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The Fault in Our Stars VS Zac and Mia #LoveOzYA readalikes

Contemporary

The Fault in Our Stars VS Zac and Mia #LoveOzYA readalikes

August 2, 2015 by Sheree 6 Comments

I didn’t want to read The Fault in Our Stars.

Not because it was everywhere, not because it had been done before, and not because it was a teen romance written by a man, though if I’m honest those prejudices were part of the package. The real reason was because it was about teenagers with cancer.

11870085I have a thing about putting people with a life-threatening illness on a pedestal, and referring to someone’s “battle with cancer”. Why do we need to label it as a battle? Sometimes it’s as much as they can do just to hang on. Likewise, many stories about kids and teenagers with cancer have presented them as half-saints. This can shape people’s expectations of cancer victims, and put an even greater burden on them when they most need understanding.

So, this was my rather disparaging attitude towards The Fault in Our Stars. I’d seen the cover, read the blurb, saw it was on the New York Times best-seller list for ages, and turned up my nose.

Then one day I saw a Youtube video of John Green in Sydney. It resulted in a conversation with my daughter that went something like this:

Me: Did you know John Green had been in Australia?
Dtr: No! When?
Me: Not sure. There’s a video on Youtube of him, walking in Hyde Park, I think.
Dtr: Maybe he was here to promote The Fault in Our Stars.
Me: No, not that John Green. The one from Crash Course.
Dtr: Yeah, he wrote The Fault in Our Stars.

Me: No, not the old author guy. (Raises voice for emphasis.) The Crash Course guy.
Dtr: What old author guy? (Peering at me to determine the extent of brain damage.) The Dtr: John Green from Crash Course is the same one who wrote The Fault in Our Stars.

Me: You’re kidding.
Dtr: Nope.
Me: How did I not know that?
Dtr: No idea. But this particular win is going last me quite a while.

I felt stupid. How had I not linked these two John Greens together? And why had I assumed the novelist was some ‘old author guy’? Were my prejudices showing? (Coughs and decides that question is rhetorical.)

I enjoyed the Youtube Crash Course series, in which he teaches literature and history (and his brother, Hank, teaches various sciences). It’s upbeat, insightful, no crap, and demonstrates a love of words and learning. Could this guy have written a novel about teenagers with cancer that didn’t drive me insane? I went back to Youtube and sought out some interviews he’d done about the book.

The first thing I discovered was that he’d worked as a student chaplain at a children’s hospital for six months, during which he’d encountered a lot of kids and teens with cancer. He also often mentioned a young friend who’d had cancer. The thing that impressed me the most was the way he spoke about people with cancer – as people. Not with awe or pity, but that someone with cancer was just that, a normal person with normal interests and normal emotions, who has this horrible thing happening to them. I decided this teens-with-cancer book might be worth a look after all.

It was. Given all the hype that had surrounded it, I was surprised it more than lived up to expectations. The teenagers we get to know in The Fault in Our Stars, Hazel, Augustus and their friend Isaac, aren’t saints. They’re teenagers who have their own interests, hang out, laugh, get angry, take advantage of their ‘cancer perks’, and fall in love. Sometimes they try to be strong for their parents, but often can’t be. The love story is sweet but down-to-earth, shadowed always by the knowledge that it will never be a long one.

The writing is beautiful with many memorable phrases, many of which capture reactions that a diagnosis of cancer at a such a young age may induce. One that sticks with me is:

The world is not a wish-granting factory.

It’s such a succinct statement of bald reality, flipping the fairy tale on its head. Another beautifully prosaic line is:

The existence of broccoli does not affect
the taste of chocolate.

This is in relation to the oft-spouted rationalization that bad things have to happen in order for us to appreciate goodness, or “Without pain, how could we know joy?” This point has been discussed for centuries, but for those experiencing the ‘broccoli’ the discussion tends to become, if not irrelevant, then ridiculous. How does their cancer promote the experience of joy?

The Fault in Our Stars, though, is a romance at its core, though a tragic one and as unlike a Disney fairy tale as it’s possible to be while still allowing the romantic element to predominate. It deserves its success.

Since reading it, my prejudice against so-called ‘sick lit’ has been broken down to a large extent. If John Green has written about people with disease in a more realistic way, maybe other authors have too. I heard about Aussie author A.J. Betts’ novel Zac and Mia, and her job teaching kids and teenagers in an oncology ward seemed to place her in an excellent position to understand the realities of their lives better than most people. I’d been intending to read it for ages, but it wasn’t until blogger Danielle Binks posted her first #LoveOzYA Readalikes that I finally did something about it.

15757486Like Hazel and Augustus, teenagers Zac and Mia both have cancer. They have adjacent rooms in a Perth hospital, but don’t meet face-to-face at first because Zac is in isolation after undergoing a bone marrow transplant for his leukemia. Mia is loud and angry, but they end up communicating, first through taps on the wall, then through messaging in Facebook.

It isn’t a match made in heaven; Mia isn’t letting anyone close enough to help her, and Zac doesn’t have the energy to take the crap she dishes out.

Zac and Mia isn’t a romance. It’s a story about two young people who’ve had the stuffing knocked out of them, and how they react to each other. By telling the story from both Zac and Mia’s perspectives it allows us to see two very different people with some of the same problems, and the impact of their illnesses on their lives.

I found the portrayal of Mia particularly interesting – a girl who had based all her self-worth on being beautiful and popular suddenly thrust into a world of needles, medication, surgery, and vomiting. As she starts losing her hair due to chemotherapy, she goes ballistic. Her world is falling apart, and the people around her keep telling her she’s ‘ lucky’. No one seems to understand how devastated she is.

There is no sugar-coating, and both Zac and Mia have their struggles and successes, but it’s the differing perspectives that make Zac and Mia such a strong story. Zac’s life back on the family olive farm and tourist petting zoo, and his preoccupation with cancer statistics, play against Mia’s stormy relationship with her mother, refusing to tell her friends she’s sick, and going on the run in an attempt to get as far away from her life as possible. The reader understands why each of them feel the way they do, even when they oppose one another across a wide chasm.

So how does Zac and Mia compare with The Fault in Our Stars?

The Fault in Our Stars
Zac and Mia
Setting Indianapolis and Amsterdam Perth and
W. Australian farmland
Reality of being a teenager with cancer Very good Excellent
Plausibility of events Good Excellent
Writing Excellent
(often poetic)
Very good
Romantic elements  Major  Minor

It’s inevitable that Zac and Mia will be compared to The Fault in Our Stars, because it’s about a boy and a girl who both have cancer, and it came out the year after TFIOS. In many ways that’s a shame, because if someone picks it up expecting another John Green book with the same romantic feel they’ll be disappointed.

However, if it means Zac and Mia gains more attention, as it did with me, then it should be encouraged. It’s an excellent book in its own right. Don’t expect a love story, but do expect an insightful and emotional book about a strange relationship, amid the realities of being a teenager who’s been hit by the cancer bus.

Details

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Dutton Juvenile
ISBN: 9780525478812
Published: January 2012

Zac and Mia by A.J. Betts
The Text Publishing Company
ISBN: 9781922147257
Published: July 2013

Links

John Green: website, tumblr
John and Hank Green: Vlogblothers (Wikipedia), How to be a Nerdfighter (Youtube)
Crash Course: English Literature, World History, a list of other Crash Courses
A.J. Betts: website
Daniel Binks: Alphareader #LoveOzYA Readalikes

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Posted in: Aussie books, Aussie setting, Contemporary, Readalike, Romance, Young Adult Tagged: #aussieauthor, #aww2015, #LoveOzYA, #Readalikes, Aussie setting, Book review, Books, Contemporary, Review, Romance, Young Adult

The Kiss, by Lucy Courtenay

July 11, 2015 by Sheree 2 Comments

Aphrodite kissed a mortal once by the light of this moon, many thousands of years ago. It drove him crazy. The next person that he kissed – boum. The craziness travelled like this …

So Delilah is told by the gorgeous French guy in the sand dunes on the edge of the Mediterranean. When their lips meet the kiss lives up to the hype.

Back home from holiday in the UK it’s time to get sorted for the new challenge of tertiary study, but life doesn’t seem to be going the way she plans. With the memory of that kiss lingering, she urges best friend Tabitha to live a little instead of settling down with new boyfriend Sam, which only ends up making them both miserable. Her carefully saved cash has been used up way faster than she realised, so she has to find a job to make some more. The guy  at the bar where she’s hired is hot, but every girl’s eye is on him, and even if he seems interested in her, how can she trust anyone after what happened with her ex?

25617446Besides, if the Aphrodite’s kiss thing is true, the first person she kisses will be crazed by it. Does she want someone just because of a kiss? Not that she believes in it …

The Kiss* is a romance where circumstances and personalities conspire to keep both the two main characters, Delilah and Jem, and the secondary couple, Tabitha and Sam, apart. Delilah is the first-person narrator, a well-rounded character with flaws that keep making difficult situations worse, but still caring, loyal and likeable. Tabitha and Jem have enough depth for the story, and there’s an interesting assortment of minor characters that add flavour. My personal favourite is Oz, Delilah and Tabby’s boy-friend from school, a little overweight and never popular with the girls, who becomes the go-to man for parties and what’s happening socially.

I wouldn’t describe this book as hilarious or a rom-com as the blurb says, though there is humour. The blurb also emphasizes the effects of Aphrodite’s kiss, and that’s only a small part of the plot – and could have been written out without changing a lot of the story. It’s really about transitioning into young adulthood and new relationships, and what’s important in those relationships. It does that well.

A subplot involves the staging of a musical production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, and there seems to be some inspiration from it in the story, including Jem’s friendship with a dodgy character and an incident where he sees Delilah in a situation and mistakes what is really happening.

The Kiss is well written and is a good read when you don’t want to work too hard, but still want a story with emotional engagement and a believable plot in a contemporary setting. You might get frustrated with the protagonist’s choices, but when doesn’t that happen? Courtenay keeps a number of subplots running, and brings them together well for a satisfying resolution.

Netgalley badge(Just don’t expect Aphrodite’s Kiss to really be the thing.)

  • I received an e-copy of this book for review through Netgalley.

Details
The Kiss by Lucy Courtenay
Hachette Children’s Books
ISBN: 9781444922868
Published: 2 July, 2015

Links:
Lucy Courtenay’s Facebook Page

Posted in: Contemporary, Reading, Romance, Young Adult Tagged: Book review, Books, Contemporary, Reading, Review, Romance, Young Adult

Pieces of Sky, by Trinity Doyle

July 5, 2015 by Sheree Leave a Comment

What happens when your life revolves around water, then you can’t bear to get back in the pool?

23603939Lucy had life under control. A champion backstroke swimmer, she was always either training or at school. When her older brother, Cam, drowned while he was away with his mates, her world collapsed. Now her mum has zoned out, her dad ignores her, and her well-meaning aunt is running the family.

On the first day of Year 10 it’s also her first day back to swim training. But as she prepares to dive in, she’s gripped by panic. She can’t do it. The water killed Cam. It feels like it’s killing her.

Pieces of Sky is the story of Lucy trying to make life work again. More than that, it’s also about the people left behind when a young person dies suddenly; the family, the friends, and the community, in this case a coastal town.

Narrated by Lucy, the story begins eight weeks after Cam’s death, when the initial shock has worn off and those closest to him are trying to take up normal life again, when the real effects begin to reveal themselves. Feeling distant and ignored by her parents, her relationships with her friends take centre stage, including the new boy at school, Evan.

Doyle brings in the layers of Lucy’s relationships step by step, including Cam’s friends and former girlfriend, weaving them together in a web of social ties that feels organic. The relationship between Lucy and Cam is portrayed as somewhat hero-worship, making it even more difficult for her to adjust to his loss.

The ambivalence Lucy now feels towards water – and so perhaps to Cam and his senseless drowning – is difficult to miss. The opening paragraphs of the novel set the scene beautifully:

Mum painted my brother’s coffin.
It was beautiful, if such a thing can be – the waves of the ocean, gradients of green to blue mixed with the white of sea foam. Despite the grim irony that the ocean which smothered his lungs should cover him in death, it suited him.
Cam was made with more water than most.

Gradually Lucy discovers there was more to Cam than she knew, and maybe even more to what happened on the night he drowned than anybody was saying.

Pieces of Sky is not just about loss and grief, though. It’s about Lucy rediscovering life. Her time has been so regimented – train, study, train – that now she’s unable to go into the water, she has to learn how to live outside of a strict timetable. She’s let friendships and other interests slide. Without her brother, who introduced her to new things, and swimming, that let her go through her days without having to make decisions, she has to forge a new path on her own.

With a premise that sounds somber, Pieces of Sky has plenty of lighter of moments. It’s well written, and I wanted to hurry up and get back to it when I had to do something else. That’s always a marker of a great book.

Details
Pieces of Sky by Trinity Doyle
Allen & Unwin
ISBN: 9781760112486
Published:  June 2015

Links: Trinity Doyle’s webpage

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Posted in: Aussie books, Aussie setting, Australian Women Writers, Contemporary, Family, Reading, Writers Festival Book, Young Adult Tagged: #aussieauthor, #aww2015, #LoveOzYA, Aussie setting, Book review, Books, Literary, Reading, Review, Trinity Doyle, Young Adult
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