Such a Fun Age

3.5 stars. Enter the first major discussion point novel for 2020. No doubt it will be loved (or hated) by book clubs everywhere. It examines race, class, well intentioned interference (or was it?) and an array of really really unlikable characters.

Erima works as a babysitter for a privileged family (Alix - uurggghh, even her name is pretentious) when one night she is accused of kidnapping her small, adorable charge - Briar, simply because it is late, she is wearing party clothes and she is black. So begins a deluge of people interfering in Emira's life and telling her what to do.

It was an uncomfortable and complicated read - but sometimes we need to leave our comfort zone to be part of the conversation.

This is a face paced, thought provoking read. However it wasn't exactly what I was expecting. I picked it up after listening to an interview with the author, and the description of the opening chapters really grabbed me. With the perspectives jumping back and forth from Emira, and her employer Alix, I was hoping for a story about race, growing up, female friendship and motherhood. However, with the introduction of Emira's boyfriend as the antagonist, it really started to lose me. Alix goes from being a kind of quirky, somewhat self obsessed mom, to suddenly being the full on villain of the story. I would have bought that more if the story had been told solely from Emira's POV, but since you're in so much of Alix's head from the beginning it felt like a weird twist.

I was also surprised to learn that the author lives in Philadelphia, because I felt like she was kind of negative towards the city. Alix treats moving from NYC to Philadelphia as if she's moving to a farm in Kansas, and I never really understood why. The train ride between the cities is like an hour and a half. Philadelphia is a big, vibrant, historic city with a lot of cool neighborhoods, with the bonus of being much more affordable than Manhattan. Given a choice, I choose to visit and live in Philly. I was so confused about why Alix was hiding the fact that she moved to basically an equivalent, if not better, city.

There were also some weird elements that I thought were confusing choices on the authors part. She uses Emira's sibling's success to illustrate Emira's own dissatisfaction with not being able to find her own passion in life, but the example she uses is that her brother wins a barista competition and lands a job at a fancy coffee shop in Texas? This was so unusual and specific that I was wondering if this actually happened to someone the author knows? And the locker / letter reveal at the end was a real stretch, it would have been better to leave it ambiguous for the readers. I can't think of any reason why Alex would have been cleaning out everyone's lockers at the end of the school year - the author's reasoning that it was traditionally the job of the student council just felt like nonsense.

Overall it's not a bad read, I can see why it's getting a lot of buzz this year. The ending was underwhelming, the jump forward in time added little to the story.

Literally my favorite novel I've read in at least two years. This book does a really good job of addressing privilege (along several axes) in the context of an engaging story about a young woman just trying to adult.

One summer night, Emira Tucker is confronted by security at a supermarket and is accused of kidnapping the two-year-old girl she is babysitting.

I think this book falls under the saying, “don't judge a book by its cover.” The bright colors and fun title masks the heavy undertones within the pages of this book. It tackles race and privilege in depths I didn't think Reid was going to take. I was intrigued as to how the story was going to play out and couldn't put it down. I was a little disappointed with how certain situations played out, because I was expecting a little more from it, but I thoroughly enjoyed following the lives of Alix and Emira!

Briar's relationship with Emira is one of the things I loved about this book. Reid captures the struggles and the joy of babysitting or being a nanny that are oftentimes under-appreciated. Another thing I loved is the multiple points of view and the different issues the characters go through that one can see or experience in real life.

If you're looking for a book with realistic situations, fun dialogue, relatable moments, and crazy bosses, I would definitely recommend this read.