Such A Fun Age - An interesting and promising debut

I just want to start this review by saying, How can someone write something so beautiful for a debut novel? It is every bit as entertaining and as it is deep and I had a great time reading this.

At the heart of the novel, lie two women – Emira Tucker and Alix Chamberlain.

Emira Tucker

Emira is young, black and in her 20s, who babysits the Chamberlains’ elder daughter, Briar. She has done her majors in English. While all her friends are starting to make their way in the world, Emira still isn’t sure about what she wants to do in life. After graduating, she still feels lost and is trying to figure out her passion. She is also close to the age of getting kicked off her parents’ health insurance. Aimless and broke, she takes up the part-time babysitting gig and is now juggling between two jobs to meet her expenses.

Alix Chamberlain

Emira’s boss, Alix Chamberlain is a 33-year old working mom. She is a wealthy white blogger and you can call her, a mini social media celebrity. During her college days, Alix used to write beautiful handwritten letters to companies on fancy stationery and blog about their products. Gradually, she built a brand of her own, “Let Her Speak” and made a living out of it. Today, she is showing other women how to do it. She is a married to a local news anchor, Peter.

Although, Alix has everything in life, she is still not happy and can’t help but feel that she is missing something in life. She is quite insecure, not happy about how she looks after having her second baby and now has her doubts about her choices in life.

The supermarket incident 😟

One night, at about 11 pm, Alix calls up Emira to take Briar to the supermarket nearby as the Chamberlains have to tackle a situation at home. Emira was in the middle of her friend’s birthday party. But Alix offers her double the regular rate. So, Emira comes over, accompanied by her friend, Zara. She is still dressed in her party clothes and also a bit drunk. They go to the store and are having fun, when the security guard approaches her and starts interrogating her as he is suspicious of her kidnapping the white kid, Briar. While she keeps telling him that she is the babysitter, he doesn’t budge. The problem gets resolved only when Peter shows up at the scene. Alix is so upset by the incident that she resolves to make things right for Emira.

The bystander 🤐

The whole incident at the supermarket was captured by a customer, who insists that she let this out in the media. But Emira wants to forget all the humiliation and just wants to get on with her life. This was the opening scene of the book and goes on to act as the catalyst for the rest of the novel. This incident and the bystander will affect the lives of both Emira and Alix and relationship dynamics that the two women share.

The cute toddler ❤️

I absolutely loved how accurately Briar was potrayed in the book. She was so smart and considerate and so so adorable!! Can’t believe she was just of 3 years.

Girlfriends 🥰

Both Emira’s and Alix’s girlfriends had such great group of friends who are so supportive.

When Alix feels that nothing is going right in her life, she video-calls her girlfriends, who immediately chalk out a plan to make things right for her. That is just the kind of friendship that we all deserve in life.

Writing

The novel is written in simple English and is a breezy read. Kiley Reid does paint a picture with her words. The narrative alternates between the perspective of Alix and Emira which I thought was pretty interesting!

Closing remarks

The writing was riveting and the author’s approach to sensitive matters like racism, class, money and privileges and the way she navigates through these topics was very nuanced. You become completely immersed in their lives. The plot offers some great revelations and overall it was a fun book! The cute font on the cover was seriously deceiving, though!

Cup of Reviews would rate the book : 83/100