I love how complex the characters are in this book. Protagonist Emira is in that scary mid-twenties, graduated from college, but hasn't found a career stage of life. Her friends are starting to have Job jobs, and she's babysitting and typing for a living. The thing is, she really loves the former (and at 125 words a minute is fire at the latter), especially her charge, a blonde toddler named Briar, who plays second fiddle to her infant sister. You might expect the white boss lady, Alix, to be evil, and she kind of is, but there's enough backstory that you can sympathize with her. She even has a Black Friend. So often, boyfriends are perfect, and Kelley, a white guy who serially dates Black women, definitely isn't.
Emira's friends are pretty awesome, though also imperfect. Even Briar, while an adorable sweetheart, is a bossy brat sometimes (because two). When Emira is thinking of Briar's life without her, she muses
She'd go to sleepovers with girls she met at school, and she'd have certain words that she'd always forget how to spell. She'd be a person who sometimes said things like, "Seriously?" or "That's so funny," and she'd ask a friend if this was her water or theirs.
That's so profound to me, the longing for the every day, not the momentous occasions, especially when thinking of a person you are so close to who will not remember you if you don't see them again (because two).
Anyway, brilliant novel. Recommended, can't wait for Kiley Reid's next one.