Such A Fun Age

Kiley Reid explores the awkwardness of transactional relationships and the consequences of doing the right thing for the wrong reason. With empathy and piercing social commentary, Such a Fun Age explores the stickiness of transactional relationships, what it means to make someone “family,” the complicated reality of being a grown-up. It is a searing debut for our times.

Alix is a woman who gets what she wants. Emira - 25, aimless and broke - babysits for Alix. One night, Emira takes Alix’s two-year-old daughter to a local shop. Seeing a young black woman with a white child, a security guard accuses her of kidnapping. A crowd gathers, a bystander films everything - and Emira is utterly humiliated. Without saying anything, Alix resolves to ‘make things right’. But Emira herself is aimless, broke, and wary of Alix’s desire to help. At twenty-five, she is about to lose her health insurance and has no idea what to do with her life. When the video of Emira goes public and unearths someone from Alix’s past, both women find themselves on a crash course that will upend everything they think they know about themselves, and each other.

"... 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 ..." - Jackie Thomas-Kennedy, The Star Tribune