Phoebe has just moved in with her dad and his yoga loving, health food obsessed girlfriend Caitlin. Not only has Phoebe moved away from her best friends and home she’s known all her life, but also her school, basketball team and her mum too.

Okay, so Mum drinks a bit, she thinks. But most adults around her as she grew up had a drink now and then. Nothing wrong with that. Is there?

But Mum’s drinking has split up her parents, makes her unreliable, and even dangerous when she is driving Phoebe and her friends to a basketball game. Phoebe brushes it all off, omitting to tell her dad when she gets home, because she knows he will get angry all over again.

Living with Dad and Caitlin is uncomfortable to start with, especially if they talk about her mum needing help. What right has Caitlin to say anything about her mum? If she thinks she can step in when mum isn’t around, she can think again, thinks Phoebe, hiding in her new bedroom.

School is like a different planet. It’s Steiner and its class structure and even social structure is far from what she is used to. But she does like the relaxed teachers and the fact there is no pecking order – cool kids vs losers etc. Everyone is accepted for who they are, what they’re into and how they dress or express themselves. There is one problem however. Phoebe is of Aboriginal descent and one student is often dropping racist remarks.

Basketball has always been her place to lose herself in, but the competition for the local team is tough and she has to step up a notch to secure her place.

She arranges to see her mum and friends on the weekends, but mum seems to be drinking even more than usual, has hooked up with a sleazy guy called Simon and is breaking her promises more and more.

Phoebe feels caught between her mum’s drinking, her dad’s anger and over-protection from it, school expectations and then something that happened at a party that leaves her reeling. All Phoebe wants is to be able to relax again, stop worrying about her mum’s drinking, her dad’s frustration and to be released from the almost constant guilt. Help does come, but she realises she has to let it happen.

My Spare Heart is a heartfelt character driven story about a 17 yr old girl called Phoebe. Like the author, Phoebe and her dad are people of the Nukunu Wapma Thura Aboriginal Corp(Australia). Like her parents before her, she is a talented basketball player.

Basketball is threaded throughout the story within games played, Phoebe’s fandom and time with her classmates and friends. I’m not a big fan of basketball but I still enjoyed this part of the novel, as it isn’t overdone.

Important themes are:

Alcoholism and how it affects the entire family and friends too.

Party pressure re: drinking, drugs or inappropriate sexual behaviour

Broken and blended families

Stereotypes

Prejudice

Racism

What is important about this novel is that solutions to the above themes are worked on within the narrative without being preachy or over the top. As someone who does not know much about First Nations Australian culture, I enjoyed what I learnt – again, it is handled masterfully within the story.

I’ll certainly be searching out more novels by this author, as should anyone who loves Young Adult Realism Fiction.

Author – Jared Thomas

Age – 13+

(2022, Allen & Unwin, Basketball, Drinking, Alcoholic, Alcoholism, Lies, Broken Promises, Illness, Anxiety, Guilt, Secrets, Frustration, Prejudice, Racism, Growing up, Hangover, Friends, Support, Love, Nana, Drink driving, Stepping up to challenges, Calling out Racism, Blended family, New School, Singing, Party pressures, Conflict, Peer Pressure, Indigenous, First Nations, Aboriginal person)