Not My Problem

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Aideen is a heroine you love almost immediately - her narrative voice gripped me with it's humorous tone and compelled me to finish the book in under 24 hours. And the story itself is really heartwarming, with her going from an almost-loner to amassing a group of assorted friends through her little troubleshooter/favour-for-favour system. She's witty and sarcastic, but she also has a lot of heart and is always willing to help - even people she doesn't know. She's a really good egg. Thank you for having me! Not My Problem follows Aideen, a girl who thinks other people’s problems are easy to solve. So she decides to offer her services to the student body. She’ll fix your problem in her own inimitable style but the catch is that you will owe her a favour in return. One time, I ditched school to drive her to an emergency centre. She tried to jump out of the car when we were driving 50 km/hr and I felt solely responsible for keeping her alive. It was one of the scariest moments of my life.

Let me repeat… you can still be a compassionate listener without taking on a problem as your own! But workplaces depend on collaborationI love Kelly Quindlen’s She Drives Me Crazy and I haven’t read it yet but I am very much looking forward to Dahlia Adler’s Cool for the Summer. ciara smyth does something in her books which i’ve found is quite rare, and it is that she makes them truly, genuinely funny. not even just a ‘i let out a huff of air to show that i appreciated that sentence,’ but real laughter. i read this book when i was sad, and it was the perfect reprieve from the world: even as the main character, aideen’s, world is falling apart, she manages to be absolutely hilarious throughout. The slow burn rivals-to-lovers romance was everything and the chemistry was f-a-b. The friendship dynamics, both old and new, were wonderfully explored. The characters were all fully fleshed out and engaging in their own right and the multiple strains of character development were a+. I don’t know what’s going on with you. I wish you would tell me, but I respect that maybe you have a good reason not to. But I am not disposable. I’m not a toy you can play with when it suits you and then ignore when you have other stuff to do. If you want to be my friend, you have to stop treating me like I don’t exist if you’re not looking directly at me.”

I’m afraid you should ask someone else to help you. After all, there’s really nothing else I can do. From the blurb, I kind of expected to have this book centered on romance. Except, I think this revolved more about Aideen's problems, social life, and friendship, which made it actually better. Reinforcing boundaries while still collaborating and equipping your team to do the right thing is vital. But there is a difference between healthy boundaries and skirting responsibility. Lashing out is the “lazy way out” of responsibilitiesWhen I was younger I would say, “ it’s not my problem” to my little sister. All the time. I believed that the things that she needed to take care of were her problems. And the things that I needed to take care of were my problem. I’d really love to write a proper dark comedy, though I think it’s a difficult tone to get right and possibly isn’t particularly in fashion in YA right now. I think I’d like to write a kind of speculative contemporary novel as well, think The Good Place as YA or a comedy version of They Both Die at the End. Hmm, I wish I could help out. Let me know a week or two before the next project is due and I can carve out some time for you!” This is not my battle. Please, talk to each other to fix this. I can’t do anything to change your mind.

I’m sorry, but I don’t see how this affects me. Why don’t you ask my secretary to help you with it?Boundaries are a healthy thing. You cannot take the whole world onto your shoulders and expect to do everything well. Instead of brushing off the request of others as “not your problem” you can accept responsibility. This is one of the hardest things to do. Society teaches children to embrace responsibility for their actions but forget that the message needs to be reinforced to adults Overall, It was sometime a hilarious and sometime emotional, but throughout an amazing read that I enjoyed immensely.

When you reduce the amount of time you pursue individualism and focus on collective improvement, you produce great work. Unlike The Falling in Love Montage, this is more of a coming of age story than a romance. There is a cute, sort of enemies to lovers romance, but it’s not the main focus. However, I thought the amount of romance worked perfectly with the book. With everything else going on for our main character, the amount of romance was a good fit and I thought the couple was adorable too. For instance, if someone comes to you with a query at work, you might be unable to help them. You might work in a different department and not have an appropriate answer for them.But in a workplace — where the outcomes of the group can become your personal outcomes as well — it is valuable to treat each other with a sense of common good. It is unwise to think that “it is not your problem” when the results of the company will eventually be your problem. You should ask someone else to help you. I’m leaving the office now, so I don’t want to deal with it. Selfishness? You pursue rugged individualism and believe others should too. You look out for yourself and only yourself. And you isolate yourself from the group and the group’s purpose as a result. So although you get s*** done, you lose your human compassion in the process. Laugh-out-loud: There were so many instances of genuine laugh-out-loud moments. The characters each bring their own sense of humour to the table and I was particularly fond of Aideen's many, various diseases. Aideen herself was such a great main character and I really felt for her throughout the whole book. If I had to describe her I’d say that she’s a mix of Erin from Derry Girls and Georgia from Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, but also very very gay! Throughout the book she’s dealing with some pretty shitty situations, but she’s also really compassionate and empathetic in her own sarcastic way. I absolutely loved seeing what new ridiculous ailments she’d come up with to get out of doing P.E. as well as all the banter with her teachers. I also really loved Meabh and I felt so sorry for all the hatred people seemed to have for her. She really is the kind of girl who would do absolutely anything for her friends and I just really adored her. And don’t get me started on Kavi. I love a good himbo but Kavi…he’s up there with the best of them. He was definitely my favourite character in the book and I wish I had a himbo best friend like Kavi for myself. He was just the sweetest cinnamon roll and he even made me cry while reading the book because of how kind he is!