Hi everyone. I'm Rincey and this is Rincey
Reads. Today I'm going to be talking
about such a fun age by Kiley Reid. This
is a pretty new release. I think it came
out around like December 31st, like right
on New Year's Eve. And I remember like
reading the synopsis for this book and
being like, "oh, that sounds really
interesting. It's too bad it's coming out
on New Year's Eve because I feel like
it's going to get ignored more than it
should." But then it turns out that like
everyone was reading this book at the
beginning of the year and in January, or
at least everyone in my like bookish
circles was, and everyone was raving
about it. So I was like, well I better
push that one up on my list. So I did and
I read it and I enjoyed it. So this is a
contemporary fiction book and you are
following these two characters, Emira and
Alex, or Ah-lex from the way they give the
pronunciation of her name in that book.
Alex is a mom and she has recently moved
from New York City to Philadelphia. She
has two kids, Briar who is like around
two, three years old and then Catherine
who is like a newborn. She runs her own
business called let her speak, which is
basically like a letter-writing service.
They like helps other people write
letters and she's like built this big
like brand around herself and she gives
like talks at conferences and things
like that. And her and her family are
white and they are pretty well-off. Her
husband is a newscaster. And one night
her house gets egged because of
something that her husband said on air.
And so they called the police. Alex
doesn't want Briar around while the
police are there doing they're sort of
like investigation and so she calls
Emira in a panic to come take briar and
to take her out of the house. It's like
11 p.m., midnight when this is all
happening. And so Emira is at a birthday
party for her friend and she's at a club
so she's not like dress super
appropriately. She had a couple of drinks.
She told Alex all of this over the phone
and Alex still agreed to let her come
and take briar for a little bit. And so
she comes and her and her friend go to a
local like sort of artisanal grocery
store sort of thing for a little bit
because Briar likes doing that. While she's there a
security guard stops her and asks if she
kidnapped this child. Someone like
basically saw them together. They were
like dancing in the aisle and stuff like
that and assumed that she had been
kidnapped or the lady assumed that briar
had been kidnapped. And she tries to
explain that she's the babysitter and
you know becomes this thing. She has to
call Alex's husband, Mr. Chamberlain in
order to come and verify that she's the
babysitter. This guy recorded the whole
thing but like nothing really major
happens outside of like this really
terrible, racist, uncomfortable experience.
And then they move on with their lives.
And so this book is written from two
points of view. One of them is Emira and
one of them is Alex. You are basically
following them through that point
although you do sort of like get flashes
back in time a little bit as Alex sort
of reminisces about hiring Emira and how
much she loves Emira. If it wasn't clear,
Emira is a black girl that has obviously
something to do with all of this and she
becomes really obsessed with Emira being
her babysitter because she loves the job
that she does. And she also becomes
really obsessed with like becoming
friends with her for reasons that I
still don't understand. And then your
following things from Emira's point of
view who is like working part-time as
this babysitter and also like trying to
figure out what she's doing with her
life. She's around 25 years old. She
starts dating someone, which becomes a
whole thing in this story. Yeah this book
is basically just like following them as
events occur. It's really hard to talk
about the plot of the rest of this book
without feeling like you're getting into
spoiler territory. So I'll stop there.
But this book was like so well done in
my opinion. There's a lot that happens in
this book. And the way that this book is
written is like really compelling and
really readable. I don't really like that
word but this is a book that keeps you
turning the pages. It's very addicting
almost. Like this book feels like it
would be a really great movie to watch
because it's so dramatic at times. And
the way that things unfold, it's almost
like a reality TV at certain points.
The writer does a really great job of
like getting in the head of these two
characters. And Alex specifically is
this liked white woman and like this
book is exploring that whole like white
savior complex that happens a lot of
times. And it's really interesting being
in her head and having her justify her
actions even though you as the reader
and the outsider knows that like things
that she's doing are wrong and sometimes
feel like a little bit insane. But you
can see her like justifying the things
that she's doing and the actions that she's
making and the choices that she's made
over the course of her life. And you can
kind of understand, not that it makes it
okay, but you can understand her point of
view of the world and things like that.
But at the same time like the author's
very clearly showing how you can think
you're doing the right thing but not be
doing the right thing at all.
Emira is I think a really great
character and someone that you care a
lot about. She has so much complexity.
I think actually all of the characters in
this book that you see kind of have a
lot of complexity. Although I will say
like Alex has like these three
friends and it almost feels like sex
and the city almost in the way that these
characters are relating to each other.
But I also don't know if that's just
like an upper-class New York thing. But this
really is just a really fun and
interesting and thought-provoking book
that I think would be great for book
clubs. um This was Reese's book club pick
for January, I believe. It really is a
book that when you're reading it, you
want to talk about it with other people.
I know that I had that feeling while
reading this book. There are, like I said,
a handful of people who I know already
read the book and I wanted to text them
and be like, oh my gosh, I'm at this part
of the book and I can't believe that
this has happened and I can't wait to
see what happens next. I posted on my
Instagram stories that I was reading
this the other night and I got to a
certain point and I realized that it was
time for me to go to bed but I didn't
want to go to bed. The book is broken up into
four parts and I think it's right around
like part two where things really start
to pick up steam and I just had to keep
reading in order to know like what was
gonna happen. It's not a very long book
but I did also read this and only two
days. So that just says so much about, I
think, the way this book has written. I
wouldn't say that this is a really like
literary novel by any means.
It is like slightly satirical but it's
also very light in the way that it
approaches this topic. And because I
think it's dealing with a sort of,
they even say it in the book, like a
lighter form of racism where no one gets
killed and no one gets like hurt and
like the situation doesn't get violent
or anything like that, it's much more
approachable. But I think at the same
time, it's poking at the sort of racism
that a lot of people don't view as being
racism because it's "well-meaning" so to
speak. So yeah I think that this would be
a really great book to pick up and to
read and to sort of examine your own
privilege. And I say that as someone who
like who read this book and was looking
at thoughts or opinions I might have had
in my life and realize that I wasn't
taking the other person's perspective
into account into me thinking I knew
what was right. So yeah, this is a great
book. I'm definitely gonna buy my own
copy of it because I feel like this is a
book that a lot of my friends would
really enjoy. Like this feels like a
really good swiss army rec sort of
book. If you're someone who enjoys
contemporary fiction, i feel like this is
a really good book to pick up. I think
it's really interesting that the author
chose to set this book in 2015. It's like
she's purposefully placing these people
in a different time period almost. Yeah I
just, I just really, really enjoyed this
book. Like I think I would give this book
a 4 out of 5 stars.
Like I said it does take a little bit of
a lighter touch with all the topics that
it, you know, decides to like discuss and
stuff like that, and I do you think that
the ending left a little bit to be
desired. But overall, I would highly
recommend picking up this book and
reading it because I think that it's
worth it. So yeah, those are my quick
thoughts on such a fun age. Let me know
down in the comments below if you've
read this book and what your thoughts
were on it, especially if you maybe
didn't enjoy it as much. I would love to
hear some like counter opinions because
I feel like I've been seeing nothing but
like glowing praise for this book. So if
you didn't like love it with all your
heart — I mean, I didn't love it with all
my heart, but you know what I mean —
definitely let me know down below. Or if
you have any questions, you can always
leave that down in the comment section
as well. So yeah, that's all I have for
now and thanks for watching.
