SuitabookNot My Problem
Ciara Smyth
- Reading
- Read alongside the young person if family instability or risky choices may feel close to home. Pause after the stair incident and later home-life developments, and agree whether to discuss the ending afterwards.
- Themes
- Helping others versus accepting help: Aideen creates a favour-for-favour service for fellow students while her own home life and schoolwork deteriorate. The book’s stance on this remains unclear.
- Family instability and care: Aideen lives with the effects of her mother’s alcoholism and an unreliable relationship with her father, while fearing further disruption. The book presents this mainly as information or explanation.
- Identity, friendship and romance: Aideen is openly lesbian; her friendship with Holly becomes strained while her connection with Maebh develops, alongside Irish, Polish and Indian cultural details. Queer identity and cultural diversity are integrated into the school setting, while the relationship developments provide an important emotional strand.
- Worth knowing
- Before choosing it, consider whether the reader would welcome depictions of alcoholism, an alcoholic parent, child neglect, poverty, bullying, underage drinking and a deliberately injurious act between students.