Review:
Title: Zac & Mia
Author: A. J. Betts
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: September 2nd, 2014
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Blurb:
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.
Thoughts:
I picked this book up on a long car ride with my mom, diving into the book and then finishing it the next night. I went into this curious,it’s about time we had another teen cancer book in YA. Not that it’s a bad thing, more like YA sort of has a cycle with these types of topics. Anyway, I immediatly was annoyed with the book. Not only did I think that Zac had an unrealistic persepective (probably due to the fact that the author is a girl, no offense) but I was annoyed with the first half of the book to begin with. As the reader we weren’t allowed to get know Mia. The book is described as being dual perspective but we only have Mia’s perspective towards the end of the book. It was frustrating to have her be called a protagonist when she really wasn’t one.
The entire buisness with the secondary characters was awkward and strange. Some of the characters had well written, and sometimes too descriptive backstories. However, other characters, who were notable more relevant to the story were just names. It was a frustrated cycle that distracted from the story.
Plot wise, this wasn’t a particularly exciting or developing plot. It sort of meandered it’s way around and then randomly plopped down. Gahhhhhh I so wanted to like this story.
Conclusion:
This book left a bad taste in my mouth. It was like when you’re eating something and thinking, “Oh yeah, this is so-so” but then you swallow and are overwhelmed but the horror. That’s how I feel. This book had a ton of potential, and the initial premise was cute and I wish that the author had spent more time there. Oh well.
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