Reviews with content warning for Vomit - Such a Fun Age

Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

57 reviews

cheesepuppy's review against another edition

challenging reflective

4.0

For a book with the word “fun” in it, this was not fun.

The writing is great. The story is done well.

Fellow white people, I hope you pick this up and take it to heart. The author did a wonderful job making this story feel so real. It feels like a friend could have told me this happened. I think it was really smart how the white main characters both say each other is racist. The visual drawn of them pointing at each other with blame is perfect. We are all part of the problem.

BIPOC friends:
I wouldn’t dream of telling non-white people to read this. To anyone not white, this book is full of traumatic shit. If you don’t want the triggers of racism, appropriation, and all that comes with it, skip this book. Know that it may be a good suggestion for your white friends and move on. Please go read something that won’t be painful.

Overall, I honestly wish this story had told us more about our main character and less about the overtly racist secondary characters. Though, I understand that would’ve changed the point the author was trying to make.

Content Warnings

uhhlexiconic's review

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challenging reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

A book about boundaries and the ways white allies can be intrusive in their desire to help, Such a Fun Age takes a while to really get started and wraps up too neatly for the complicated set up. Still, its an incredible work in the insidious nature of white supremacy and the way the employer can force relationships on the employee.

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hitoreading's review

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challenging funny reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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leggatkat's review against another edition

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Plot- or character-driven? Character

2.5

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moosycakes's review

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This book was so good! It's a very well written, nuanced look at some of the ways racism and privilege can show up in and interact with each other. A review by Elizabeth Day of the book written on the back cover of the copy I'm reading mentions Kiley Reid's empathetic writing style, and that is a huge part of why this book is so hard hitting. She is able to show you how to understand the characters deeply, which makes their painful, ignorant, or cruel decisions all the more heartbreaking and uncomfortable. I highly suggest that while reading this book, you think about it in relation to the real world and even to your own life. There is a lot to learn from this book and it is packaged up perfectly by an extremely talented author.

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belleden's review against another edition

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funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I look forward to reading anything Reid creates in the future! Her characters and dialogue feel extremely genuine. I was never able to predict what was going to happen next. My only beef with this book is that the ending felt rushed and out of character for Emira.

I loved the mini epilogue that showed the main characters in different, but not necessarily better, places than they were at the beginning of the story.

This is a realistic and fast-paced story about race, class, and performative activism.

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sporemiette's review against another edition

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challenging reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

All in all, Such a Fun Age was a pretty fantastic book. It did not hold its punches and I'm grateful for that fact. Reid is great in her use of foreshadowing, especially in the way that Alix progresses as a character. Speaking of Alix, wow. What a fantastically terrible person. She first comes across as a somewhat entitled but well meaning person who genuinely wants the best for Emira, but that facade quickly falls apart as soon as things don't go her way.

Alix's breakdown at the end of the book makes total sense for her character, and yet it's devastating nonetheless. And Kelly? His performative activism and fetishization of Black people makes my skin crawl.

With Kelly and Alix being such complicated and nuanced people though, I can't help but feel as if the main character Emira is a little underdeveloped by comparison. I understand that her whole situation is that she doesn't really know who she is and she's trying to figure what she wants in life but that never really gets developed until the very end of the book, in the "aftermath" chapters. Another gripe I have is that, at least in my addition of the book, the book description mentions how

the video that Kelly takes of Emira gets leaked, implying that is the main issue for most of the book when that simply isn't the case. The video being leaked happens near the end of the book.

I know it sounds stupid, but I feel like putting such a major spoiler in the book's description isn't the best way to go? Regardless of that minor complaint though, I definitely think that this book is worth a read anytime, especially if you're white and want to be an ally.

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