbing twist. Questions of race and prejudice are set to make Emira question everyone and everything. Is her boss overcompensating because of an innate prejudice? Has her boyfriend got a fetish for black women? Ultimately, Emira who has felt lost for so long, takes back control of her own life in a dramatic conclusion, and finally finds her voice. A really thought provoking book that is current,  original and thoroughly enjoyable on many levels.