Review: Zac and Mia by A.J. Betts

“Funny how the brain does things like that. Your whole world is getting sucked up and tossed around and the best thing you can do is fixate on something small and unexpected.”

 

Content:

So says seventeen-year-old Zac Meier during a long, grueling leukemia treatment in Perth, Australia. A loud blast of Lady Gaga alerts him to the presence of Mia, the angry, not-at-all-stoic cancer patient in the room next door. Once released, the two near-strangers can’t forget each other, even as they desperately try to resume normal lives. 

Cover:

I actually don’t like the cover at all. It’s not an eye-catcher, and if I only would have seen the cover I would have never picked it up.

My opinion:

I saw this book in the library and when I read the blurb I really wanted to read it. Although I’m not a huge fan of contemporary books the content sounded interesting and so I borrowed it.

The writing was very fluent and easy to read. I flew through this book and finished it in two days, which is really great for me, because I almost never read book that fast. It was very gripping, and I loved it!

Moving on with the plot and the characters: I kind of felt like this book was a mix between The Fault in our Stars and Paper Towns (both by John Green), but it had a very own and unique intensity to it, in my opinion. Mia, one of the main protagonists from the book, reminded me of Margo Spiegelmann (from Paper Towns) at the beginning, and I hate Margo, so I kind of also didn’t like Mia. Zac however seemed very nice from the beginning on. Mia also goes through a huge character development and it made me like her even more at the end. In my opinion the plot was kind of predictable, but it didn’t really disturb me that much. I enjoyed it nevertheless. Furthermore I found that the characters and the plot were really authentic. This wasn’t just a story, but it was something which actually could have happened in real life.

Although the book had a relatively “okay” ending I was very touched at the end. The characters have been through a lot, and everyone just deserves to be happy and nothing else. One or two tears definitely were running down my cheek when I closed the book, but in a good way I’d say. I was happy and sad at the same time at the end of the book, and this doesn’t happen too often.

Conclusion:

This was a very touching and emotional read. Although it had it’s flaws I really enjoyed it.

Rating:

4.5 | 5 stars

★-★-★-★-✬