Book 1 of 40
Usually the first book I finish reading in a year is one I started the year previous. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, but also feel like I kind of am cheating my goal on number of books read when I didn’t really read a full book of one of the books that counts.
So for 2020, I decided to hold off starting my first book of the year until 2020 actually arrived, even though I was so excited when this was delivered to my Kindle New Year’s Eve.
For a debut novel, Kiley Reid has packed a lot into Such A Fun Age. I expected this to be a much different book than what it actually was. I mean that in the absolute best way. Thankfully, whatever the book I was expected this to be it wasn’t. And I’m so glad.
The crux of the book takes place around Emira, who is a 25-year-old black woman who babysits for a wealthy white family in Philadelphia. She takes the two-year-old to an upscale grocery store one night when her boss calls her in a panic to take the child out of the house, and a security guard at the store (and other customers) think she has stolen the kid. I don’t want to really ruin anything, so I’m going to leave it at that.
The book shifts perspective from Emira, to her boss Alix, and back again. It goes back in time, and stays in the present. It’s broken into sections which reminded me of acts in a play. I could totally see intermissions happening between each section.
It never really went the ways I expected it to, and I was really happy for that. I wasn’t crazy about the ending, but the rest of the book more than made up for it.
If you’re looking for an easy read, but one that gives you a bit of pause, I’d definitely recommend picking up Such A Fun Age.
You can checkout what I’m currently reading via the Goodreads widget to the right. Or, friend me on Goodreads. I love scoping out my friends’ reading lists to get inspiration for what I should read next.
Running With Scissors 