REVIEW
An e-arc has been provided by the publisher, Penguin Random House International, in exchange for an honest review.
Starting with such a powerful first chapter, I was instantly curious about the thematic of the story and how the author would offer us such powerful discussion on racism. And that’s where I was actually wrong.
For a book that is promoted to be a part of the 2020 Booker Longlist and the winner of the Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Debut Novel, this book was underwhelmingly disappointing to say the least.
The story follows Emira, a 25-years old baby sitter who was called in late by her employer whilst in a middle of a celebratory part with her friends. This “emergency” then spiraled into something else and we’ve got the screw that holds the cogs of the story’s wheel.
At it’s surface, the story was very much intriguing. It kept me reading and wanting for more — hence, why this is the fastest read I’ve had for this year . However, I eventually reached a point in the book when I basically knew what’s going to happen even without reading the entirety of the novel. It was unsatisfyingly predictable.
With a book categorized as literary fiction, this felt like it was poorly made. There was a dynamic discussion but it felt more of a side-story than anything else. Reading this was like watching a film marketed as one but was actually an elaborately long advertisement. The story repeatedly mentions one of the character’s endeavour in publishing a book and how it was going to be released soon like it was the whole point of the book and not just something in the background.
To be fair, it wasn’t much of a big deal but it dominated the story enough to make you think that the main theme of the book was nothing more than a subplot to offset how boring the story actually is.
Don’t even get me started with the characters. I do love Emira and Briar [the kid she was sitting], but dang the characters, if not all, of this book are hella problematic! I don’t even want to associate myself with any of them!
Such a Fun Age was an interesting story that’ll keep you reading — even if it’s just for the drama. I believe that it could’ve been set differently and had better focus and appreciation for the beautiful discussion that it wants to shed light on. Unfortunately, it wasn’t executed well enough. Aside from that, I think that it was written weakly for something that garnered such praises. Of course, take this review with a grain of salt. I might not have loved it as much as I’d liked, but I definitely appreciate reading it.
