8 Of The Best Books Like Such A Fun Age By Kiley Reid

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“I don’t need you to be mad that it happened. I need you to be mad that it just like… happens.”

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If you loved Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid, you’re far from alone. This witty, socially conscious novel has captured the hearts of readers everywhere. Its sharp exploration of race, privilege, and complex relationships makes it a standout in contemporary fiction, and it’s only natural to want more stories like it. Thankfully, there are plenty of novels similar to Such a Fun Age that mix humour, heart, and social commentary in ways that are just as powerful. Whether you’re on the hunt for books about friendship and social dynamics, character-driven contemporary fiction, or novels that tackle modern issues with wit and insight, this list has something for you. Join us at What We Reading for books like Such a Fun Age that are equally thoughtful-provoking and emotionally engaging. 

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Such A Fun Age Summary

Alix Chamberlain is a woman who gets what she wants and has made a living teaching women how to do the same. So she is stunned when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, is confronted while watching her two-year-old Briar one night. The security guard working at the local supermarket accuses Emira of abducting Briar. A small crowd gathers, bystanders film the resulting altercation, and Emira is left humiliated and furious. Alix resolves to make everything right. 

But Emira herself is aimless, broke, and wary of Alix’s willingness to help. When the video of her unearths someone from Alix’s own past, both women find themselves hurtling toward being upended about everything they thought they knew about themselves and each other. With empathy and scathing social commentary, Such a Fun Age is a top book club pick that delves into the stickiness of transactional relationships and the complex realities of being a grown-up. 

Queenie – Candice Carty-Williams

First up on our list of books like Such a Fun Age is Candice Carty-William’s acclaimed bestseller, Queenie. Queenie Jenkins is a twenty-five-year-old Jamaican-British woman living in London, straddling two cultures and slotting neatly into neither. She works at a national newspaper, where she’s constantly forced to compare herself to her middle-class peers. After a messy break-up from her white boyfriend, Queenie looks for comfort in all the wrong places. 

As Queenie careens from one questionable decision to the next, she finds herself wondering, What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Who do you want to be? – All of the questions that today’s women must face in a world are trying to answer for her. 

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An American Marriage – Tayari Jones

Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiments of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive, she’s an artist on the cusp of stardom. But, as they settle into their new lives together, Roy is arrested and sentenced to twelve years inside for a crime Celestial knows he didn’t commit. Celestial finds herself taking comfort in Andre, her childhood friend and best man at her wedding. 

As Roy’s time in prison passes, she is unable to hold on to the love that has been at her centre. After five years, his sentence is suddenly overturned, and he returns to Atlanta ready to renew their life together. Like Such a Fun Age, An American Marriage follows the hearts and minds of three people who are at once bound and separated by forces beyond their control. 

Little Fires Everywhere – Celeste Ng

Another one of must-read books like Such a Fun Age, Little Fires Everywhere opens with Mia Warren – an enigmatic artist and single mother – moving to Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland. She arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenage daughter Pearl, and rents a home from the Richardsons, whose four children are all drawn to the mother-daughter duo. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past and a disregard for the rules that threatens to upend this carefully-ordered community. 

When old family friends attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town – and puts Mia and Elena Richardson on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia’s past. But her obsession will come at an unexpected and devastating price. 

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The Vanishing Half – Brit Bennett

The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern Black community and running away at the age of sixteen, everything about their lives has become different. Many years on, one sister lives with her Black daughter in the same town she tried to escape. The other passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. 

Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half is a novel similar to Such a Fun Age that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. 

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Leave The World Behind – Rumaan Alam

Amanda and Clay head to a remote corner of Long Island expecting a quiet reprieve from life in New York City, quality time with their teenage son and daughter, and a taste of the good life in the luxury home they’ve rented for the week. But with a late-night knock on the door, the spell is broken. Ruth and G. H, an older couple who claim to own the home, have arrived in a panic. These strangers claim a sudden power outage has rocked the city, and – with nowhere else to turn – they have come to the country for shelter. 

But with the TV and internet down, and no phone service, the facts are unknowable. Should Amanda and Clay trust the couple – and vice versa? What has happened back in New York? Is the holiday home, isolated from civilisation, a truly safe place for families? 

The Other Black Girl – Zakiya Dalila Harris

Twenty-six-year-old editorial assistant Nella Rogers is tired of being the sole Black employee at Wagner Books. Fed up with the isolation and microaggressions, she’s thrilled when Harlem-born Hazel starts working in the cubicle beside her. They’ve only just started comparing natural hair care regimes, though, when a string of uncomfortable events elevates Hazel to office darling, and relegates Nella behind. Then hostile notes begin to appear on Nella’s desk. 

It’s hard to believe Hazel is behind these hostile messages. But as Nella starts to spiral and obsess over the sinister forces at play, she soon discovers there’s a lot more at stake than just her career. Like Such a Fun Age, The Other Black Girl is a whip-smart thriller and sly social commentary that is perfect for anyone who has ever felt manipulated, threatened, or overlooked. 

Red At The Bone – Jacqueline Woodson

Moving forward and backwards in time, Jacqueline Woodson’s Red at the Bone is a powerful novel that uncovers the role that history and community have played in the experiences, decisions, and relationships in the life of a new child. The book begins in 2001, and the evening of sixteen-year-old Melody’s coming-of-age ceremony in her grandparents’ Brooklyn brownstone. She wears a special, custom-made dress. Sixteen years ago, that very dress was measured and sewn for a different wearer: Melody’s mother. 

Unfurling the history of Melody’s parents and grandparents to show how they all arrived at this moment, Woodson considers not just their ambitions and successes, but also the costs, the tolls, they’ve paid for striving to overcome expectations and escape the pulls of history. Red at the Bone is a great follow-up to Such a Fun Age if you want another look at how young people must so often make long-lasting decisions about their lives – even before they have begun to figure out who they are, and what they want to be. 

Stay With Me – Ayobami Adebayo

Yejide and Akin have been married since they met and fell in love at university. Though many expected Akin to take several wives, he and Yejide have always agreed that polygamy is not for them. But, four years into their marriage, after consulting fertility doctors and healers, trying strange teas and unlikely cures, Yejide is still not pregnant. She assumes she still has time – until her family arrives on their doorstep with a young woman they introduce as Akin’s second wife. 

Furious, shocked, and livid with jealousy, Yejide knows the only way to save her marriage is to get pregnant, which, finally, she does – but at a cost far greater than she could have dared to imagine. Like Such a Fun Age, Stay with Me is an electrifying novel of enormous emotional power, asking how much we can sacrifice for the sake of family.