Zac and Mia
“Betts portrays cancer as hard, scary, and isolating, but beatable—or at least bearable—if one isn’t facing it alone, and her depiction of a boy trying to hold onto a normal life and a girl realizing she can’t keep hers from changing has power.”
Publishers Weekly
"When I was little I believed in Jesus and Santa, spontaneous combustion, and the Loch Ness monster. Now I believe in science, statistics, and antibiotics."
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. The story of their mysterious connection drives this unflinchingly tough, tender novel told in two voices.
Praise