Kelley’s past relationship with Alix, which happened in high school, becomes the center of a large conflict over the meal, with Alix panicking. Things come to a head when Emira and Kelley, both with cancelled flights due to snow, attend Thanksgiving at the Chamberlain house. Meanwhile, Alix begins to obsess over Emira, planning each detail of her life around whether or not it will make Emira like her more. In addition, the white man who films Emira’s interaction with the security guard, Kelley Copeland, becomes Emira’s boyfriend after they run into each other on the train later that week.Įmira continues to struggle financially and wrestle with whether she should keep babysitting Briar as she develops more of a relationship with Kelley. After this incident, everything about Emira and Alix’s relationship changes. In the opening chapter, Emira, who babysits Alix’s older daughter, two-year-old Briar, gets accused of kidnapping the young child when she takes her to the grocery store late at night for an emergency. The two main characters are in direct tension with each other: Emira is in her mid-20s, black, and has little idea what she wants to do with her life, while Alix is in her 30s, is white, and has an established family life and career.

Though it starts with Emira’s perspective, Such a Fun Age alternates almost evenly between Emira Tucker and Alix Chamberlain as it moves in a primarily chronological order of events.

Such a fun age book cover