This page-turner of a debut novel shines with realistic dialogue and humor that masterfully eases us into sharp and nuanced cultural commentary about race, class, and the futility of our good intentions.

Emira is adrift, 25, black, out of college, and working as a babysitter three days a week for an upper-class white family in the suburbs to supplement her meager income as an office temp while she watches her peers settle into careers, relationships and financial stability she doesn’t feel quite grown enough to achieve. The thing is, she actually loves her work with her “favorite little person”. One night while babysitting, a racially charged incident forever changes Emira’s prospects and throws her on an unexpected crash course directly in conflict with her employer, Alix Chamberlain.

I couldn’t put this book down and made my way through it quickly. This is an enjoyable, breezy page-turner that will appeal to fans of Crazy Rich Asians, while fans of more literary fare will appreciate the relevant social issues that drive the story.

This book was absolutely phenomenal! I think that it's an important story that really needed to be told. The writing it absolutely beautiful in a way that makes the story so fast and captivating. I truly wanted to jump into the book and give Emira a hug!

For some reason, I expected that this was going to be an "MFA fiction" style story, with beautiful but challenging writing. Instead it's written in a compulsively readable style, with a lot of thoughtfulness and depth. I tore through this one, and what I expected would be the pivotal ending point ended up happening at the halfway point, leaving so much more story to be told. It's a book that will challenge readers and inspire thought and conversation. While this comes out at the tail end of 2019, it's going to generate a lot of buzz in 2020 (fellow librarians and book club leaders, take note- this will be a great book club book as there is much to discuss).

What a wonderful debut novel. The easy reading and quick pace doesn’t detract from the serious issues that are discussed in this book. Presented in a way that isn’t trying to hit you over the head, Such A Fun Age does a wonderful job exploring race relations and female relationships in our current world.

I loved the writing style in this book. It was compulsively readable.

I loved Emira, and am so confused by Alix. She is not that likeable and had zero redemption throughout this book, she just got worse to me. I found the surprising connection between them to be lackluster. His involvement in Alix's life did not seem to warrant such a huge issue to me.

Regardless, I found this book to be very engaging, but slow at times. It did tackle some important issues, and the racial incident at the grocery store was very well written.

Four + stars. - "Such a Fun Age" by Kiley Reid available December 31, 2019.

Synopsis: Emira, a young black woman lacking direction in life, has a part time job babysitting for Alix, a well-off blogger who is trying to write a book while pretending to be living in New York. While Emira helps Alix out of a bind, she ends up being a target of racial profiling. She wants to move on and forget it but Alix wants to make it up to her and will go to disturbing lengths to do so.

This book was a nice surprise. I expected to enjoy it but I ended up falling in love with the characters and could relate to them while still finding big flaws in their choices. I think this book does a good job confronting tough issues while still managing to be down to earth and believable. This would make a great book club pick.

Thank you to G.P. Putman's Sons Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I was sucked into Kiley Reid's debut novel of a young black woman who is accused of kidnapping the child she is babysitting. This is a novel that covers deep topics but in a light, fun, and fast paced way. I was sucked into these character's lives and the backstories that were provided to explain their choices. This is definitely a novel everybody is going to be talking about this winter.

While I didn't finish this book, I will purchase it and recommend it to some of the younger patrons we have. I found the black dialect -- or maybe it's just the young talk -- confusing. I did find it well written and the characters believable.

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid was deceptive — in a good way. The story certainly pulled me in, but at the beginning it felt kind of simple, almost gossipy. But by the end, it had a symmetry that was very clever and left me with a pleased smile on my face. The story is told from the alternating perspectives of Emira and Alix. Emira is a 25 year old African American struggling to make ends meet and to figure out what she wants to do with herself. For the time being, Emira works part time babysitting Alix’s 3 year old. Alix is a white upper class woman in her 30s, recently transplanted from Manhattan to Philadelphia. Both women are surrounding by a chorus of three best friends. The story starts with a late night incident in a high end supermarket involving Emira and Alix’s daughter — the security guard and a customer assume that Emira has no business being with a white toddler close to midnight in a fancy part of town. From there, Emira has to deal with Alix’s not so altruistic desire to befriend her... She also has to deal with the attraction of a bystander who caught the whole thing on video... I won’t say more to avoid spoilers other than to say that the novel works well because Reid doesn’t take the story in predictable directions. And, while she takes on some politically loaded themes, this is not a didactic story. Some may bristle at a big coincidence in the story, but it’s absolutely necessary to the plot. I certainly understand why this one is getting some buzz. Thanks to both Netgalley and Edelweiss for making advance copies available to me.

A quick read that is different from many employer/nanny stories. Alix, a successful mother of two hires Emira, a 25 year old black babysitter to help out with her children. Both are struggling are struggling to find their way in the world. This story gives readers a view of racial stereotypes from both the black and white perspectives.

Wow! I hope this becomes one of those books everyone reads and talks about because it deserves to be. Not just because of the complex and important subject matter but because Such a Fun Age is an absolute joy to read. So much so, that I cannot wait for Kiley Reid’s next book! I think it takes a tremendous amount of talent to write a book like this- one so compulsively and enjoyably readable and one able to tackle big issues in such a complex and interesting way.

Emira is 25, and like so many her age, despite having her bachelors degree is struggling to figure out what she wants to do with her life. She has some really fun, fab, close friends in Zara, Shaunie, and Josefa but can’t help but judge her life compared to theirs and feel as if she’s falling behind. She works two part time jobs, doing transcription and babysitting for the Chamberlain children which means no benefits, which is about to be a problem when she turns 26 and is kicked off her parents health insurance plan.

Alix Chamberlain is the 34 year old mother of 3 year old Briar and new baby Catherine, and if she’s honest, she struggles to be around Briar who is always talking and asking questions. Alix and her husband recently moved from NYC to Philadelphia and it’s been tough on Alix who is very into keeping up appearances after enjoying some very public success with her letter writing business.

One night Alix calls Emira in an emergency to come take Briar out. Emira, who was at a friend’s birthday party really needs the money and genuinely enjoys spending time with young Briar. So Emira arrives, late that night, and follows Alix’s suggestion to take Briar to the nearby high end grocery store where Briar likes to look at all the different nuts arranged in the bulk bins. It’s while they’re there that the incident occurs. An overly nosy and “concerned” woman reports her- Black Emira and this blonde haired white child to the security. There’s a big showdown and it’s all caught on video by another customer.

The story spirals out from here and we see Alix become almost obsessed with Emira and perhaps, proving that she is not racist. It’s such a fascinating and well told story I can’t really do it justice to sum it up. What I can say is that it’s incredibly well done, with a lot of nuance and the kind of book that would be great for book clubs and frankly, one that I hope makes people think about race in a new and more nuanced way. There are so many layers to this story and the characters.

Beyond that, I think there’s some interesting things going on with regard to growing up. We see Alix still obsessed with her high school days and it’s almost ironic that she and her very privileged friends (which includes an ultra privileged and successful wealthy black woman who plays an interesting role in the book as well and I think is an excellent contrast in different generations and ways that people deal with being marginalized, not to mention the issues of class also apparent in the book) try to improve Emira’s life or believe she’s so young and lost when if anything, it’s Alix who ends up seeming very immature and unstable in her identity. That juxtaposition was fantastically well done and one I so want to discuss with other readers.

I also just ADORED Briar and felt for her and for Emira who tried so hard to make up for how clearly Alix ignored Briar and favored the baby. Emira is an amazing babysitter and truly loves Briar and this was an aspect of the book that was just so pleasurable to read.

Easily, this is one of my favorite reads this year and in a long time. While there’s plenty of books and discussions going on about race, this book brings something new to the table and eases you into it with its incredible writing and characterization. It was first and foremost, such a fun book, and while things get heavier, I was already so in love with Briar and Emira and enjoyed Emira’s friends so much that it made it easy to keep reading. This book packs a couple of punches I didn’t see coming but is never preachy and leaves the reader to draw their own conclusions. Just so excellently done. I can’t even believe this is the author’s first book. Loved every minute of it and I want everyone to read it, not just for the nuanced, complex, and realistic depictions of race related issues, but because it’s just plain a fantastic and well written book! This isn’t an after school special, life lesson, heavy handed, topical kind of read. It’s literature at its finest, reflecting and making us think about the world and times we live in. A book I’d recommend highly to absolutely everyone.

Fantastic book that covers many current issues. Very quick and light read, but after finishing, keeps you thinking about different topics covered in this fast paced book. Highly recommend!

Thank you to netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

A quick read with a big message. It was an entertaining story that highlighted many issues and brought them to the reader from two different points of view. A fantastic debut for Kiley Reid.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy! I really enjoyed this book and thought it was a quick read. The relationship between Emira and Briar was my favorite part and the love that Emira felt for the child was so believable and beautifully written. I also thought the dialogue in the novel was whip-smart, fun, and realistic. Emira is an amazing character whom I loved and it was fascinating to see her juxtaposed with the secondary characters of Kelley and Alix who I found deeply unlikeable and strong unreliable narrators in their sections. This book tackles racism in a big way and I liked that it didn’t assign titles of “racist” and “not racist” to the surrounding characters. It truly demonstrates how racism is made entirely of shades of gray and how those of us who might consider ourselves not racist, must re-examine our actions and motivations behind those actions. Highly recommend!

⭐️⭐️⭐️
If you read my post when I started reading this book I focussed my content on transactional relationships and a little about having people who work for you feel like family.

I’ve now completed Such A Fun Age and am quite concerned about how my post might have come across. My post was free of any mentions of race because I wasn’t thinking about that. As a white woman who truly believes in equality for all and tries my best to live by it, I see this book now in a different light as it is very much about race. It made me paranoid if I had ever taken any of the seemingly small but still oppressive actions actions against friends, colleagues, babysitters etc. This book took on both the large public discrimination of people but also the nuanced racism very well.

From a structural perspective I enjoyed the way the different chapters focussed on one character’s viewpoint at a time. The writing was engaging and the descriptions of different small movements people make when e.g. thinking were well described. The main characters were people I could picture well especially that of 2-3 year old Briar.

I recommend this as a contemporary read full of real life type moments. A book to inspire all of us to do better.

Thanks to @netgalley and @putnambooks for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Just finished reading this book. This book shows to what extent a person goes to pretend that they care. Seriously! The story revolves around Emira Tucker and Alix Chamberlin. Alix is a white woman who runs an online business where as Emira is her black babysitter. The only link between them is Kelly who was an ex-boyfriend of Emira. Alix and Kelly had a misunderstanding in their high school and they use Emira to show who cares best. What I hated is the pretending. Both Alix and Kelly are the same in many aspects. They went out of the way to pretend that they care. They pretend so that they can feel good about themselves. They both are disgusting. Another thing is Alix has some kind of obsession with Emira. She constantly worries about Emira's opinion of her. Just quit it already. I should say that for a debut book, the author has done a brilliant job and I totally recommend to all.

I read this book in a day. As a reader the highest compliment I can give about a book is that I cannot put it down. “Such A Fun Age,” by Kiley Reid, tells the story of Emira Tucker, a recent college graduate working as a nanny while trying to figure out a career path, and Alix Chamberlin a working mother of two, struggling with a move from NYC to Philadelphia. As a former nanny, I could relate to Emira’s daily routine and connection to the child she cared for and fitting in with her employing family, however this story was very different than anything I’ve ever lived through. It takes place in 2015, and a big part of the story is about race and privilege in America. Reid’s words come off the page, and allowed me to hear the character’s voices and really picture each moment as I read.

4.2 - page-turning ... and cringe-worthy at numerous points due to the characters’ [completely believable!] actions, plus a quirky twist of fate when past lives intersect with current lives. Highly recommended.

On the surface, Such a Fun Age, was indeed fun, a quick read about the relationships among a successful white woman, her African-American babysitter, and a man who was at some point a boyfriend to both of them. But on another level it was a subtle examination of the difficulties in such relationships and in society today. (If for no other reason, the book was worth reading for its portrayal of the precious, precocious child Briar!)

This book is superb because it takes a real look at class, race, and privilege.
Emira, a young ,black woman, works as a babysitter for Alix, a white, famous blogger. One night, while emergency babysitting, Emira is accosted by a security guard and an assuming customer; and the whole thing is videotaped.
As all parties involved try to move on from this incident, all relationships get tested. Kiley Ried has written a sharp, witty, funny, and at times cringe-worthy book. This book is thought provoking and will generate a lot of deep conversation