Zac & Mia

Zac, who has leukemia, knows that Mia's got good odds with her diagnosis of osteosarcoma. But Mia, whose leg was amputated, feels anything but lucky. Desperate, she escapes to Zac's family's olive-oil farm–cum–petting zoo. Like a certain book by John Green, this Australian import is about teens with cancer in love, but introduces two characters remarkable in their own right.

Let's get this out of the way: yes, like a certain book by John Green, this is a novel about two teens with cancer who fall in love. Don't dismiss it as a copycat, though; this Australian import, told from alternating perspectives, introduces two characters who are remarkable in their own right. Seventeen-year-old Zac, who has leukemia, is stuck in the hospital following a bone-marrow transplant. He's obsessed with statistics, especially about cancer and death, so when Mia arrives next door with a diagnosis of osteosarcoma, Zac knows that she's got good odds. "Ur the luckiest on the ward," he tells her during one of their late-night Facebook chats. But once they're released, Mia feels anything but lucky; during surgery, her leg was amputated below the knee. Desperate and alone, she escapes to Zac's family's (delightfully Aussie) olive-oil farm-cum-petting zoo. The setbacks and heartbreak continue -- such as when the pair attends the funeral of a friend from the hospital -- but Zac's loneliness and Mia's bitterness fade as they discover that, despite their illnesses, they are lucky. "What are the odds of this?" Zac wonders, with Mia curled up next to him. "Shared breath, soft flesh, and the staggering possibility that life can be good again." It's these glimmers of hope -- against an incredibly dark background -- that give the novel a deserving place on the increasingly crowded "kids with cancer" shelf. rachel l. smith