Zac and Mia

By: A.J. Betts

Libby ebook 

Published: 2014

Genre: YA realistic fiction, relationships, cancer

A student of mine (Samantha Tabelle) recommended this to me about a decade ago. I have slips of paper I'm trying to deal with and this made me smile. I love those students who have loved reading and have shared their recommendations! 

This book reminded me of John Green's Fault in Our Stars because of the cancer / romance angle. I'm not a huge fan of either one, but I'm not a teenager anymore.

Chapter 2 (Zac): "We could play CUD."

Mum makes me laugh out loud, whether she means to or not. "COD," I correct her. "As in Call of Duty. And no, not really." All she does is camp around, then shriek when killed, using made-up swear words like Fff . . . irewood and Shh . . . ipwreck. Mum's not cut out for armed combat.

Zac's mom is trying to be a positive person for her son while he's in confinement after a bone marrow transplant, but she is pretty funny. To be fair, I couldn't really play video games with my sons, either. (Not that I tried!)

Chapter 5 (Zac): Math is inescapable here. Doctors rattle off ratios of . . . Nurses measure my . . . They chart my progress, praising my improvement in increments, as if I'm somehow responsible for the upward gradient. More than the oldies' with dodgy bowels, mine is a graph worthy of excitement and optimism. I am their star student.

Zac's obsession with numbers (and statistics regarding his and others' survival) may seem morbid, but it is a coping mechanism that helps him to stay pretty level headed.

Chapter 5 (Zac): I haven't saved a kid from drowning, or sailed around the world. Playing three hours of Xbox a day doesn't make me a hero.

The notion of what makes someone a "hero" is fascinating to me. The word is often used to express admiration, but not everyone feels that their survival equals heroism.

Chapter 8 (Zac): I'd forgotten this blanket of fatigue and how it holds you down.

I have too many friends who have told me about "chemo brain" and have described this deep fatigue. I am thankful for my good health. 

Chapter 11 (Zac): I'm clear of leukemia, I've got new marrow, so why does this have to follow me? Best Team f***ing Player? I don't want charity votes or pity prizes. I don't want a big deal made out of just showing up.

There were plenty of F-bombs in this book. Swearing doesn't really bother me that much, but I didn't feel like typing out the full word. I'm so glad Bec (Zac's sister) treated him like a sibling. She gave him crap about how badly he played. She didn't give him a pity party. I can only imagine how awful it would be for a teenage guy who had been a competitive athlete to be treated with kid gloves because of fighting cancer.

Chapter 18 (Mia): "Were you always so slow?" I say, though I know better. I've seen his Facebook photos and old videos uploaded by his football team. I've seen him. He's fast.

Was fast. I have to remind myself we've both shifted tense.

"You're so slow, my gran could beat you," I say.

"I thought you said your gran died."

"Exactly."

Mia is like Bec, in treating Zac with banter and toughness. They're good for each other.

Chapter 24 (Mia): Maybe we're both only living as fractions.

Zac is talking about statistics and Mia thinks numbers torment him the way her leg torments her. She has a different perspective on a fifty-five percent survival rate. Living as fractions - aren't we all seeking completion in one form or another?

Chapter 28 (Mia): Ever since my surgery, all I've done is swing from pity to rage. Pity to rage. How can I not? Everywhere I look I'm reminded of what's missing.

 

Mia's attitude was so self-focused and negative for most of the book. I'm not sure I'd have been any different as a 17 year old, but she really was a bit much with her lack of compassion for others.

 

Chapter 31 (Mia): Perhaps courage is simply this: spur-of-the-moment acts when your head screams don't but your body does it anyway. 

Courage or stupidity. It's hard to tell.

 

I love that she finally mails a postcard to Zac! Her spur was overdue.

Chapter 39 (Mia): Zac's decisions are formulated by logic and math, while mine are just whipped up by emotion and impulse and I want, I want.

I know I feel too much. I know I get carried away. But I want, I want Zac to live. To want to live. I need him to live, because I don't want to be in this world without him.

I'm with Mia here. Emotion often rules my brain. And she doesn't want to see Zac stop trying to beat the cancer.

Chapter 39 (Mia): Courage is standing still even though you want to run. Courage is planting yourself and turning toward the thing that scares you, whether it's your leg or your friends or the guy who could break your heart again. It's opening your eyes and staring that fear down.

I love how the author returns to the theme of courage. This book was well-written and had some really neat characters and details.