I listened to this novel as an audiobook - which isn’t something I usually enjoy- and I was hooked from the first chapter to the last!! Reid teases you along with hints at underlying storylines and meanings that drag you into the story as if you were there.

Finished in a few days. Stayed up late to read. Definitely not the type of book I normally would have picked up simply because the title sounds "fluffy". It was anything but!

Okay, I think this book was trying to be really deep and introspective on the issues of race and white privilege but it wasn't successful. She brought up all of these really relevant interactions and then just left me hanging. I felt cheated. I wanted more, in depth exploration of Alix's, Emira's, and Kelley's thoughts and cross cultural/racial interactions. Reid barely skimmed the surface. More focus was put on the storyline instead of seizing the opportunity of delving further into the uncomfortable and varying aspects of racism in our society. Somewhat redeemable was that the story documented Emira's journey into finding herself - her worth, her passion, her path and this was a bit enjoyable, keeping me reading on to the end. Reid touched on some factors that started to address white privilege and thoughts/actions often gone unrecognized but they fell flat as we were forced onto hearing more about Alix's obsession with Emira and her personal insecurities (by chapter 3 I got it already!). It was just a bit too shallow and Blah, so it gets a basic 2 star vote.

It was an easy read. A good book as the first pick for our book club. The first chapter hooked me and I think that caused me to set high expectations for the rest of the story that i feel it didn’t quite meet. The ending was a little anti-climatic but I understand why. Overall an interesting story and easy to get through. Loved the switching of perspectives too. It felt genuine.

I loved this book, I couldn’t put it down. It wasn’t what I expected and it kept me on the edge of my seat and interested.

I had high hopes for this book after seeing the author on a few shows on her book tour. I was disappointed throughout the book and felt the drama and background stories were hand fed and forced. Emira and Briar were the only characters that felt genuine. All the other characters felt underdeveloped. Since this was her first book, I would still read the author again to see how she grows as an author.

Enjoyed the subject matter but felt the execution fell short. The character development could have been greater and most conflicts unresolved.

This was a great read with so many underlining messages.

Such a Fun Age, Kiley Reid, author; Nicole Lewis, narrator
Peter and Alix Chamberlain are an upwardly mobile white couple who have recently moved to Pennsylvania for Peter’s job as a television newscaster. Alix writes blogs and gives speeches to empower women. She gets lots of free stuff from companies when she tells them she is going to promote their products. Her career has fallen a bit by the wayside since the birth of her second child, and a babysitter, Emira Tucker, not a white woman, is hired to help out, part-time. Alix wants to get closer to Emira, and she begins to devise ways of becoming friends with her. What does Alix really want, a friend or someone who is devoted to her and will not quit? She and Emira are both at a crossroads in their lives. Alix has it all but is not content. She is overwhelmed by her older daughter Briar who questions everything constantly. Emira has very little, but she is not motivated by money and seems able to find the lemonade in the lemon. She adores Briar.
When Alix was in high school, she and Kelley Townsend were an item for awhile. Kelley thought he had scored with the rich girl. Alix thought she was in love. However, after a disastrous event at a party at her house, while her parents were traveling, Kelley broke up with her. It was only days before the prom. She was devastated, and for the remainder of her time in high school, she was a pariah. She still carries a grudge against him and blames him for her unhappiness. Was her grudge justified or did she misconstrue the situation?
Emira set off on her own after graduating from College. She could not decide what she wanted to do with her life so she held two jobs to make ends meet. One was as a babysitter and the other as a transcriptionist. One night, at a friend’s rather boisterous birthday party, she gets a phone call from Alix asking her to come and take their daughter Briar, about to turn three, out of the house. An incident had occurred and police were on their way. Emira agreed and took the child to an upscale market in the neighborhood, one she did not usually frequent. There, she was unfairly accused of kidnapping the child. The security guard questioning her because of the concern of an old white biddy, was openly hostile. Suddenly a young man starts filming the event. When all ends fairly well, although nothing can erase Emira’s humiliation, he tells her to make the video public and reap the rewards of publicizing her harassment. The young man is Kelley Townsend. Emira refuses to make a fuss or get the guard fired. She is not motivated by personal gain or revenge, but rather is motivated by a desire to be content.
Emira disapproves of Alix’s parenting of Briar. It is obvious that she favors her younger daughter. Emira believes she is doing a better job than Alix and is a much better role model for Briar. When Emira begins to date the man who took the video, she does not know that he is the teen that broke up with Alix years before. Chaos ensues. Before long, everyone wants retribution for something whether or not it is deserved.
So, there are two competing stories. One is about white people who seem to aspire to be approved of and admired by people of color and bend over backwards in their attempts to connect with them, and the other is about black people who simply want to survive in the world and escape the harassment people of color so often experience. One is portrayed as manipulative and self-serving, the other as pretty much saintly. Neither can understand the world of the other.
Unfortunately, the characters are not likeable. Each is a caricature or stereotype of a particular kind of person. Their jobs and lifestyles are exaggerated examples of the choices people make. Their language and appearance are also sometimes dramatized. Secrets abound as the author exploits theses characters to prove a point about the existence of “white privilege”. There is a lot of subtle and not so subtle black hostility toward white people, which is presented as justified. Many of the characters harbor resentment for something that once happened to them, and have become obsessed with the idea of retaliation. The novel predominantly presents a one sided view which seems to promote the politically correct view of systemic racism currently being advanced in America. It is presumed to be universal in the white community.
The author promotes the idea that white privilege motivates the characters to abuse their black brethren, even if unintentional. Their lives are so vastly different, it is impossible for one to understand the other, but her emphasis is definitely on the impossibility of the privileged to understand the plight of the underprivileged! There is great emphasis placed on the effort of white society to somehow be liked and accepted by the society of black and brown people. Emira is the only one who seems to move seamlessly between both worlds and who seems to have a superior way of analyzing and responding to all.
Each of the characters pretty much embodies the worst attributes that society attributes to their stereotype, particularly for white people who want to appear as totally non-racist. Their motives are always presumed to be insincere and self-serving because they are supposedly racists deep down in their core. The only character that comes across as truly genuine and compassionate beyond anyone else’s ability, is Emira. She is portrayed as the most emotionally stable character in contrast with the instability of her life and the emotional instability of the other characters. She is not racist. She is always tolerant and adjusts to each situation that she experiences with maturity, until she doesn’t. Generally, she simply tries to understand, remediate the situation and move on. While she is busy trying to make ends meet, working two jobs, white society appears to be working against her. In the end, does everyone really want to help Emira or themselves? Who has altruism at the heart of their efforts? Anyone? Is only one side of society racist or are we all harboring some degree of racism toward someone? Can a society ever be free from racism when it seems to be everywhere, when it almost seems that everyone is being accused of it?

I admit, I did not expect to like SUCH A FUN AGE. On the basis of its description on the book's flap, I thought it was a book that concentrated on racism, which every-other book seems to be about lately. So I would have passed it by if my book club hadn't chosen it.

Joke's on me. I shouldn't have read the book flap.

Emira is a 25-year-old black college graduate, part-time typist, part-time babysitter, who longs to be more adult with a job more like her friends' jobs. But she loves the little girl, Briar, she takes care of three days a week. The mother, though, is pretty hard to figure. (By the way, they're white.)

First of all, the mother calls herself Alix, which she pronounces "aa LEEKS," even though her name is actually Alex. After she hired Emira, their relationship was impersonal, limited to comments, questions, and instructions about Briar's care. That changes after a late-night incident in a grocery store. Emira is there with Briar when she is stopped by a security guard. He and another customer are suspicious that she has kidnapped Briar, a little white girl. This problem is soon straightened out, but Alix is now determined to become Emira's friend. I think that is probably because of a racist comment that her husband made on TV during a newscast. (Speaking of which, this is the reason Emira and Briar were in the grocery store. Some junior high school-age boys threw an egg at their window because of the comment, so Alix and her husband called the police. They didn't want Briar there when the police came.)

Questions I had about that: Why would someone call the police because boys threw an egg at their house? And why would they get their toddler from her bed at 11 p.m. so she could get out of the house? And why would they call their babysitter at 11 p.m. for such a ridiculous reason?

While Alix is determined to be Emira's friend, Emira begins dating Kelley, another white customer in the grocery store that night. Kelley filmed the incident with his smartphone and wants to publicize it but doesn't. Emira doesn't want to and insists he delete the video from his phone.

As the story continues, we see more and more the kind of person Alix really is, especially after she meets Kelley.

I won't give away more of the story. I will say that SUCH A FUN AGE is excellent, mostly because of the dialog, especially little Briar's and Kelley's. It didn't offend me and shouldn't offend anyone, if that is your concern. The end, though, was too rushed.