Zac is seventeen years, and he has leukemia. He has
been in the hospital for ten months recovering from a bone marrow transplant.
His days are filled with watching TV, solving crosswords with his mom, and
playing Call of Duty. He’s counting
down the days until he leaves the hospital and can be normal again when he
hears the new girl in the adjacent room.
Mia is also seventeen and has osteosarcoma in her
leg. She is loud and rude, and her mother can barely stand to be in the same
room. She plays Lady Gaga way too loud, and it’s enough to make Zac knock on
the wall to make her stop. Her quiet tap in return begins the sordid friendship
that carries the remainder of the book.
Zac has a good handle on his situation. He has
accepted having cancer and focuses on his recovery. On the other hand, Mia hasn’t
told any of her friends that she’s sick and tries to maintain an air of mystery
of Facebook. Where once she was popular, she now worries about how she would be
perceived by her friends and the guys that try to impress her. While Zac’s
treatment is over, and he can go home, Mia’s chemo isn’t working, and she will
need a surgery that ends up taking everything away from her.
The alternating narration between Zac and Mia is
unique and creates a more dynamic story than if told solely through Zac or Mia’s
perspective. It’s interesting to read the play between the chapters and how well
the characters work together to feed off each other’s energy. Zac is a lovable
character, and it’s easy to see why he’s such a fighter. He has a great support
system within his family. Conversely, Mia has a mother who appears too young to
be equipped to handle a teenage daughter with cancer. She begins to rely on Zac’s
three am Facebook chats as a way to cope with not being her definition of
normal. When Zac checks out of the hospital, she’s left with no one that can be
her sounding board, no one to help her through this.
While the dual narration creates a quick read, it
begins to appear after Part One (Zac’s narration) that Mia is more of the
central character of the novel, thus negating the title. I would have rather
read a book from Mia’s point of view, one who hates cancer and struggles with
her identity than Zac’s point of view, which seems too good to be true. Mia
comes across as standoffish and awkward, but you can hardly blame her with
everything she’s experiencing. No one wants to have cancer, and no child should
have to deal with the process alone.
Mia is physically, emotionally, and
mentally damaged, and her anger is justified. She goes through a whirlwind of
convictions, much more realistic than Green’s Hazel Grace Lancaster. But you
never quite feel the chemistry between Zac and Mia in the way you do Hazel and Augustus.
Of course, not every cancer story needs to be overcast with love. Sometimes,
friendship is enough. In the end, the book is less about cancer and more about
finding one’s identity and a sense of normalcy.
**FTC Full Disclosure: I received a free review copy from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive any money for this review. **
