The book Five Feet Apart, written by Mikki Daughtry, Rachael Lippincott, and Tobias Iaconis, is a young adult fiction, romance novel and is on the New York Times Best Selling list. This book is not based on a true story, but instead on a real, life threatening disease. The main characters are Will, Stella, Poe, Barb, and Juli.
It is a love story about two people with Cystic Fibrosis—an inherited disorder that causes severe damage to the lungs, digestive system and other organs in the body (Cystic Fibrosis)—who are told to stay six feet away from each other. Stella, who has had CF since she was little, attends Saint Grace’s Hospital. Her best friend ,Poe, has CF too, so they can never get closer than six feet due to the chance of germs spreading. During Stella’s hospital visit, she meets a guy named Will. He also has CF, but he has another illness keeping him from getting new lungs. After Stella starts bossing Will around, they begin to hang out together, keeping themselves six feet apart. They slowly fall in love and break the rules by being five feet apart and risking Stella’s chance at getting new lungs. Will Will make her sick? Will they realize that they don’t belong together? Maybe someone dies but who?
“Can you love someone you can never touch? Stella Grant likes to be in control—even though her totally out-of-control lungs have sent her in and out of the hospital most of her life. What Stella needs to control most is her distance from anyone or anything that might pass along an infection and jeopardize the possibility of a lung transplant. Six feet apart. No exceptions.”
“The only thing Will Newman wants is to be in control of is getting out of this hospital. In one week he will turn eighteen, and then he will be able to unplug himself from all these machines and go see the world.”
“Will’s exactly what Stella needs to stay away from. But now six feet apart doesn’t feel like safety. It feels like a punishment. What if they could steal back just a little bit of the space their broken lungs have stolen from them? Would five feet apart really be so dangerous if it stops their hearts from breaking too?”
I give this book a 4☆ out of 5☆. It was a great book except for how some of the parts seemed repetitive. Overall though, this book causes smiles, smiles, and three days to finish. It also educates people about the serious illness of CF. To learn more about CF, go to: www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/cystic-fibrosis/symptoms-causes/syc-20353700
“Cystic Fibrosis.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 9 July 2019, www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/cystic-fibrosis/symptoms-causes/syc-20353700.