Tag: suchafunage

G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Release Date: December 31, 2019
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

I really enjoyed Such a Fun Age, but it definitely wasn’t what I was expecting. Twenty-five year old Emira is low on ambition. The highlight of her days is babysitting Briar for the Chamberlain family and she recognizes her importance in the little girl’s life. One night, Emira, who is black, is accused of kidnapping the Briar as they walk through the aisles of an upscale grocery store. The incident is a catalyst, mostly, for Alix Chamberlain to suddenly take an extreme interest in her babysitter.

The book focuses a lot on Alix’s life — her childhood, her career, her insecurities. I found these details really interesting and unusual. Reid creates a very unique character who I liked learning about, although I didn’t particularly like. The grocery store incident sparks a strange obsessive interest in Emira’s life that I didn’t see coming, and made me distinctly uncomfortable. It was wild to read how Alix felt she was trying to help Emira, when it was clear to the reader that she was crossing lines left and right.

The story also has a steady exploration of explicit and implicit racism. There are so many details, experiences, and conversations that Emira goes through that were uncomfortably familiar. Reid does a powerful job of exploring racism through Emira’s lens. It was painful to see how Emira tried to not let her discomfort show in situations that were clearly not okay, but that she had experienced so many times they felt normal-adjacent.

Overall, the plot did a unique job of exploring a deep-rooted societal issue while also laying out an interesting story. Honestly, I didn’t particularly like any of the characters as people, but it speaks to Reid’s skills as a writer that I still enjoyed, and would recommend Such a Fun Age.

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪
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