Such a Fun Age

Wonderfully written and amazing story line. I recommend to give this a read to understand some of the ways American live (blacks in general)

this book is amazing :)

This is my first Amazon review, I felt so passionately after reading this book that I had to post. Do not believe the hype, I really do not get how this book is top of so many publications "Books of 2020". It makes me lose confidence in all these review writers, have they just been paid off or jumped on a bandwagon? I found it cheesy, immature and at times I literally cringed, it feels best suited as a teen read. The only reason I can see behind the books success so far, is that it addresses topical issues... but not very well. Save your money and buy Educated, Where The Crawdads Sing or any Zadie Smith instead.

I bought this because of the rave reviews , and because I wanted to be in the cultural loop.It was an easy read , indeed an unputdownable book and yet I can't say I'd recommend it to any friends...

I pre-ordered this and had high hopes! Premise was very interesting, and I was anticipating a satisfying read. This book was very poorly written. The author makes sure she lets you know that she attended some prestigious workshops, but I honestly didn't see any evidence of that. Her African-American characters were almost caricatures! Even down to the syntax in the way they spoke in the book. All the characters, white and black, were outrageous parodies, it was almost comical. This read like a cheesy young adult novel !! Tantalizing premise, good early beginning -- but this is just swamped in juvenile writing and rife with racial stereotypes. I don't want to reveal spoilers, but this wasn't a good book. I felt as though it an especially egregious attempt to be "politically correct" ...and cover all those bases.. It failed miserably on several counts. What a waste of a pre-order. ..!!

Chosen by my bookclub for their November read, Kiley Reid's 'Such a Fun Age' is a novel that I admit I most probably wouldn't have chosen to read otherwise - despite (or, perhaps, because of) the large amount of hype surrounding it. It's certainly not a bad book and, of course, it looks at very current issues, but in my opinion it's not as good as the many accolades heaped upon it would lead the reader to expect.Wealthy TV news anchor man, Peter Chamberlain and his influencer wife, Alix, have left New York and are now living in Philadelphia, where they hire Emira Tucker, a young, black woman to work as a babysitter for their toddler daughter, Briar, so that Alix can have some free in order to write a book. When an unpleasant incident occurs at the Chamberlain home, triggered by an unthinking racist remark made by Peter on air, Emira, who is on a night out with her girlfriends, is asked by Alix to come and take Briar out of the house whilst the police are called. Emira takes Briar to a local upmarket grocery store, where her appearance late at night with a white child arouses the suspicions of the store's security guard and leads to him insinuating that Emira has abducted the child. Prevented from leaving the supermarket, Emira becomes angry and the confrontation between the security guard and Emira is filmed on the phone of Kelley Copeland, a white man who is shopping in the store. Offering to put the film online, Kelley - who, we soon learn, considers himself very 'woke' - tells Emira she could not only sue the store but make everyone aware of the racial prejudice shown towards her when she was merely carrying out her job. The Chamberlains rush to show how horrified they both are by the incident and Alix, who is scared that Emira will quit her job and desperate to show that her privileged lifestyle doesn't mean that she is not aware of Emira's situation, tries to compensate by making friendly overtures to her babysitter - friendly overtures that she has not bothered to make before the grocery store incident. In fact Alix becomes so caught up with Emira that she becomes almost obsessed with the younger woman to the extent of practically trying to appropriate Emira's life, and when Alix endeavours to make herself feel better about what has happened to her babysitter, without considering what Emira really wants, all goes rather horribly wrong...A very topical story and one which looks at issues that are close to many people's hearts (not just racial and class prejudice and white privilege, but also looks at working mothers, those they hire to look after their children, female friendship and more), but one which although has a very good premise, is not executed as well as it could have been. Ms Reid writes dialogue well - I particularly enjoyed the conversations Emira had with her toddler charge - and the relationship between Emira and Briar was very engagingly portrayed; however, the protagonists seemed to lack dimension and I wanted to know more about them and what had shaped their lives - some of the characters appeared little more than ciphers in order for the author to tell her story. That said, I found it interesting how Ms Riley portrayed Kelley and of his attempts to identify with black people and how he seemed to almost fetishise over women of colour; I also felt that how the author wrote about the way that some white privileged people attempt to show others how racially and socially aware they are (and how they often behave in a way that serves to make themselves feel better about certain situations rather than really listening to those they are supposed to be connecting with) was carried out well. So, in summary, a bit of a curate's egg; there is certainly something here to interest and inform the reader, but the execution of the story (in addition to a large part of the plot relying on a very unlikely coincidence) made this a less than entirely satisfying read. However, after having watched an interview with the author - who, I felt, put her point across well - I would be interested in seeing where Ms Reid goes with her next novel.3 Stars.

It follows the lives of Emira Tucker and Alix Chamberlain. Emira is a 25-year-old black woman from Sewell Bridge, Maryland. She works part-time as a babysitter and a typist, but is struggling to find her place in the world. She often feels like every aspect of her life is moving forward without her, and lives with the everyday anxiety that many millennials endure.Alix is 30-something white woman from Allentown, Pennsylvania. Alix starts in New York City as a blogger and influencer, before moving to Philadelphia for her husband’s new job and hiring Emira as a babysitter to her 3-year-old daughter, Briar.We also meet Kelley Copeland, a white man who is present when Emira is accused of kidnapping Brair at the local grocery store. He films the exchange between the security guard and Emira, before emailing the footage to Emira and deleting it from his phone.After an incident in a grocery store, Alix become obsessed with making things right and equal with Emira. She wants justice, and overcompensates in trying to make her babysitter feel comfortable. She worries about coming across as a textbook white woman, to the extent of spending large amounts of her day wondering what Emira is doing or thinking. She becomes obsessed with Emira seeing the person beneath the privilege.It became obvious from the beginning that both Alix and Kelley suffer from the white saviour complex. They both exhibit the behaviours of a white person who goes out of their way to help non-white people, but with the wrong motive. Both the characters constantly try to make decisions and share what they think is best for Emira, for self-serving reasons. It’s very much like celebrities who travel to underprivileged countries and snap photos with the locals to promote a more charitable image. The characters used their relationship with Emira to prove to themselves that they were just and upright people.Alix was constantly reminding herself she was doing the right thing. At first, she seems well-intentioned but that quickly changed as more of her lunatic behaviour began to bleed through. Kelley surrounded himself with black people, only dated back women, and was almost over-supportive of that community. He clearly felt like that covered him from ever feeling like he was discriminatory.Alix and Kelley seemed to compete with each other to see who could be the biggest ally to the black girl, or to see who was the most unprejudiced. Reading about their constant attempts to be impartial was exhausting, yet painfully realistic. The author’s intention was to highlight some of the racial prejudices and micro-aggressive behaviours that don’t make the news every day, and she did just that.My favourite think about the novel was the light and easy writing, despite the book’s heavy themes. The characters in the novel are well-developed and skilfully used to move the narrative along while teaching the reader an important lessons on racial biases and stereotypes. The background and conversation between the characters fleshes out their personalities, which makes the book all the more compelling. The characters felt like real people, which is why it was so easy for me to relate to Emira as a 20-something black woman.I absolutely loved the relationship between Briar and Emira. She may have only babysat for 21 hours a week, but for those 21 hours, Briar got to matter to someone. She’s an intelligent, observant and charming little girl, and her incessant babbling never failed to make me laugh. Briar’s parents may have not appreciated her adorable personality, but there’s no doubt that Emira did.I wasn’t a fan of the ending. Just as I felt like the plot was becoming more and more exciting, the payoff was underwhelming. It felt like the story had been cut short. I would have liked a chapter or more to be dedicated to Emira’s development after the main events in the book. Everything that happened directly affected her life, and it would have been nice to see her mature from her experiences.Overall, Such a Fun Age is the perfect book to construct diverse and interesting conversation. Its thought-provoking story, realistic themes and straightforward writing makes this debut an gratifying and compelling read.Anika | chaptersofmay.com