Such a Fun Age (Book Review)

Hey y’all, so Such a Fun Age was the book club pick for The Reading Rush and I ended up loving it. If you want to learn more about some controversy surrounding The Reading Rush and how it negatively affected the Black reading community, I’d highly recommend checking out this video.

Such a Fun Age is also the Unfriendly Black Hotties book club pick for August. They’ll be having a live show at the end of the month to discuss it. I’m really looking forward to that live show because I really want to dissect this story with other readers and I think it will bring forth some great discussions.

Goodreads Synopsis

In the midst of a family crisis one late evening, white blogger Alix Chamberlain calls her African American babysitter, Emira, asking her to take toddler Briar to the local market for distraction. There, the security guard accuses Emira of kidnapping Briar, and Alix’s efforts to right the situation turn out to be good intentions selfishly mismanaged.

Trigger Warnings: Racism, prejudice, explicit sex scene, death of a grandparent, racial slur

The Good

The plot development was great. We get sucked into the story pretty early on and the scene involving explicit racism is in the first chapter. It sparks the events for the rest of the story and it’s best not to say too much. This is a story where you want to go in knowing less.

There are only three main characters to follow, so it doesn’t get confusing. There also aren’t too many supporting characters and that also makes the story pretty easy to follow. I like how most of the focus was on Emira. It’s apologetically her story.

The societal metaphors were almost tangible. Again, I don’t want to say too much, but if you’ve read the story then you understand.

The Not So Good

Honestly can’t think of anything, it was such a well written story. I really can’t think of any plot holes or issues I had with it.

All in All

I loved reading Such a Fun Age. I’m so thankful I stumbled across it at the thrift store. Now I kind of want a hardcover.

5/5 Stars

Have you read Such a Fun Age yet?

Are you joining the Black Hotties book club?

What are you currently reading?

Let me know in the comments below, let’s chat?

Author: Rachelle Saint Louis

Rachelle Saint Louis is a Haitian-American writer, born and raised in South Florida. She received a 2018 Silver Medal in the Scholastic Art and Writing Competition for her poem “Red Blood Cell.” She is currently a Psychology and English double major at Florida Atlantic University. Her poetry has been published in Rigorous Magazine. Rachelle has been writing poetry since the 7th grade and you can often find her performing Spoken Word at local open mics. View all posts by Rachelle Saint Louis

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