Such a Fun Age

“Reid constructs a plot so beautifully intricate and real and fascinating that readers will forget it’s also full of tough questions about race, class and identity….With this entertaining novel, Reid subverts our notions of what it means to write about race and class in America, not to mention what it means to write about love. In short, it’s a great way to kick off 2020.” ­—Washington Post

“A complex, layered page-turner…This is a book that will read, I suspect, quite differently to various audiences—funny to some, deeply uncomfortable and shamefully recognizable to others—but whatever the experience, I urge you to read Such a Fun Age. Let its empathetic approach to even the ickiest characters stir you, allow yourself to share Emira’s millennial anxieties about adulting, take joy in the innocence of Briar’s still-unmarred personhood, and rejoice that Kiley Reid is only just getting started.” —NPR 

“Kiley Reid has written the most provocative page-turner of the year….[Such a Fun Age] nestl[es] a nuanced take on racial biases and class divides into a page-turning saga of betrayals, twists, and perfectly awkward relationships….The novel feels bound for book-club glory, due to its sheer readability. The dialogue crackles with naturalistic flair. The plotting is breezy and surprising. Plus, while Reid’s feel for both the funny and the political is undeniable, she imbues her flawed heroes with real heart.” —Entertainment Weekly
 
“Reid’s acerbic send-up of identity politics thrives in the tension between the horror and semiabsurdity of race relations in the social media era. But she is too gifted a storyteller to reduce her tale to, well, black-and-white….Clever and hilariously cringe-y, this debut is a provocative reminder of what the road to hell is paved with.” —O, The Oprah Magazine  

“Lively…[A] carefully observed study of class and race, whose portrait of white urban affluence—Everlane sweaters, pseudo-feminist babble—is especially pointed. Attempting to navigate the white conscience in the age of Black Lives Matter, Reid unsparingly maps the moments when good intentions founder.” —The New Yorker

“Such a Fun Age is blessedly free of preaching, but if Reid has an ethos, it’s attention: the attention Emira pays to who Briar really is, and the attention that Alix fails to pay to Emira, instead spending her time thinking about her….The novel is often funny and always acute, but never savage; Reid is too fascinated by how human beings work to tear them apart. All great novelists are great listeners, and Such a Fun Age marks the debut of an extraordinarily gifted one.” —Slate
 
“[A] hilarious, uncomfortable and compulsively readable story about race and class.” –TIME

“[A] funny, fast-paced social satire about privilege in America…Beneath her comedy of good intentions, [Reid] stages a Millennial bildungsroman that is likely to resonate with 20-something postgraduates scrambling to get launched in just about any American city.” —The Atlantic

“Provocative…Surprisingly resonant insights into the casual racism in everyday life, especially in the America of the liberal elite.” —The New York Times Book Review  

“Buoyed by a tight narrative structure, Such a Fun Age is a compulsive read whose dark humor comes at the expense of Emira, who often finds herself sitting in the wormy discomfort of a social faux pas.” —Elle 

“[Such a Fun Age] grapples with racism and nods to titans of literature….[A] vivid page-turner [that] explores agency and culpability through the entangled lives of Emira and her employer, Alix.” —Vanity Fair 

“Such a Fun Age keeps it real on race, wealth, and class….Subtly illustrat[es] the systemic racism in America and the ways that we’re routinely perpetuating it or being subjected to it on a daily basis. The question that will sit with readers for days after finishing the book: What role do I play?” —Marie Claire 

“If you don’t read [Such a Fun Age] soon, you will have nothing to talk about at book clubs, dinner parties, playgroups, or friend drinks. Kiley Reid’s debut novel…is getting raves and making waves.” —Glamour

“[A] sparkling debut…[Such A Fun Age is] an entertaining tale with plenty to say about race, human connection, and the pitfalls of good intentions.” —People (Book of the Week) 

“Such a Fun Age tackles big issues—race, class, employer-caregiver tensions—through a riveting story.” —Real Simple 

“Crack open Kiley Reid’s buzzy, addictive debut, Such a Fun Age—you’ll inhale it. Reid deftly reveals a surprising overlap between a twentysomething babysitter’s and her well-to-do employer’s very different circles, then plunks you down to wait for the collision.” —Martha Stewart Living

“This striking exploration of race, class, and what it means to be ‘woke’ in today’s world will stick with readers long after the last page.” —Good Housekeeping

“[An] interesting look at how Millennials navigate pre-existing concepts of race, classism, micro-aggressions, and transactional relationships.” —Teen Vogue 

“An exploration of race and racism and misguided perceptions of the issue, executed with wit and a sharp edge…[Such a Fun Age] reveals how trapped black people who work in service jobs for white people feel, how easily privileged whites—who would protest any claims of prejudice—can fetishize blacks, or fail to see them as fully three-dimensional humans. And yes, dear reader, you are implicated in this too.” —The Boston Globe

“A bold, urgent, essential exploration of race, class, labor, friendship, identity and self-delusion, both deliciously readable and incredibly complex. This smart, quick-paced novel tracks the fallout and triumphs that follow its characters’ slightest gestures and impulses. Without ever resorting to didactic tones or prescriptive proclamations, Reid portrays the way different bodies are read in public spaces….From a craft perspective, Reid’s debut is an exemplar novel: Each character’s voice is perfectly distinct in dialogue; each text message is plausible, powerful. There is humor [and] not a small amount of suspense….Not a word is wasted, and not a nuance goes unnoticed in this masterwork.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune 

“With concise writing and characters who continually reveal new layers, Such a Fun Age uses a modern setting to examine age-old topics such as race, class and transactional relationships. It’s a rewarding read, not just because those topics are important, but also because readers will be thinking about them long after the last page.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“By blurring the lines between hero and villain, victim and tormenter, Reid sets out to examine who’s complicit in racism and the insidious, subtler forms by which prejudice sometimes exerts itself in Such a Fun Age.” —NBC News

“[A] provocative novel that explores themes of race and privilege in modern-day American society.” –TODAY