These are all primary colours, and their combination hints at some of the themes of the novel. The cover of this novel is done in tones of red, yellow, and blue. What happens when you think you’re developing feelings for your enemy-turned-friend-with-benefits? In the mind of Tim Te Maro, nothing good. Whatever the two expect to come out of this arrangement, which is stated from the beginning to be only in place as long as the egg-baby dilemma, there is one possibility that Tim Te Maro has not entertained and certainly not prepared for. What happens when your enemy becomes your friend… with benefits? What Tim doesn’t expect is for Elliott to revive his curiosity and urge to be with a guy, and soon enough, their dynamic has a spanner thrown in the works as they become something different. They decide to switch partners, both to put their exes’ new relationship through the strainer and to spare themselves the unavoidable suffering of being paired with people they would rather avoid eye contact with. It turns out that Elliott is feeling just as lonely as Tim is after being abandoned by his roommate-with-benefits (who just so happened to have left him for Tim’s girlfriend), so he and Tim agree to join forces and humiliate their exes. So, when Ms Van Mill announces that for their Life Skills class they would be taking care of a semi-sentient egg baby with the partners that they had picked out beforehand, a small window of opportunity presents itself.
Despite his best friends’ attempts at cheering him up after his breakup, which honestly isn’t doing much considering they’re hopelessly in love with each other, Tim is feeling more lonely than ever. With his dad leaving to go off and do who-knows-what, his girlfriend leaving him for someone else, and Elliott and the rest of the Minders aggravating him in every waking moment, Tim Te Maro is most certainly down on his luck. Although magic has been present all of his life, as his mum and dad both wield it, Tim’s recent experiences at school have been anything but magical. This novel follows the story of Tim Te Maro, a Year 13 student at Fox Glacier High School for the Magically Adept in New Zealand.
Valley’s Tim Te Maro and the Subterranean Heartsick Blues is a tale of the nature of relationships, an exploration of the magic in our lives, and a comforting spark of life for LGBTQIA+ youth in New Zealand. Published in 2021 and winner of the 2021 Ampersand Prize, H.S. Tim Te Maro and the Subterranean Heartsick Blues
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