Zac and Mia

By: A J Betts
Location: FIC BET
Genre: Cancer Lit

I have journeyed with a family who have watched their lovely 15 year old daughter- Becca- die of a brain tumour, it was a surreal haunting ride, the emails from her father utterly heart wrenching. The journey into the world of cancer is a fearful one, a tsunami of emotion, a ride that has lows deeper than any ocean trough and then those deceiving highs that allow you to swell with hope...

The Fault in our Stars by John Green made it big, two teenagers with terminal illnesses journeying together, to savour life, conquer death and be in love.
This book is A. J. Betts version, yet is stands alone beside TFIOS not as a competitor.
The author worked for 8 years as a hospital teacher, so she has seen some stuff and knows her subject- illness and how kids deal with it and react within it.
It is set in Western Australia, that alone will make it a very different read from a book based in the USA.

The last person Zac expects in the room next door is a girl like Mia, angry and feisty with questionable taste in music. In the real world, he wouldn’t—couldn’t—be friends with her. In hospital different rules apply, and what begins as a knock on the wall leads to a note—then a friendship neither of them sees coming.

You need courage to be in hospital; different courage to be back in the real world. In one of these worlds Zac needs Mia. And in the other Mia needs Zac. Or maybe they both need each other, always.

Zac and Mia is a heartfelt, emotional, uplifting and raw novel about cancer, friendship and hope.