Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
WOW. I zoomed through this book in six hours time. I honestly couldn't put it down. However, I did have to take the day to think through what I thought about this book due to my own opinions of the book and opposing opinions I've read. Spoiler alerts FYI.
Quick synop—Such A Fun Age bounces between the perspectives of Emira and Alix. Emira, a black girl in her 20s living in Philadelphia who works for Alix Chamberlain, a white 30-something, as a nanny to her two young children, specifically her eldest, Briar. The book opens with Alix asking Emira to take Briar to a local supermarket while her and her husband, Peter, handle a situation at home. At the supermarket, Emira is accused of stealing the child after a customer finds it odd that Emira does not have the same skin color as Briar. Throughout the book, the relationship between Emira and Alix is tested and develops as well as some additional characters. I had SO many emotions while reading this book. From the beginning I knew I was going to love it (I look forward to the books chosen by @reesesbookclub SO much). Emira's character was extremely likable and even relatable regardless of the fact that we do not share the same skin color. I could empathize with the brilliant writing by Reid's character development of Emira. Her feelings of feeling behind as an adult and within her friend group were extremely relatable, especially as the 24 YO reader I am. This book focused on issues of race and class and clearly shows the damaging effects of a "white savior" complex. During many parts of the book I really did not like Alix's character (that’s the whole point though and Reid did this phenomenally DUH). I found it so creepy how obsessed with Emira's life she was, such as going through her phone and especially going through her email account that Emira had left up on the family computer. But I loved how much the development of Alix's character made me think. Some readers had a HUGE issue with this and found it to be unrealistic, however I was able to see that it was the clear intention of Kiley Reid to show how toxic the “white savior” complex is. Reid builds the characters up so smoothly throughout the text and made beautiful connections between the two perspectives throughout the entire book. I absolutely LOVE a book that switches between perspectives. I found this particularly interesting towards the end of the book at Emira's birthday gathering and during events that followed between her, Kelley (her love interest), and Alix. I love feeling like I know more than the character does during a read and wishing I could just shake them and make them see what's going on. This was especially true when the reader knows that it was Alix who sent the email containing the video from the incident at the beginning of the book out, showing her serious "white savior" complex, and not Kelley whilst Emira and friends are accussing him. Alix AND Kelley's characters really got under my skin, but I found that Reid's writing made me think of real-life experiences I've either witnessed or heard of where unwanted behavior like theirs occurs. As I mentioned before, it was very clear that one of Kiley Reid's purposes in writing this ficition story was to address an issue that is far too real. Unfortunately, I felt that the book ended far too quickly when it came to the last 3 pages. However, I heard through the grapevine that there will be a screen-adaptation for Such A Fun Age that I hope tastefully addresses the ending of the book a bit more in depth. I'm hoping that if that is indeed true that they are able to successfully portray Briar's character. Overall, I loved this novel so much. I would definitely recommend it, but make sure that readers keep in mind this book was made to make you think. You're not supposed to love every character in every book. By my standard I would say this meant that Reid was doing her job--and very well at that. I'll be reading this one again for sure and spread out the time I will be reading it a bit more to really enjoy the characters and plot.
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