Such a Fun Age opens Goodreads in a new tab

My thoughts

2.5/5stars “You’re not better than anyone,' she said, 'when you hang up your own coat and take your plate to the trash. I’ve been those girls helping out tonight. I fucking am those girls helping out tonight, and you’re not making anything easier by giving them less to do. It’s like eating everything on your plate ’cause you think someone else won’t go hungry if you don’t. You’re not helping anyone but yourself. finished this book yesterday and I am so mad, I was constantly mad at literally everyone in this book. And tho i understand that was the plan, I was supposed to hate those characters. But there is something called as morally grey characters and something called as evil characters but this was neither of those? This was a bunch of people who were straight up stupid, racist and evil and to such an extent that it was painful to even read. With the exception of the little girl Briar who is the very sassy kid, the only source of smile throughout this reading experience. This is a novel about class, privilege, society and racism from POV’s of two very different women: a successful, upper middle class caucasian woman and a young, struggling african american woman, who come from very different worlds. This novel deals with several very important issues, all of which are very prevalent right now. Emira had met several "Mrs. Chamberlains" before. They were all rich and overly nice and particularly lovely to the people that served them. Emira knew that Mrs. Chamberlain wanted a friendship, but she also knew that Mrs. Chamberlain would never display the same efforts of kindness with her friends as she did with Emira: "accidentally" ordering two salads and offering one to Emira, or sending her home with a bag filled with frozen dinners and soups. This book started off pretty strong, but then it just sort of fell flat.. the first few chapters of this book were really gripping; I like what it was trying to say about race and the way people of color get treated unfairly in alot of situations, and I thought it was a really great start and shedding some light on important issues. But that didn't really last. The writing got worst by every page, and the dialogues were so freaking cringey?? Or that when white people compliment her (“She’s so professional. She’s always on time”), it doesn’t always feel good, because sometimes people are gonna be surprised by the fact that she showed up, rather than the fact that she had something to say when she did. the only reason i gave this a 2.5 instead of like a .5 or 1 is because some really important topics have been covered in here and the way those things have been discussed is unique. atleast they tried to make it different. and i do get it that it is a debut novel and we need to cut them some slack ohgod the combination of characters getting painfully stupid and the writing getting cringier by the page was just too much. I don't think I will subject myself to this kind if literature anymore, that being said it does cover important issues women and poc and black folks face in everyday life and i do think we need to talk more about that. Me to such annoyingly cringe books- I just think it would be best if we went our separate ways and... that those paths never like... came back together.