hello everyone! today i am going to be talking about not my problem by ciara smyth. i gave this book 3/5 stars. i honestly liked this book more than i liked smyth’s first book that she wrote. and i honestly got big sex education vibes with this, since they both deal with teenagers with secret businesses at their school, which i honestly really liked.
trigger warnings- alcoholism, addiction, bullying, abandonment, toxic friendship, lesbophobia, homophobia, infidelity, curing.
i think my biggest issue with this book was that we had so much time and aideen saying over and over and over again about how aideen hates meabh’s guts. and they say this to each other again and again and again, so once they kind of get to the romance, i feel like it just didn’t work in my mind. like, i mean, i feel like we got so much talk over and over, so once they kissed and kind of got together, i feel like it was just kind of weird. and i honestly wished they didn’t keep to much time focusing how much they focus on how they hated each other.
and i feel like so many things that happened in this story was how so many things just felt unrealistic. like, i don’t even know where i pin point it, but i feel like there was so many little comments or things that aideen and meabh does that just wouldn’t happen in real life, and in a way i feel like it took away from the story. but, i mean, it still was kind of fun to see this not ever happen in the said world.
but, i also feel like aideen’s humor in this book just didn’t work. like, i feel like the writing and the humor in this book didn’t work in my mind. like, i feel that books with stubble humor are always kind of cool and i do like it. but, i feel like that this book’s humor were kind of boring and i just also feel like it was just kind of all over the place and not needed.
i do feel like that aideen’s struggles with her mother was honestly was one of the better parts of this book. since, i do feel like seeing her talk about and show and care for her mother was honestly one of the better parts of this book. and to honestly see her put her mom before herself was honestly heartbreaking, but still really good in a kind of odd way. but, not even just her mom, just to see her take of everyone around her. and i do think it was honestly cool to see her growth from caring about everyone to caring about herself more and putting herself first.
and i mean, i did kind of get annoyed that aideen didn’t ever really confront anything about her mom and that she was trying to avoid everything about her family with these favors. like, i feel like they honestly got annoyed that she never really made up, and whenever something happened, she practically ran the other direction, which was i really just didn’t like. and i honestly wish she confronted her mom and dad, and didn’t run away.
with that being said, i do feel like there was moments in this book that i feel like it was moments that this book was kind of very similar to smyth’s debut. like, i feel like the characters are honestly very similar and that i just wish they had different variables at some points, since at some points i think it was just too similar. like, with the friend drama and the issues with alcohol. but, i honestly wished they changed it a little more, just so it isn’t so copy and paste at some of the times.
but, i do feel like aideen tried to be one of those characters and people that tried to be not like other girls, especially with her humor. and i honestly didn’t really care about it. like i found her humor, and especially how she texted, that she might not try to be like the other girls in the story. and also like the whole gym plot which i feel like it so overdone in YA books. but, i do think she is the most boring and like other girls in YA, but i still just wanted to point it out.
as for maebh, i did kind of like her character more. like, i feel she was just one of those organized character that was kind of a shit show deep down. but i still feel like she did kind had those my dad is the headmaster kind of traits, which i didn’t hate but i wish that it wasn’t so heavy. but, her being completely different from aideen i honestly really liked that they were so different, since i feel like we don’t see it to much in a book.
but, i honestly think it was cool to see them as friends, but not always be together and be people outside of the friendship. and like i feel that they were honestly really cool to see them still be friends, and have their issues. like, to see holly get to be kind of negative and kind of rude, than care more about other things than the friendship. and also just to see them make up than and to work better now was so cool.
anyway, that is all for today! i honestly wished i liked this book more than i liked book 1, but i honestly don’t think this author is for me. but, i still liked what it tried to do, even if the whole helping others was kind weird. and i mean, i do think that this book would be good for people if they liked sex education.
r.bookish 