RATING: 5 Stars
GENRE: YA Contemporary
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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.
MY THOUGHTS:
Before you immediately view the synopsis of this book and compare it to The Fault in Our Stars, please don't. Yes, they both share the same premise but they are completely different. The Fault in Our Stars is a love story in where the characters happen to have cancer and Zac and Mia is a cancer story where they happen to fall in love. The emphasis on this book is the cancer and how the characters deal with it and not the love story like TFIOS.
Zac is a teenage boy who is bored rigid stuck in isolation on an oncology ward. His life suddenly becomes more interesting when the new girl Mia moves in next door. Their relationship starts off with a knock on the wall and develops through online messaging. When they both leave the hospital, they expect never to see each other again until Mia runs into some problems and seeks out Zac for some help.
This book is split into three sections:
Zac - narrated by Zac.
And - split narration.
Mia - narrated by Mia.
This splitting of the novel was a unique touch and I think it created a sense of the two different worlds the characters live in and what happens when they cross. I very much preferred the first two sections of the book as Zac's voice was very easy to read and connect with. His views on his situation were very realistic and his charm and wit made him a very likeable character. However, to read Mia's point of view was slightly harder as I didn't like her character much. Here tendency to run away from problems and insult those trying to help her really made me dislike her. For me I think the things that pulled me through the last section of the book was the plot and not the narration or writing. On the other hand, this feeling towards Mia's writing did emphasise the type of person she is so may just be strong character building.
As for the story and plot, I found it very interesting. It wasn't some big climax which kept you clinging on for the next page to see what the outcome is but just a very realistic cancer story which makes you read on because you care for the characters and not the action. Also, the attention to detail the author has in brilliant which makes the emotions the characters feel seem really real.
Overall, a fantastic book which made me laugh and cry! The writing style is great and the feelings that you develop towards the characters is spot on!
Twitter: @a_j_betts
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